Lee County Board of Tourism Seeks Market Research Firm

The mission of the VCB is to increase the net positive impacts of tourism on the local economy. Our vision for the future is to build Lee County’s reputation through market research as one of the most naturally beautiful and sought-after tourism destination in the world is achieved with the coordinated support of the tourism private sector in partnership with the VCB.

Background:

The mission of the VCB is to increase the net positive impacts of tourism on the local economy. Our vision for the future is to build Lee County’s reputation as one of the most naturally beautiful and sought-after tourism destination in the world is achieved with the coordinated support of the tourism private sector in partnership with the VCB.

The VCB develops and implements a consumer-based marketing model designed to support the VCB’s goals as follows:

• Maintain and build year-round tourism.
• Increase tourism spending.
• Maintain or increase current level of bed tax collection.
• Increase in-state market share.
• Build brand recognition, differentiation and preference among key target audiences.
• Increase the positive impact of tourism to all communities and tourism sectors.
• Be the industry leader and conscientious advocate of the preservation of the ecological wonders of Lee County.
• Research and develop new markets.
• Act as a community link to the local industry in times of crisis.
• Provide the local tourism industry with creative, competitive, and unique cooperative advertising and sales opportunities.

Scope of Work:

The Lee County Board of County Commissioners is requesting proposals in order to contract with a skilled and qualified Firm to provide marketing research services for the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau (VCB). The Firm, otherwise known as the Marketing Research Provider, should have extensive experience in the development and implementation of integrated destination marketing research studies, have the ability and experience to implement research among an international audience, and have in-depth destination-specific expertise in advertising effectiveness, visitor profiling, occupancy studies, economic impact, visitor trend analysis, seasonal and annual forecasting, among other types of tourism research.

The Marketing Research Provider shall be the principle advisor and provider to the VCB for the following services:

• Development and implementation of an integrated strategic research plan.
• Creation and implementation of all research materials including, but not limited to questionnaires, inperson interview guides, written reports, presentations, etc.
• Development, coordination, analysis, and interpretation of primary, proprietary research studies.
• Marketing research strategy and budget stewardship.
• Creation and implementation of an economic impact model.
• Creation and implementation of an advertising evaluation/conversion study.
• Development of proactive research programs and initiatives in order to stretch the efficiency and effectiveness of the research budget.

The Marketing Research Provider must be able to suggest strategies to expand the impact of each research study while allowing for the most effective measurement and data collection possible within the available budget. Maximizing the usage of data across various studies should be included in such strategies.

The Marketing Research Provider must have expertise in researching all types of consumer and business travelers (profiling by geography of origin, demographics, psychographics and frequency of travel, etc.), accommodations providers and other travel industry partners, as well as travel trade professionals such as travel agents, tour operators and meeting planners.

The Marketing Research Provider shall be responsible for developing/editing surveys, pre-testing surveys, validating surveys, encoding surveys, computer data entry, coding and cleaning, cross-tabulation, statistical significance testing, data analysis and preparation of written reports corresponding to each study. These tasks do not represent a separate budget line item, but are to be included in the costs of the research studies and/or analyses.

Due Date:

June 24th

Address:

Lee County Procurement Management

1500 Monroe Street 4th Floor

Fort Myers, FL 33901

Agencies to consider for this assignment could include Edelman PR or Zeno Group.