North Central Florida Regional Planning Council
The Original Florida Tourism Task Force
2009 NW 67th Pl
Gainesville, FL 32653-1603
Request for Proposals
Five-Year Strategic Marketing Plan
The Original Florida Tourism Task Force (Visit Natural North Florida) seeks a professional tourism marketing company to create a strategic plan to guide its development and marketing efforts for the next five years (January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2020). The planning effort will focus on assisting the Task Force set long-term goal and objectives in the areas of organizational development, tourism promotion and marketing, as well as the education and training of Task Force members and their staff. The contract shall be effective for the period beginning with the date of executed contract and continuing through completion of work, which shall be completed no later than December 31, 2015.
The Original Florida Tourism Task Force is a governmental entity consisting of member counties located in North Central Florida. Current member counties consist of Alachua County, Bradford County, Dixie County, Gilchrist County, Jefferson County, Lafayette County, Levy County, Madison County, Taylor County, Union County and Wakulla County. The Task Force seeks to promote natural, historic and cultural attractions of the 11-county area to increase the number of visitors and to extend their stay.
The Task Force maintains a website at www.vnnf.org as well as a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/naturalnorthflorida.
Scope of Work
The Task Force seeks a professional tourism marketing company with a proven track record within the travel and tourism industry of developing a five-year strategic plan. The selected company will also be capable of implementing the following components of the 5-year strategic marketing plan:
1.Conduct a visioning process among Task Force members to identify past, current, and future opportunities for tourism development and promotion.
2.Contain a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis of the region.
3.Identification of existing tourism attractions and infrastructure.
4.Identification of future tourism attractions, facilities and infrastructure needs.
5.Identification of goals and objectives to be implemented during the 5-year period of the strategic plan.
6.Development of marketing and promotion strategies for the 5-year period of the strategic plan.
General
The selected proposer will be expected to work closely with the Strategic Planning Committee of The Original Florida Tourism Task Force as well as Task Force staff through all phases of the project.
In addition to the items listed herein, the Task Force will give consideration to other concepts for its five-year strategic plan. Proposers are therefore encouraged to present other concepts and features not contained herein.
The budget for the project is a maximum of $10,200.
Responses
If you would like to respond to this Request for Proposals, please provide the following:
A description of how the above scope of work will be implemented.
An explanation of coordination and communication with the Original Florida Tourism Task Force throughout the project.
A detailed implementation timeline.
A complete proposal summary page covering each item, their costs and/or a total overall cost for the project.
A description of your company, the year it was founded, and information about your philosophy for successful tourism marketing.
A list of previous/current clients in the travel and tourism sector and a description of the work you have performed for them, to include success stories and statistics demonstrating the impact of your services.
An organization chart naming the key players in your organization, their professional backgrounds and areas of expertise.
Specifically state which staff would be assigned to manage The Original Florida Tourism Task Force account.
Submit a list of all subcontracted vendors to be used in the proposed project, including a description of your work experience with them and the specific role each will have in the project.
An itemized budget and proposed set of deliverables.
Any terms and conditions that might affect the project.
Ranking and Selection Criteria
Preliminary Ranking: All proposals received will be reviewed and ranked by the Strategic Planning Committee of The Original Florida Tourism Task Force using the following criteria based upon a total of 100 points, as follows:
(a) capacity to complete the work by December 31, 2015 (25 points); (b) past experience with the development and maintenance of tourism-oriented strategic plans (25 points); (c) quality of proposal with regard to items 1 through 6 listed under Scope of Work as well as other proposed website features not contained herein (25 points); and (d) letters of reference (25 points). The total score from these criteria will be used to establish the rank order for the selection of the proposals by Strategic Planning Committee members. The rankings, as established by the individual Strategic Planning Committee members, will be combined to result in a Committee ranking of proposers based on the average rank order of proposals assigned by individual Committee members, not the total number of points assigned by individual Committee members.
Final Ranking: Unless oral presentations are requested by the Strategic Planning Committee, the Preliminary Ranking shall be the Final Ranking. Should the Committee request oral presentations from the highest-ranking proposers, the finalists will be re-reviewed and re-ranked after the oral presentations by the Website Development Committee using the same criteria and method used for the Preliminary Ranking.
An attempt will be made to reach an agreement with the highest ranking proposer, the second highest, and so on until a satisfactory agreement is reached.
General Information
The Original Florida Tourism Task Force is not liable for costs incurred by proposers prior to execution of a contract. All costs incurred as a result of this request for proposals, including travel and personnel costs, are the sole responsibility of the proposer.
Responses are due by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Savings Time, June 30, 2015.
Submit two copies of your proposal in writing to:
Scott R. Koons, Executive Director
The Original Florida Tourism Task Force
2009 NW 67th Place
Gainesville, Florida 32653-1603
All submitted proposals shall be on 8.5” x 11” paper and stapled in the top left corner. Proposals submitted in any other size format will not be accepted. Proposals submitted in three-ring binders or other bindings will not be accepted. Facsimile and electronically mailed responses will not be accepted.
If you have any questions concerning the request for proposals, please contact Steven Dopp, Senior Planner, by email at dopp@ncfrpc.org or by telephone at (352)955-2200, extension 109.
