Mississippi Issues RFP for Strategic Tourism Plan Consultant

The Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) RFP specifies that what's wanted is a consultant to create "a report outlining a 5-year strategic plan and recommendations for Visit Mississippi to enhance promotion and development in tourism statewide" with input from the State's travel and tourism industry, Visit Mississippi staff, community leaders and other stakeholders.

Deliverables wanted include:

• Mission statement and goals for Visit Mississippi
• Assessment of current tourism assets, products and audience
• Changes to, or new, tourism programs/policies to leverage marketing dollars
• Plan to improve collaboration and partnerships with stakeholders
• Goals, internal controls, administrative processes and policies

See the RFP for specific tasks to be performed.

Schedule:

• Questions are due by 26 January
• Required letter of intent is due 2 February
• Proposals are due by 2 PM CST 16 February

Proposal format:

• One hard copy, mailed or hand-delivered
• Copy by email
• Copy on USB drive
• See the RFP for more information on proposal formats.

MDA will not pay for proposals, and proposals submitted become the property of MDA and public documents.

Proposal evaluation factors:

1. Compliance (pass/fail)
2. Evaluation (65 points) by committee consensus scoring
3. Cost (35 points): Lowest-price proposal will be given the most points, other offerors will get points "distributed objectively".
4. Negotiation: MDA Executive Director will contact the offeror with the highest-ranked proposal and attempt to negotiate a mutually-agreeable agreement.

Mail, email or hand-deliver proposals to:

Tricia Shannon

Mississippi Development Authority

501 North West Street Suite 419

Jackson, MS 39201

mdaproposals@mississippi.org

Contract term: One year with up to 12 months of combined renewals at the discretion of MDA, and contingent upon appropriation of necessary monies by the State Legislature. Contract term "roughly translates" to 6 months for report delivery and 6 months of consulting at hourly rates.

Contract will be a fixed-price contract with payments made upon completion of tasks, based on a blended hourly rate and media commission rate.

MDA will own all work product submitted by the contractor.

Comment: So far as I'm able to determine, MDA has not stated or estimated a total price for this contract - just that it will be negotiated between them and the offeror. But this deal looks to be worth a pretty good chunk of money, and should be a quick one-year thing: just a report and 6 months of consulting at hourly rates. Home-town Ramey Agency (ramey.com) will likely be a strong contender for this contract.