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Chamber presents FY26 DMO plan; committee recommends budget to full council
Summary
The Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber presented a FY26 DMO marketing plan emphasizing five pillars and targeting longer-stay, higher‑spending visitors; the committee recommended approval to the full town council.
Ariana Pernice, vice president of the Visitor and Convention Bureau for the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, presented the proposed FY26 destination marketing plan, describing a five‑pillar strategy and a target visitor profile she summarized as "an affluent traveler... they stay for an average 7 nights." Pernice cited digital and research tools used to refine targeting — visitor surveys, Placer AI geofencing and Google Analytics — and reported website traffic and partner-referral metrics: "we had over 3,300,000 visits or sessions" to hiltonheadisland.org and "over 1,500,000 partner referrals."
Council members asked how survey bias affects the gender split in the target profile and requested more data tying festival and cornerstone‑plan outcomes to shoulder‑season performance. Communications Director Heather Wolwine said town staff is collaborating with the Chamber on data and outreach. After discussion, the committee voted to recommend approval of the DMO marketing plan and FY26 budget to the full town council.
