Boat show needs $1M; prove it, says Lauderdale mayor Emergency meeting today
The owner and producer of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show say they need nearly $1 million in tourism-development tax money for promotion, but Fort Lauderdale’s mayor says he won’t support the request unless the boat show opens its books and proves it needs the money.
The $940,000 request by the boat show’s owner, Marine Industries Association of South Florida, and its producer, Informa Exhibitions, is scheduled for discussion at an emergency meeting of the Broward County Tourist Development Council at 8 a.m. today. The meeting will be at 101 NE Third Ave., Suite 100, in Fort Lauderdale.
The boat show has never requested advertising money from the county or any Broward city, Mayor Dean Trantalis said Tuesday. Trantalis, a voting member of the Tourist Development Council, said that he sus-
pects the boat show needs the money because its annual rent to use the cityowned Bahia Mar resort was increased when it signed a new 30-year rental agreement with the site’s leaseholder in 2017.
Although the city owns Bahia Mar, an investment group headed by developer Jimmy Tate holds a 45-year lease on the 38.6-acre site property. Last December, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission approved the developers’ plan to build seven high-rise rental buildings, a high-rise hotel, a marina village and other amenities on the property by 2028. Then a city commissioner, Trantalis said the plan wasn’t a good fit for the site.
On Tuesday, Trantalis said he couldn’t prove that the boat show’s rent went up, because neither it nor Tate has publicly revealed the rental agreement.
“My big concern is that in renewing their lease, they agreed to pay much more [rent] money than they should have,” Trantalis said. “Now, they’re going around asking for financial help. I’m troubled by that. We need to get to the bottom of what’s the real need.”
Boat show officials on Tuesday did not respond to the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s question of how much it pays in annual rent, and officials of Informa Exhibitions and Marine Industries declined interview requests.
Instead, the organizations issued a written statement through their public relations firm, Pierson Grant, pointing out that this is the boat show’s first request for promotional funds in its 59-year history. They called the request a “marketing proposal and cobranding opportunity,” and said it would help increase attendance at the show by targeting prospects across the globe.
This year’s event will be staged across seven venues from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4. Organizers say it generates $857 million in statewide economic activity and attracts 110,000 visitors from 52 countries.
Stacy Ritter, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, said she plans to tell the Tourist Development Council that her agency cannot spare the requested $940,000 and it will be up to the County Commission to decide whether to allot it, and if so, where to find the money.
Because the council is an advisory board, any vote it takes — other than to reject the request outright — would be a recommendation for the Commission to consider at its first 2018-19 budget workshop on Thursday, Ritter said.
The Visitors Bureau’s recommended operating budget for the 2018-19 budget year is about $23 million, Ritter said. If the council recommends diverting money out of the bureau’s budget for the boat show request, “I’ll ask for a recommendation on what they’d like us to cut out of next year’s budget,” she said.
Along with numerous capital improvements that support tourism, the Bureau is funded by a 6 percent surcharge on hotel room bookings in Broward County. The bureau uses the money to entice visitors to the greater Fort Lauderdale area.
Ritter said boat show officials brought the request to the council on Aug. 9, but not enough members were present to vote on it. At that time, it was seeking a twoyear, $2 million commitment, she said.
In a two-page fact sheet sent to the council, Informa and Marine Industries proposed that $500,000 of the $940,000 would be spent to promote the show at five 2019 events: the Düsseldorf [Germany] International Boat Show in January; the Dubai Yacht Show in February and March; the Singapore Yacht Show in April; the Pebble Beach [California] Concours d’Elegance in August; and the National Business Aviation Association private jet show, held in October in Las Vegas.
The partners are also proposing spending $300,000 to advertise in publications that reach affluent visitors, including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Forbes. And $140,000 would be used to create co-branded promotional items to give away before, during and after events, the proposal states.
Today’s council meeting was scheduled as an emergency meeting because of the need to submit the recommendation in time for the County Commission’s public hearing on Thursday, said Chip LaMarca, the county’s District 4 commissioner and chairman of the council.
LaMarca said he wants to hear a detailed presentation from the boat show partners outlining how the money would be used. He said he supports the idea of making the boat show the county’s “signature” tourism event and likes the boat show’s plan to promote it in new markets.
LaMarca also said he would favor splitting the cost of the promotional investment with the city of Fort Lauderdale, which derives most of the economic benefit from the boat show.
That would be a tough request to grant, Trantalis said. “Fort Lauderdale has already completed its budget cycle,” he said. “I don’t see where we have wiggle room to accommodate an ask for additional money this cycle.”