Tourism committee recommends sole‑source contract for Zartico destination data tool

The Tourism and Marketing Committee on Tuesday voted to recommend that the full McMinnville board approve a sole‑source contract with Zartico for a destination operating system (Z DOS) to provide visitor analytics. The committee meeting included a presentation from Adam Zepaja, identified as Zartico’s sales director, who described the datasets and a proposed local match from the tourism fund.

The system combines geolocation (mobile app) data, credit‑card spend data and lodging data and delivers both historical and near‑real‑time visitor patterns, Zepaja said. "We bring in geolocation data sets... credit card spend data... and then we bring that dataset in with our third dataset, which is lodging," Zepaja said. He said the credit‑card dataset represents roughly 25% of end‑market card swipes across the four major brands and that the system includes historical records back to Jan. 1, 2021.

Committee members were told the purchase is being recommended as a sole‑source procurement. A staff member on the call said the annual tool value would be about $35,000 and that McMinnville would contribute a local match of $21,007.50 from the tourism fund as part of a program meant to help smaller counties participate. Committee members were also told Zartico will provide a dashboard and monthly AI‑style briefings on visitors, spend and cross‑visitation patterns.

Committee discussion focused on how the data would be used in marketing, website SEO and campaign evaluation. A staff member said up to three dashboard user accounts could be provided and that Zartico would provide quarterly reports and onboarding support because it takes time to "become literate" in the dataset.

A motion to recommend the contract to the full board was made and seconded; the committee chair called the question and recorded the motion as passing. The committee did not supply a roll‑call tally on the record; minutes show the motion carried.

What this means: If the full board follows the committee recommendation, McMinnville staff would gain access to integrated visitor analytics intended to target higher‑value audiences and measure campaign performance. The purchase was presented as a sole‑source procurement and includes a required local match drawn from the tourism fund.

Next steps: The recommendation will go to the full Board of Mayor and Aldermen for consideration during a future meeting; staff indicated the dashboard and monthly reports will be available to city staff and partner stakeholders once the contract is executed.