Visit Frisco and the Frisco City Council met Nov. 10 at the Verona Villa event center in a special joint meeting to highlight end-of-year accomplishments and share a new plan to build the city’s tourism scene into 2024.
Accomplishments of the past year that were shared include a $19.7 million economic gain from just over 31,000 hotel rooms booked. From sporting events, Frisco saw a nearly $40 million gain. The Visit Frisco website that was updated in September has also been a hit, according to the organization, garnering 1.3 million page views since from October 2020 to September.
Looking ahead to 2024, the new plan has been in the works since August, Senior Communications Manager Wesley Lucas said. Visit Frisco Director Marla Roe said her team wanted to focus on tourism opportunities since four out of the 10 top priorities set by City Council for 2021 were tourism related.
“We thought we really needed to step up to the plate and make sure that we’re addressing some of those stages,” Roe said.
Consulting firm MMGY NextFactor said the city should continue to build upon its “sports city USA” branding, and called Frisco a “corporate mecca.”
“Sports, obviously, is one of the things you herald, and you should,” MMGY NextFactor Executive Deb Archer said. “You’ve got an incredible plethora of major headquarters here that—when business travel comes back—will be really important.”
Archer said MMGY NextFactor interviewed several stakeholders over opportunities in the city, including community and government leaders and customers. Topics broached the most among them were Frisco’s music scene, the upcoming performing arts center at Hall Park and a perceived need for bigger convention centers.
Frisco has an opportunity to hone in on branding the city as an all-inclusive destination, according to Archer. In addition, she suggested the city has the opportunity to make Frisco more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly.
“What's the promise that people feel when they visit here, or move here, or think about moving here—what is that?” Archer said. “That is something that a lot of you talked about. You really want to see an emphasis in time studying that Visit Frisco should play a really important role in that conversation.”
Several city leaders discussed developing the music scene after the presentation. Mayor Jeff Cheney pointed to the delayed Music Street Frisco project. Council Member Dan Stricklin suggested the city should look into hosting some kind of music festival.
Council Member Angelia Pelham said that Visit Frisco should consider rebranding to Experience Frisco. Roe said her organization might consider some kind of rebranding in the coming years.
“It's not just static experiences. You want participatory experiences,” Archer said, advising Frisco leaders. “When we go places as humans, we want to engage in things.”
Editor's note: MMGY NextFactor is the consulting firm from which Visit Frisco received its new study.
