Island reaps significant economic benefits during Concours Week

Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
April 7, 2016 9:30 a.m.

Tony Parella (SVRA) and Gil Langley (AICVB) appeared before the Fernandina Beach City Commission (FBCC) to provide wrap-up reports on the March car events on Amelia Island and their economic impact on the local economy.

Tony Parella, President/CEO of the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA), expressed his appreciation to the city and the community for the first year launch of this race at the Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport. He singled out Mayor Johnny Miller and the FBCC, City Manager Dale Martin, Airport Operations Manager Bobby Kozakoff, airport consultant Andrew Holesko (Passero Associates), City Police and Fire, City Attorney Tammi Bach, and George Sheffield of the Amelia River Golf Club, in addition to volunteers, for special mention in assisting the organization to move quickly to produce the first of what will be five annual sportscar races at the airport. He said he intends to be an honorary member of the local community for many years.

Parella showed a 2-minute video that depicted scenes from the recent event. He said that his organization had learned a great deal from the first event, and laid a good future for the annual event. This was the first time that SVRA had turned an East Coast airport into a car racing venue. Parella said that he had identified two issues that he would like to work on to help next year’s event run even more smoothly.

The first issue involved the city’s prohibition against camping in a vehicle at the airport. He said that many of the racers have very elaborate motorcoaches that they use both to transport their racecars and live in. SVRA lost 40 percent of their original race entrants when the prohibition against camping overnight at the airport was discovered. He asked that the FBCC consider enacting an ordinance that would allow such activity during the week of the racing. Such an action would also help with security at the airport.

Secondly, he asked that as soon as possible the city be allowed to apply to the FAA for permission to conduct the event in 2017. With that permission, the SVRA would be able to begin promoting next year’s event sooner.

Parella said that despite some weather challenges, first time attendance at the event “wasn’t horrible.” He said, “I think the community by and large enjoyed the event. I want to build it into a world class event.”

The economic impact of SVRA’s first year event in the city was over $3M.

Commissioner Len Kreger, the only commissioner to comment, cited the number of noise complaints he received during the event. He said, “There’s probably nothing we can do about that, although there was a discussion previously about the size of the engines.” He suggested that there needed to be a team effort involving SVRA, the city and the Airport Advisory Committee to resolve FAA issues going forward. “We need to attempt to deal with some of these noise issues,” Kreger said. “Some people are even concerned about [the noise affecting] the value of their property.”

Parella asked Kreger to quantify the noise problems so that SVRA can attempt to deal with them. Kreger suggested using noise meters and possibly adjusting the course next year.

Amelia Island Convention and Visitors Bureau President Gil Langley followed Parella with a presentation of his own, highlighting the economic benefits to the community from the March automobile events on the island, which have been consolidated under the heading “Concours Week.”

As background, Langley reported that last year tourism generated $570M for the local economy. There were over 620K overnight guests, who ended up supporting 24 percent of the island’s workforce and generating 38 percent of the sales tax collected.

In providing figures for the economic impact of the major events of Concours Week Langley did not include money spent by event sponsors and vendors, limiting the numbers to tourists only. “$24M in ten days is a pretty good haul,” he said. He presented the profile of visitors to the car events (below). The percentage of repeat visitors during that week is higher than for tourists at other times of the year. Also, he said that because local accommodations and Jacksonville International Airport hotels are sold out, many event attendees are forced to book accommodations as far away as downtown Jacksonville. Length of stay for these visitors is a bit longer than for the average visitor.

Langley said that most of the advertising for Concours Week was done via internet. “On any given day,” he said, “Amelia Island internet advertising is viewed 250,000 times every day.” Participants polled indicated a 98 percent satisfaction rate with the events and their island stay.

Langley suggested that some of the noise people hear from the car races might be “the sound of money ringing in cash registers.” People attending the car events spent about $1,400 more than average island visitors during their stay.

Langley’s final slide (see below) showed that 5 percent of total tourism dollars are recorded during the 10-day Concours Week.

Editor’s Note: Suanne Z. Thamm is a native of Chautauqua County, NY, who moved to Fernandina Beach from Alexandria,VA, in 1994. As a long time city resident and city watcher, she provides interesting insight into the many issues that impact our city. We are grateful for Suanne’s many contributions to the Fernandina Observer.