Agenda of Economic Development & Communications Committee Meeting

Agenda (Open Portion)

Economic Development & Communications Committee Meeting

Page 4

29/9/2022

Economic Development & Communications Committee Meeting (Open Portion) held Thursday, 29 September 2022 at 4:30 pm in the Council Chamber, Town Hall.

This meeting of the Economic Develpoment & Communications Committee is held in accordance with a Notice issued by the Premier on 3 April 2020 under section 18 of the COVID-19 Disease Emergency (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020.

The title Chief Executive Officer is a term of reference for the General Manager as appointed by Council pursuant s.61 of the Local Government Act 1993 (Tas).

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Alderman D C Thomas (Chairman)

Alderman M Zucco

Alderman Dr P T Sexton

Councillor M Dutta

Councillor J Fox

NON-MEMBERS

Lord Mayor Councillor A M Reynolds

Deputy Lord Mayor Councillor H Burnet

Alderman J R Briscoe

Councillor W F Harvey

Alderman S Behrakis

Councillor Z Sherlock

Councillor W Coats

Apologies:

Leave of Absence: Nil.

1. Co-Option of a Committee Member in the event of a vacancy

2. Confirmation of Minutes

The minutes of the Open Portion of the Economic Development & Communications Committee meeting held on Thursday, 1 September 2022, are submitted for confirming as an accurate record.

3. Consideration of Supplementary Items

Ref: Part 2, Regulation 8(6) of the Local Government (Meeting Procedures) Regulations 2015.

Recommendation

That the Committee resolve to deal with any supplementary items not appearing on the agenda, as reported by the Chief Executive Officer.

4. Indications of Pecuniary and Conflicts of Interest

Ref: Part 2, Regulation 8(7) of the Local Government (Meeting Procedures) Regulations 2015.

Members of the Committee are requested to indicate where they may have any pecuniary or conflict of interest in respect to any matter appearing on the agenda, or any supplementary item to the agenda, which the Committee has resolved to deal with.

5. Transfer of Agenda Items

Regulation 15 of the Local Government (Meeting Procedures) Regulations 2015.

A Committee may close a part of a meeting to the public where a matter to be discussed falls within 15(2) of the above regulations.

In the event that the Committee transfer an item to the closed portion, the reasons for doing so should be stated.

Are there any items which should be transferred from this agenda to the closed portion of the agenda, or from the closed to the open portion of the agenda?

Item No. 6.1

Agenda (Open Portion)

Economic Development & Communications Committee Meeting

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29/9/2022

Memorandum: Economic Development & Communications Committee

City Activation Campaign - Update

On 29 August 2022, the City’s Chief Executive Officer approved the development of a new City of Hobart Activation and Promotional Campaign (City Activation Campaign) to be implemented from late October 2022 until mid-December 2022.

Feedback from local businesses and representative groups including the Australian Retailers Association; Business Tasmania; Small Business Council and research by Village Well and Spendmapp data indicate a number of behavioural changes have manifest themselves in the city. These include:

· Continued working from home arrangements from some sectors of the city’s workforce;

· Changes in consumer behaviours towards regional/local shopping destinations;

· Less inclination for city workers to eat out and explore the city during lunch times and after work;

· Anticipated changes in consumer sentiment as a result of inflationary pressures;

· Increased prevalence in on line shopping.

With these trends in mind the City Economy’s program of work needs to provide a tactical response of program support to businesses and operators that helps respond to these issues and creates capacity to increase city visitation and to enable businesses to take advantage of the upcoming cruise, tourism and pre-Christmas shopping period.

To this end a multi-tiered activation campaign has been developed in collaboration with The20 to encourage local workers to experience the city more at lunch times and after work, while also supporting traders and other businesses in the City to effectively refresh their shopfront displays, product offerings and shop layout in the lead up to Christmas and the summer events period.

The campaign has three elements.

Element 1 – Branded Promotion

A promotional campaign with a succinct brand targeted at office workers to get out an enjoy Hobart during their lunch times and after work activities.

· Motivate those who work/study in the City to get them out and about and increase consumer expenditure

· Provide a platform for traders and the City to activate and promote a calendar of events or ‘What’s on” and for instore promotions.

· Creates a refreshed and positive city vibe for businesses to launch in to the Pre-Christmas trading period.

Element 2 - Business Support

This campaign is planned to offer branded tactical support addressing key issues in and around the city through:

· EOI process to access shopfront and merchandising assessments to boost bricks & mortar sales and relevancy of product displays to the public and visitors and re-engage people to shops, dine and access city services

· In store layout assessment to improve security

A proposed second stage support mechanism is provided through repurposing of CoH Business Support Grants specifically for operators to carry out changes recommended in the above assessments. These Grants would be open to businesses that have already completed an assessment during the campaign period but could be expanded to meet additional demand if required and as funding allows.

Element 3 – Mobility and Parking

This campaign is planned to offer incentivised parking aligned to the calendar of events to remove barriers to travel to particular precincts either at lunch time of after work. Incentives will be branded to the campaign and offer parking discounts at specific times to maximise movement to particular events and activities so benefit is distributed. This also creates opportunity for local business to develop their own incentives.

Opportunities to offer e-scooter incentives in partnership with the operators will also be explored.

This campaign will be managed within the existing promotional and support budget of the City Economy unit, with a cost forecast of approximately $167,000 including small grant support, creative brand development, shop/store assessments and promotions.

Additional costs associated with parking incentives will be considered as part of the program implementation.

To support local business uptake of the scheme, any store front or in-store modifications need to be as close to cost neutral as possible, thus reducing the barrier to uptake. To this end the CEO has approved the re-purposing of existing Local Business for a Better Community Grant Program to the value of $56,000, noting that additional promotional funding will also be allocated to the grant support of this campaign should demand require it. Individual grant amounts are yet to be determined but it is envisaged these will be in the vicinity of $2,000 to $3,000 each, plus initial assessment.

The CEO’s approval is provided under Council approved Strategic Framework of the 5 July 2022 that: ‘The Chief Executive Officer be delegated the authority to develop the Terms and Conditions including guidelines of the Business Grant stream 2021-22 in accordance with the City of Hobart Grants Policy.’

The proposed brand and creative copy are provided as Attachment 1 to this memorandum for noting, with additional ‘call to action’ imagery to be developed to represent and promote key activities to be considered by the target audience under this campaign and/or to represent a specific precinct or area of the City based on events or activities proposed to be held at a specific time during the campaign period, such as festivals; events; workshops and so on that act as demand drivers to various areas of the city.

Importantly, a calendar of events will also be promoted under the campaign to be available on the City of Hobart website and promoted via social media channels to allow people to plan their activities, while the Hello Hobart website will be further promoted to increase both the number of businesses listed and to promote the site more broadly to the public as an avenue for trying out new retails, food and beverage experiences during their lunch breaks or after work.

REcommendation

That the report titled Update – City Activation Campaign be received and noted.

As signatory to this report, I certify that, pursuant to Section 55(1) of the Local Government Act 1993, I hold no interest, as referred to in Section 49 of the Local Government Act 1993, in matters contained in this report.

Nick Andrew

Manager City Economy

Jacqui Allen

Director Connected City

Date: 19 September 2022

File Reference: F22/94424; 16/120

Attachment a: Activate Hobart Creative and Promotional Brief ⇩

Item No. 6.2

Agenda (Open Portion)

Economic Development & Communications Committee Meeting

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29/9/2022

Memorandum: Economic Development & Communications Committee

Cruise Ships 2022-23 Season

Introduction

The purpose of this report is to provide an update to the Economic Development and Communications Committee on the council support and preparations for the return of cruise ships to the Port of Hobart for the 2022-23 season.

A report commissioned by the Tasmanian State Government through Tourism Tasmania and developed by KPMG ‘The value proposition of the cruise market for Tasmania’ in January 2022 provides a number of key insights into understanding cruise shipping in Tasmania of interest to the Committee, including:

· Cruise shipping provides a net economic contribution to the Tasmanian economy, with the highest economic return from cruise ships in passenger spending in retail and hospitality businesses in port areas.

· Shore tours drive the dispersal of economic benefits beyond port areas and participation by cruise passengers in shore tours is primarily determined by the length of time a vessel spends in port and the accessibility of the attraction or destination.

· Tasmanian producers are benefitting from the cruise sector through the provisioning of ships, and homeporting maximises this benefit.

The purpose of the study was to provide an evidence base to improve understanding of the impacts and value of cruise shipping and its segments in Tasmania. It adopts a triple bottom line approach, assessing the economic, environment and social impacts.

In response to the findings of the report, there are a number of actions the State Government is taking immediately to improve the value proposition of the cruise market for Tasmanian businesses, communities and wild areas.

Background

On 15 June 2022, the Tasmanian Government announced large cruise ships would once again be welcomed back to Tasmanian waters after the industry was ‘paused’ in March 2020 due to the risk of spreading COVID-19.

The 2022-23 cruise ship season will see Hobart visited by 69 cruise ships with the first arrival expected on 25October 2022 and the last on 4 April 2023.

City of Hobart preparations

· Volunteers are currently being recruited to through the City’s Welcome Pad team to provide the meet and greet connection to Hobart for all 69 cruise ship arrivals over the season.

· The City is preparing to establish a visitor information and tour booking facility at the MAC 02 Cruise Ship Terminal for the 2022 season, with an agreement in place with Carnival cruises to trial a service that complements the tour booking services already available on board each vessel. This approach will consist of 8 – 10 volunteers and 3 – 4 Tasmanian Travel and Information Centre (TTIC) staff that will take bookings and provide important wayfinding and information services including a ‘What’s On’ guide to more effectively arm visitors with information to self-tour and better experience the shops and services available in the CBD.

· The TTIC is making arrangements including recruiting of additional staff, development of cooperative marketing materials for shore excursions and liaising with TasPorts, Destination Southern Tasmania and other relevant industry stakeholders to provide information and onshore booking services for a selected number of cruise visits on a trial basis.

· The TTIC will provide these services for Carnival Cruises arrivals only – there are 30 Carnival Cruises visits expected.

· Other preparations to the support the TTIC booking activity and visitor connection to Hobart including wayfinding and the dispersal of visitors around the city at the MAC 02 Cruise Ship Terminal include:

o Set up and operationalising of a TTIC information and sales desk

o Set up and operationalising of a self-service kiosk for cruise passenger access

o Development of a top 10 tours information with individual QR codes linked to TTIC booking platform Bookeasy

· Sourcing, installation and operationalising of information screens including information to support:

o Welcome to Hobart – Majestic Princess

o Wayfinding

o Top 10 Tours Screen with QR Code

o What’s on events and general information website

· E-Scooter operators Neuron and Beam have contacted the City to propose the availability of a small fleet of e-scooters at the MAC 02 Cruise Ship Terminal on cruise days. The proposals include Marshalls and a demonstration scooter to induct visitors to the App and scooter operation.

· Testing and commissioning of technology and service provision at the MAC 02 Cruise Ship Terminal will take place during the latter half of September and early October.

REcommendation

That the report titled Cruise Ships 2022-23 Season be received and noted.

Lisa Punshon

Project Manager City Economy & Visitor Experience

Jacqui Allen

Director Connected City

Date: 19 September 2022

File Reference: F22/94461; 16/120

Agenda (Open Portion)

Economic Development & Communications Committee Meeting

Page 32

29/9/2022

8. Closed Portion Of The Meeting

RECOMMENDATION

That the Committee resolve by majority that the meeting be closed to the public pursuant to regulation 15(1) of the Local Government (Meeting Procedures) Regulations 2015 because the items included on the closed agenda contain the following matters:

· Confirm the minutes of the Closed portion of the meeting

· Questions without notice in the Closed portion

The following items are listed for discussion:-

Item No. 1 Minutes of the last meeting of the Closed Portion of the Committee Meeting

People	We care about people – our community, our customers and colleagues.
Teamwork	We collaborate both within the organisation and with external stakeholders drawing on skills and expertise for the benefit of our community.
Focus and Direction	We have clear goals and plans to achieve sustainable social, environmental and economic outcomes for the Hobart community.
Creativity and Innovation	We embrace new approaches and continuously improve to achieve better outcomes for our community.
Accountability	We are transparent, work to high ethical and professional standards and are accountable for delivering outcomes for our community.