Economic Development: October 2006 Economic Development Report

October 2006 Economic Development Report

Nelson County Department of Economic Development and Tourism
October 2006 Report

Economic Development Update

Project
•   Nelsoncounty.com reached 1 million page views in the 12 months
•   Working with the prospective buyer for the Callohill property
•   Coordinating the 2007 bicentennial celebration marketing efforts
•   Facilitating the marketing and branding strategy
•   Updating the visitor profile
•   Beta testing Virginia Economic Development Partnership occupational cluster analysis
•   Online business directory now complete, categorized by occupation and now being updated with 2006 business license information

September Meetings
September 5 – Nellysford Planning Project
September 6 – Nelson County Hospitality and Travel Association
September 7 – Economic Development Authority
September 8 – Explore Nelson Wine
September 8 – Callohill road maintenance
September 11 – Rural Development
September 11 – Nellysford Plannign Project
September 12 –Piedmont Workforce Network
September 12 – Watchable Wildlife program
September 12 – Career Tech Educational Advisory Group
September 13 - Watchable Wildlife program
September 13 – Nelson County Hospitality and Travel Association
September 14 – Blue Ridge Parkway Association
September 14 – Thomas Jefferson Partnership for Economic Development
September 18 - Piedmont Workforce Network
September 19 – Monticello Wine Trail
September 20 – Virginia Travel Guide
September 21 - Piedmont Workforce Network
September 22 – Regional Destination Marketing Organization
September 25 – Blue Ridge Tunnel
September 25-26 – Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association
September 26 – Nellysford Planning Project Community Meeting
September 27-29 – Virginia Economic Development Association

Recruitment and Retention
Working with 2 new prospects and 4 ongoing relationships

Tourism Update
Projects
•   Washington Redskins on a pre-season contest promotion resulted in 75,000 visits to the nelsoncounty.com site – conversion study to follow
•   Working with regional partners on an illustrative map - Discovery map
•   Coordinating Explore Nelson Wine cooperative ad in the Virginia Travel Guide
•   Explore Nelson Wine featured in a Rocky Mount editorial
•   Virginiawind.com highlighted Crabtree Falls
•   Invited to contribute 2007 events to Country Living and Nick, Jr. magazines
•   Coordinated North Carolina motorcoach tour to Pharsalia October 21
•   Submitted information about historic lodging properties to Washington Post Express

Montebello Fish Hatchery
835 visitors in September

Tourism Statistics
                                               Fiscal                                        Fiscal
                September 2006   YTD 2007   September 2005   YTD 2006
Phone          510                    849                307                        992
Internet       116,163            386,080       58,084                   184,421
Walk In       984                    3,592              947                        4,154

Taxes       July 2006        YTD 2006        July 2005                YTD 2005
Lodging   $25,087            50,840            17,564                        32,829
Meals       $42,307            85,677            40,003                        81,992

Media Coverage
Nelson County Times, News Advance, Daily Progress, News Virginian, magazines    Column Inches – 500 Number of articles - 16
Average open rate is $23.67 per column inch for regional papers –
Nelson County received $11,835 in advertising through print media source