The City has been contracting with the Greater Miami Convention and Visitor's Bureau (GMCVB) since 1984 for the purpose of promoting the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC) and Miami Beach as a destination.

The GMCVB is primarily responsible for marketing, pursuing and securing MBCC sales. Together with the MBCC management (Spectra), GMCVB is responsible for pursuing booking large and long lead business, with Spectra typically focusing on shorter term business.

GMCVB engages in local, national and international marketing of Miami Beach as the overall destination in an effort to promote tourism. The goal of MBCC and Miami Beach destination marketing is to secure hotel room nights in the City, and to further enhance the City's tourism economy.

Funding for the GMCVB agreement with the City is derived from the Municipal Resort Tax revenue. The GMCVB derives additional funding from Miami-Dade County, City of Miami, Village of Bal Harbour, member fees and cooperative marketing partnerships. The GMCVB's activities are focused primarily in marketing and MBCC group/meeting sales.

In 1984, the City, Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami and the Village of Bal Harbour, entered into an Interlocal Agreement with the GMCVB to perform tourism and convention sales and promotion functions.

On July 7, 1999, the Mayor and Commission adopted Resolution No. 99-23237 approving an agreement with the GMCVB for an initial term commencing on October 1, 1999 and ending on September 30, 2002 with one, two (2) year renewal options, at the City's discretion.

On December 8, 2004, the City Commission adopted Resolution No. 2004-25767, which approved an agreement with the GMCVB for five (5) years from October 1, 2004 - September 30, 2009.

On July 7, 2009, the Finance and Citywide Projects Committee directed the Administration to negotiate a new five (5) year agreement with the GMCVB.

On September 24, 2009, the City Commission adopted Resolution No. 2009-27217 approving a new five (5) year agreement commencing on October 1, 2009, and ending on September 30, 2014.

The 2009 agreement included static goals and the fee earned by the GMCVB was not tied to performance. Prior to the expiration of the 2009 agreement, the City changed the overall direction of the GMCVB contract to a performance based agreement from a fee for services approach. This direction focused on the achievement of key metrics and the overall measurable success of GMCVB in their contractual relationship with the City. The City would establish a base fee and establish an incentive fee to be paid based on the overall achievement of agree-upon annual performance goals.

On September 10, 2014, the City Commission adopted Resolution No. 2014-28745, which accepted the recommendation of the Finance and Citywide Projects Committee to extend the 2009 agreement to September 30, 2014.

The City then renegotiated an incentive based agreement that established a base fee and an incentive fee to be paid based on the overall achievement of annual performance goals. The funding to the GMCVB remained $5,366,000 and the City hired an owner's representative.

On October, 21, 2015, the City Commission adopted Resolution No. 2015-29192, authorized a five (5) year agreement with GMCVB commencing retroactively from October 1, 2015 and ending on September 30, 2020 (the "Agreement").

Pursuant to the current Agreement with the  GMCVB, an extensive goal setting process was established including, but not limited to:

• Market Development
  • Identifying top markets
  • Creating prospecting and qualification planning
• Opportunity to Focus
  • Deployment of GMCVB sales team into specific markets
  • Creation of GMCVB/Spectra joint marketing plans
  • Creation of branding campaigns and initiatives
  • Creation of a Miami Beach/MBCC sales and marketing budget
  • Creation of a dedicated GMCVB sales office in the MBCC
• Participation, Collaboration and Reporting
  • Monthly sales meetings
  • Development of reports that illustrate a comprehensive outlook of the sales activities
  • Reports that spotlight sales manager results and identify priority markets
  • Implement a TAP report
  • Creating software accessibility
• Goal Setting
  • Creation of an annual calendar for goal setting
  • Create a collaborative environment where there is information sharing/best practice sharing amongst the City, Spectra,
  • GMCVB, Centerplate (MBCC F&B operator) and hotel industry.

The current Agreement includes:

• a base fee (Year 1) of $5,369,243 and (Year 2) of $4,700,000 - the base fee has bee adjusted up or down, indexed, with the overall growth or reduction of the municipal resort tax collections annually;

• Incentive fee of an additional $1,500,000 based on ability to achieve performance objectives; the incentive is prorated beginning with 85% up to 130%;

• Performance management -

• performance metrics using a scale where 100% achievement indicates satisfactory performance;

• if GMCVB falls below 85% in one of the designated metrics above over a six month time frame, this is considered nonperformance; if they don't cure with in 90 days, the city could ruminate or reallocate funding; and

• performance is monitored by reviewing definite bookings and overall sales activity.

• Annual goal setting process that is collaborative and includes industry engagement.

As the initial term of the Agreement expires on September 30, 2020, and as the City (and the world) is navigating through the new COVID-19 environment, stakeholder management of MBCC current and future clients is critical as is the reputation management of our destination. Accordingly, the Administration recommends the following:

• a one (1) year extension of the initial term of the Agreement with GMCVB, to September 30, 2021;

• amend the base fee to 10.5% of the 2% Municipal Resort Tax collection generated from the sale of hotel rooms, food and beverage, and alcohol throughout the City of Miami Beach; and

• GMCVB will contribute $75,000 to finance and collaborate with the City, on the execution of the Lewis & Lois Miami Beach Branding Identity Consulting project.

The proposed amendment, providing for the conversion of the base fee to 10.5% of the 2% Municipal Resort Tax, would generate an estimated savings of $2.6 million in FY 2021 based on the most current Resort Tax projections. Converting the base fee into a percentage also provides downside protection to the City if the collections from the 2% Resort Tax come in below projection and upside to the GMCVB if collections come in higher. This formula allows the City to better manage the uncertainties related to the financial impact of COVID-19 in FY 2021.

The proposed Amendment would also insure that there is no interruption of services under the Agreement while the City decides to either (1) negotiate a further amendment exercising the renewal term under the Agreement; (2) negotiate a new Agreement, which would be presented to the City Commission as a waiver of competitive bidding or (3) terminate the Agreement and consider other options.

Due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on the City of Miami Beach's tourism and hospitality industry, as well as our ability to attract and retain quality conference, events and meetings in the MBCC, it is critical that the GMCVB's efforts to mitigate our client relations are not interrupted,  as the City continues to evaluate how and who should manage the sales and marketing of the MBCC, a tourism promotion for the City.  The Administration is confident that extending and amending the current Agreement with GMCVB, with the revised financial terms proposed in the Amendment, is in the best interest of the City, and will allow the City to respond to budget impacts and strategically plan and execute an effective recovery.