Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Tourism Marketing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Seabrook council refers $100,000 Space Center Houston marketing proposal to hotel-occupancy-tax advisory board
Summary
Space Center Houston proposed a customizable $100,000 annual marketing partnership intended to drive hotel stays in Seabrook; council postponed action and unanimously referred the request to the city—s newly formed Hotel Occupancy Tax advisory committee for review and recommendation.
Space Center Houston presented a proposal Dec. 3 to partner with the City of Seabrook on year-round hotel promotion and event marketing, asking the council to consider up to $100,000 in annual hotel-occupancy-tax (HOT) funds.
Brian Hayes, a representative of Space Center Houston, told the council the package would combine a year-round preferred-hotel listing, targeted email and social campaigns and event hospitality assets connected to Space Center events including the Moon to Mars festival. Hayes said the overall package is "$100,000 annually the first year," with a year-round partner option starting at $85,000 and the Moon to Mars campaign at $25,000, and that the program can be customized based on what Seabrook wants to prioritize.
"We can create social media around it," Hayes said, summarizing the deliverables, and pointed to measurable web searches and referrals through Space Center Houston—s booking pathways as the primary way the organization drives heads in beds.
Councilmembers pressed for details about what the money would buy and how results would be tracked. Space Center staff said they track hotel-page searches and referrals (they cited roughly 15,000 to 19,000 searches and 8,000 to 9,000 referrals on the Space Center site in recent periods) but said specific contract components and some partner terms typically remain confidential under sponsor agreements.
Rather than approve funding at the meeting, the council voted unanimously to postpone formal action and refer the item to the Hotel Occupancy Tax advisory committee for consideration and recommendation. Councilmembers said the advisory board is the appropriate venue to review HOT-funded marketing proposals, weigh potential return on investment for local hotels and recommend conditions such as contract length, measurable performance targets and which deliverables should be required.
What happens next: The HOT advisory committee will review the Space Center proposal and return a recommendation to council; no HOT funds were committed at the Dec. 3 meeting.
