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,ops75 Town of Lexington x Tourism Committee D APRIL19' Dawn McKenna, Chair (781) 862-0500 ext 84585 FX i N can Tourism Committee Minutes September 5, 2019 3:30—6:00 pm Harris Room, Cary Memorial Building Members Present: Dawn McKenna, Jon Himmel, Trisha Kennealy, Marsha Baker, Kerry Brandin, Erica McAvoy, Wim Nijenberg Center Committee Liaison present: Fred Johnson Staff Present: Casey Hagerty and Melisa Tintocalis Members Absent: Margaret Coppe, Bebe Fallick (attending organizing meeting for the WWII commemoration for Committee) Guests present: Meri Jenkins, Chris Pappas 1) Staff Report a) Financial data The Tourism Committee reviewed August data for both the Visitors Center and Liberty Ride for 2019 and compared in to 2018 numbers. The number of Liberty Ride Trolley tickets is down from last year by about 300 tickets. However, charter sales were up by 30 in 2019 vs 2018. Sales at the new temporary Visitors Center are down by 70% from 2018 due to the location change required by construction. b) Liberty Ride Trolley on Special Town Meeting Warrant Melisa explained that she is working on an analysis for options for the future operations of the Liberty Ride Trolley. In that analysis, she will include options for buying, leasing, and contracting a vehicle. Currently, the trolley is at 60% capacity. Owning the trolley would provide additional revenue options from charters and rentals. She is looking at ways to best optimize marketing and operations to fill that void. c) Other topics Casey Hagerty explained that the Visitors Center staff has started a monthly hotel and concierge visitation program. In August, Katie Johnson and Ariel Chin visited approximately twenty hotels in Boston to inform staff there about all of the programs that Lexington has to offer. Each month, they will visit a different region. Trisha Kennealy suggested that we should include Burlington on that list as they have added a significant amount of beds in the last five years and are closer to our sites. 2) Annual Report due 10115 and photo location Trisha Kennealy volunteered to work on the Annual Report for the Tourism Committee. The committee will take the group picture at the Visitors Center construction site before their next meeting. 3) Updates and Miscellaneous a) Antony Park&Working Group Dawn McKenna explained that the work at Antony Park is almost done. The art installation in the center of the park will be completed in the future. The Antony Working Group will be meeting on October 15th 2019. She added that the Economic Development staff will be traveling to Antony as part of the delegation. This is a great opportunity to promote travel between Lexington and Antony. 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE•LEXINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02420