EVOLVE NEWS
‘ SIGNATURE SEASONS’ IDEA for Tourism Development Moves Forward
An idea to market and promote St. Johns County as a tourist destination – highlighting the county’ s attractions, events, culture, arts and history – gained some traction at a recent meeting of the county’ s Tourist Development Council with a presentation by TDC Chair Irving Kass.
“ This is something I’ ve been working on for about a few years now,” Kass said, introducing the first public document outlining the“ Signature Seasons” concept.“ If you look at it from 10,000 feet, what we’ re talking about is almost building a crest of the brand of St. Johns County.”
Kass said the idea would create unitary messaging for the county’ s tourism development efforts and“ be a real catalyst for driving economic development, attracting high-end companies to want to move their corporations to our area and attract great new residents who are going to fill those jobs and attract visitors to our county.”
According to the information provided for the TDC meeting, the initiative“ proposes the development of five significant, branded event periods throughout the year. Each Signature Season will be carefully curated to elevate St. Johns County’ s identity, strengthen its destination brand, and deliver a consistent, world-class guest experience.
“ The mission of this Signature Season Initiative is to explore the best ways to support, coordinate and elevate essential aspects of event development, incubation, planning, production, financing and marketing. Through community input and collaboration with existing organizations, the initiative will identify how to enhance existing events and create new programming that meets the highest standards of quality, safety and visitor experience.”
The report provided an overview of the process with seven items covering a variety of areas.
The section outlining the Signature Seasons concept includes five periods based on themes related to the area’ s culture, arts, nature and events. The calendar begins in mid-January with the American Legacy & Heritage season that runs through March. The period from April to June focuses on Love of the Arts, followed by Living the Outdoors in July and August. The Sing Out Loud event and Hispanic / Latino Heritage Celebration runs from September through mid-November and the annual Nights of Lights festival in St. Augustine rounds out the year.
“ We would like to start moving forward with the process so by the time we are doing the preliminary budgets and the marketing plan for 2027 we have a concept in place,” Kass said.“ I think if we are moving synergistically we can incorporate it a year from now instead of two years from now.”
The plan also calls for the creation of a position for a facilitator with event experience, including planning and logistics. Kass volunteered to fill that role without compensation as there is nothing in the TDC budget to fund a paid position. Kass even offered to resign his seat on the TDC to prevent any conflict of interest.
TDC member Michael Wicks asked that TDC members have time to review the proposal before taking any formal action on the initiative.
“ My suggestion is we let it simmer before we make a recommendation,” he said.“ It’ s a lot to process and I would like a little more time.”
The TDC voted unanimously to hold a workshop on the plan. County staff said there are possible dates in January for a workshop.
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