Consideration and Approval of Sole Source Contract:  XplorIt agreement is for a virtual video tour of Flagstaff.

XplorIt, will provide the following to the City of Flagstaff, Arizona (Convention and Visitors Bureau) a virtual image film production, proprietary technical processing, final post-production, and delivery of  new interactive experiences of the greater Flagstaff area (locations have been agreed upon). CVB will have the right to use said tour on its own website and to allow its participating members (area attractions) to be included in the XplorIt virtual community.

These funds have been requested through our City of Flagstaff Budget Team and will be available from our contingency resource of our BBB Tourism Fund.  Film and production costs for three seasonal shoots: $45,000, Videographer Travel (includes all 3 shoots): $4,000, and Web Hosting $3,375.  This is an unbudgeted request that will be funded with operational cost reductions and use of the Tourism reserve account.  The Tourism fund has adequate fund balance for this request.

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1.)  Approve the contract as is will allow us to get the first video shoot for Fall underway in October.
2.)  Amend the contract would require a negotiation with the vendor and we would delay Fall footage.
3.)  Reject the contract and we would not offer the new marketing feature to our stakeholders.

The emerging field of virtual technologies is a relatively new genre in multimedia communications. While there are a number of providers that provide spherical imaging, no other virtual technology provider has developed a multimedia player with supporting technologies capable of delivering every form of digital media into one immersive platform like XplorIt. Developed specifically for destination marketing organizations, the XplorIt platform is the only virtual technology provider in the world to provide a first-person “virtual travel experience” that allows the consumer to literally see themselves traveling from one destination to another via walking, skiing, driving or flying.

The XplorIt video concept is up and coming in our tourism industry. Currently, there are no other Arizona destination marketing organizations that have this component for marketing. We would be the first city in Arizona with this program and it would not only help raise the awareness of our city even more but it would allow us to offer co-op pricing to our stakeholders as well. We have a detailed shot list already determined and it involves Fall, Winter and Spring shots. We have also included the Grand Canyon, our other national monuments, local attractions and Northern Arizona University into the program. 

Our stakeholders are always looking to us to assist with increasing our tourism measurements such as Occupancy, RevPar (Revenue per available room), ADR (average daily rate) and BBB. Flagstaff has had great success the past six years leading the state in the highest percentage increases in these categories and with new programming such as XplorIt we will continue to raise the bar. We are also always looking at opportunities where we lead the pack in innovative and creative marketing ideas and having this virtual video first will be something other destinations will want to emulate. We know that it is important to show return on investment (ROI) with the marketing dollars we spend and in order to do that, we can't just purchase print and digital media. Out of home marketing and video are becoming increasingly strong in marketing and this virtual tour will be a great compliment to an already successful website and advertising campaign.

The benefit to our community is we have a story to tell about Flagstaff and they too can tell the story by going to our flagstaffarizona.org website and showing friends, family, and more about our city through this virtual tour. Also, the impact tourism has on our city is huge, we bring in over $500 million dollars annually to the city largely with the assistance of our strong marketing message.

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