City Partners with Temple University To Run Convention Hall, Promote Tourism

CAPE MAY — The city and the Temple University School of Tourism and Hospitality Management have entered into a partnership to manage Cape May’s future Convention Hall and coordinate tourism promotion for the seaside town.
Mayor Edward J. Mahaney Jr. announced the agreement at an Aug. 18 City Council meeting following passage of a resolution by council. He said the partnership was four months in the making.
The partnership will begin on September 1 and end March 31, 2011, said the mayor. The overall cost of this partnership to the city is $53,000, which will be paid over a period of three years.
Within this budget framework, it is understood that Cape May and Temple will each provide in-kind staff support to the partnership. Temple’s in-kind contribution will be $30,000. over the course of the course of the agreement.
The partnership will produce five major products for Cape May:
• Development of a long-range plan to ensure the improved viability of Cape May as a desired, premier tourist destination in the regional, national, and international markets while still assuring that the residential population can maintain their current, desired quality of life and also continue to afford to live in Cape May. The plan would focus on reversing the recent observation of the 10.5 month annual tourism economy shrinking to 7 or 8 months. Temple will organize, conduct, and report on a programmatic component entitled the Forum for the Future of Tourism in Cape May in which key stakeholders will be invited to participate. Temple will also conduct a needs analysis with Cape May residents (by means of both public workshops/open forums and written questionnaire) to identify residents’ attitudes and preferences for Cape May’s future in tourism and also the benefits they desire from the new convention hall.
• Creation of a sustainable framework for Cape May to monitor visitor profiles, track visitor satisfaction, and evaluate advertising effectiveness.
• Creation of both a business plan and a management plan for the new multi-purpose convention hall facility predicated upon a self-sustaining economic foundation designed to generate the necessary support and resources for the full implementation of past practices, as well as future usages.
• Within the business and management plans, a new city department, incorporating the four full-time city personnel in the current Department of Civic Affairs and Recreation, will be created to manage and operate the five major products in this partnership. This newly created department would include the functions of managing and operating recreation programs, special events, a public information office, the new multi-purpose convention hall, and the marketing and promotion of tourism for the City of Cape May.
• The provision of management training for a multi-purpose convention hall venue, which is a state-of-the-art hall (especially including performing arts). The training sessions will include the presentation of the business plan, along with customer service training, facility management, event leadership, and daily operations of the convention hall when it opens.
Mahaney said City Council came to the conclusion the new Convention Hall needed to be managed in a very professional manner. He said the city would have a new, enlarged Department of Civic Affairs, retaining the four current employees. Convention Hall will need to be a self-sustaining facility financially.
Temple will work with the Tourism Commission to come up with a focused long-range plan for the marketing and promotion of Cape May. The mayor said in the past, many different groups have extended a tremendous amount of time, energy and money to market the city but there is still a fragmented approach in this current economic environment with tremendous competition.
He said it is time for the city to unite all the groups and provide a focused direction.
Temple University School of Tourism and Hospitality Management has been very successful in performing the same type of services for the City of Baltimore and Elkhart, Ind. Said Mahaney.