Forecasting a year of “testing and experimentation,” the leaders of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Greater Williamsburg Chamber & Tourism Alliance updated the Williamsburg City Council on their respective organizations’ plans for the next fiscal year.
In Monday’s council work session on the fiscal year 2016 budget, which goes into effect July 1, CWF President Mitchell Reiss and Alliance President and CEO Karen Riordan gave presentations that led to funding requests from the city.
In total, the two organizations requested more than $2 million in support from the city — $1.3 million for Colonial Williamsburg and $900,000 for the Alliance.
Colonial Williamsburg’s request remains the same as last year’s transfer from the city, while the Alliance is requesting $184,000 more than the $716,000 it received throughout fiscal year 2015.
Riordan outlined a strategy of experimentation in her request for $900,000 for the Alliance from the city — a $250,000 increase from the city’s initial funding at the time of the fiscal year 2015 budget adoption.
Riordan said the Alliance had undertaken a number of new initiatives in her year as head of the organization, focusing more on events beyond the traditional summer tourism peak.
She pointed to several events as high points for this strategy, including Williamsburg Fall Arts — the six-week event formerly known as “Arts Month” — and Christmas-focused holiday tourism.
The city’s contribution for fiscal year 2016 would go toward additional programming and planning for the “shoulder months.”
Riordan outlined a series of events the Alliance hoped to sponsor throughout the rest of fiscal year 2015 and into 2016 with the additional $184,000 it is requesting from the city.
March and April would be headlined by Williamsburg Spring Arts, an expansion of the current fall festival. The Alliance requested $25,000 from the city to support the spring festival.
Another $40,000 would go toward the “Summer of Freedom” event and promotion, which highlights events and activities in the Historic Triangle around three central themes: the freedom to relax, the freedom to be curious and the freedom to have fun.
A requested $25,000 would support the Union Cycliste Internationale Road World Championships, and international cycling event being held in Richmond in September. The 2014 race was held in Ponferrada, Spain, and the Richmond event will be the race’s first appearance in the U.S. since 1986.
The Alliance requested $49,000 for the 2015 Williamsburg Fall Arts Event, being held in September and October.
A further $10,000 would be directed toward a November harvest celebration, featuring culinary events, wine, beer and spirits.
Riordan also outlined a $35,000 request to support the Christmas in Williamsburg event scheduled to take place in November or December. Riordan said the 2014 season had been the most successful Christmas in Williamsburg in its five-year history, and the Alliance saw the potential to expand it, including a Williamsburg-specific winter festival.
Riordan said the initial requests would help pilot the events, and the Alliance hoped to transform them into revenue-generating programs over the next three to five years.
“Summer is still critical, but we’re actually trying to create more urgency in these other periods, as well,” she said.
The events, Riordan said, would help the region finally emerge from the dip in tourism precipitated by the 2008-09 financial crisis and recession.
While meal taxes had grown nearly 3 percent to $6.6 million in 2014 over 2013, room night demand in the city dropped by more than 41,000 – or 7 percent – while room sales dropped 4.6 percent to $62.4 million. Riordan attributed this drop to a full year’s worth of tourism without the Hospitality House, which was acquired by the College of William & Mary in March 2013.
Councilman Doug Pons, who owns and operates a hotel in the city, said he feared the Alliance was misaligning its efforts.
“I’m afraid we’re taking our eye off that summer ball,” he said.
Mayor Clyde Haulman was more receptive of the Alliance’s plans, especially its increased attention to non-summer events.
“I think you’re doing it the right way,” he said.
In his presentation, Reiss said the coming year would be spent “reinventing” Colonial Williamsburg and reintroducing it to the public. He highlighted two initiatives with which the living history museum is experimenting: illuminating buildings in the historic area at night and instituting a tiered ticket structure.
The additional lighting, Reiss said, would make the downtown area more attractive for tourists and nighttime activities.
The tiered ticketing structure would make Colonial Williamsburg itself a more attractive destination for tourists, he said. Under the new structure, patrons could purchase tickets at prices tied to the level of access they provided, with higher prices unlocking greater access to the area.
In asking for the same amount of city funds as last year, Reiss said Williamsburg residents recognized the museum’s current model was unsustainable.
“The community is deeply appreciative of Colonial Williamsburg’s financial challenges,” he said. “It desperately wants us to be more successful.”
Much of that funding would be directed toward a reconfigured marketing strategy for the museum, shifting from a large TV presence to a primarily digital campaign.
Janet Eason, director of marketing and communications strategies at Colonial Williamsburg, said the campaign would focus on two primary objectives: increasing the museum’s relevancy to tourists and increasing its attendance figures.
She said the shift to digital advertising — including display ads, social media presence and video content — would allow Colonial Williamsburg to target key demographics with specialized marketing.
Statistics supplied to the City Council show click-through rates on internet advertisements were up 74 percent through November 2014 over the previous year.
Eason said the focus on digital marketing would also allow Colonial Williamsburg to more accurately measure the effectiveness of its strategies.
“Digital advertising is a completely measurable medium,” she said. “We can watch it every week, every month, every quarter. If it’s not working, we can pull it and replace it.”
Vice Mayor Paul Freiling asked if Colonial Williamsburg was abandoning TV advertising altogether. Eason said it was difficult to relate TV advertising to tangible results, and the museum would minimize its summer TV ads in favor of digital presence.
Councilwoman Judy Knudson asked how the museum would avoid frustrating visitors with a potentially complex tiered ticketing system, comparing it to a since-discontinued tiered system at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
Reiss said a new color-coded map and daily activities calendar, rather than the traditional weekly calendar, would simplify the ticket structure, and allow visitors’ to customize their experiences at Colonial Williamsburg. He emphasized the museum could adjust its strategies as more information became available.
“This is a year of testing and experimentation,” he said.
City Manager Jack Tuttle will present the City Council with his proposed budget for fiscal year 2016 on Friday.
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