HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-02-15 CHOCVB Minutes For Approval March 15, 2023
Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau
In Person Board of Directors Meeting
February 15, 2023
Board Members Present: Mark Bell - Chair, Spring Council, Lili Engelhardt, Matt Gladdek,
Sharon Hill, Grace Holtkamp, Jon Hartman-Brown, Earl McKee, Tanya Moore, Damon Seils,
Karen Stegman.
Not Present: Manish Atma, Heidi Werner Dawson, Lisa Ganzermiller, Karen Hart, Beverly
Payne.
Staff Attendance: Laurie Paolicelli, Marlene Barbera, Susan Rice
Also present: Amanda Boyd, The Alliance for Historic Hillsborough; Jeri Lynn Schulke, Interim
Director for the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership; Tim Hoke, New Visions Architect and
former board member Orange County Arts Commission.
Guest Speaker: Susan Amey, President and CEO at Discover Durham
Call to Order
Chair Mark Bell called the meeting to order at 8:12 a.m.
Approval of Minutes
Chair Mark Bell requested a motion to approve the Jan. 18, 2023 minutes. Sharon Hill so
moved and Damon Seils seconded the motion. With all members in favor, the minutes were
approved as submitted.
Introductions
Executive Director's Report
• This Feb meeting will be Matt Gladdek's last, he took a job with the Durham Chamber of
Commerce. Paolicelli thanked Matt for his contributions.
• Tourism numbers are coming back, revenues are close to 2019 levels because of
increased daily rate, not occupancy. Occupancy is still slow to recover in the group and
business travel sector.
• A Chapel Hill-based citizen group under the Chamber of Commerce is gathering research
on how to best enforce Airbnb regulations approved by the Town of Chapel Hill last
year. The group asked the Visitors Bureau to purchase the data base that lists all Chapel
Hill property addresses where available and longitude and latitude coordinates when
addresses were not available. The Visitors Bureau has ordered the report. In June 2021,
the Chapel Hill Town Council passed a resolution regulating STRs such as Airbnb and
VRBO within town limits. These regulations require zoning compliance permits,
occupancy limits and parking restrictions. They also limit units that are only used for
STRs to mixed-use and commercial zoning districts.
• New AirBnB regulations passed: homeowner must be on site
• Visitor Bureau paid for data, addresses of AirBnBs
• Carrboro— Because of increased requests for information on Carrboro, the Visitors
Bureau, in conjunction with its ad agency, has designed a Carrboro Tourism Brochure.
Pending that board's approval, the Visitors Bureau will proceed in printing and
distributing to help build demand for Carrboro's businesses.
• Budget for current day is balanced. Because the fund balance has grown, the VB is
requesting $190,000 to use for Trolley Service for summer Uproar Arts Festival;
meetings and convention advertising; research for a futures study that will look at the
next 5 years in the tourism industry.
• Planning is now underway for the 2023/2024 budget planning process.
Mark Bell introduced guest speaker Susan Amey, CEO of the Durham Convention and Visitors
Bureau. Susan gave an overview of Durham's tourism industry, including demand, new
programs, and city programs that will influence the future tourism industry as well as a look at
the Durham Sports Commissions work to date.
Susan Amey, Presentation - https://tinyurl.com/56fhx8rc
New Business
Marlene Barbera
• The Bureau is seeing an increase in demand in the group meetings and conference
sector.
• Potential New Business involves a 2024 Military Reunions/Meetings event that she and
the Sheraton Chapel Hill are courting now.
• Marlene is also serving on the committee with the Orange County Arts Commission to
organize a Trolley for Saturdays during the July/August festival. The trolley will run
Saturdays in Chapel Hill and Carrboro during the Uproar event. Hillsborough will be
using the Orange County Commuter Bus in the northern part of the county.
Damon Seils
• Damon questioned why we could not use the Chapel Hill Transit instead since it runs
from Chapel Hill to Carrboro for free. Paolicelli will research possibilities.
Tanya Moore
• UNC will host the Slavery Conference in March 2023. UNC is expecting about 250 people
to attend. https://historyandrace.unc.edu/universityes-studing-slavery/
21 Page CHOCVB BOD Meeting Feb 15 , 2023
Tim Hoke
• Big Night in for the Arts, presented by WRAL, March 9th 6-8:30pm
Laurie Paolicelli
• 3 staff members to attend Visit NC 365 Conference in March
• Chief John Jeffries Blackfeather's Community Memorial will be March 18, 2-4pm at the
Passmore Center in Hillsborough
Next meeting: Wednesday, March 15, 2023, Residence Inn, Chapel Hill
Meeting adjourned at 9:16 a.m.
3 1 P a g e CHOCVB BOD Meeting Feb 15 , 2023