WHEREAS, Fred A. Shabel, the hands-on chairman of the board of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) for the last four years, recently announced that he will not seek another term, after having developed GPTMC into a marketing powerhouse with impressive growth in budget, staff and communications reach; and
WHEREAS, Shabel was a founding board member in 1996 and was elected chairman on July 29, 1999, and on his watch, the organization has grown from a budget of $4 million and staff of six people to a $12 million budget and a staff of 30, and among the many hallmarks of his tenure was the successful effort in 1999 to permanently dedicate one percent of the Philadelphia hotel occupancy tax to support GPTMC’s mission of promoting the image of and leisure tourism visitation to Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, Shabel was also the architect of new corporate relationships for GPTMC, including the Comcast Cable partnership that enabled GPTMC’s 2001 campaign — “Philly’s More Fun When You Sleep Over” — to lead post 9/11 hospitality industry recovery, and Shabel was also active in creating the alliance between GPTMC and the University of Pennsylvania that led to the launch of Campus Visit Philadelphia and the Knowledge Industry Partnership; and
WHEREAS, Shabel is one of Philadelphia’s great corporate citizens, who is not only Vice Chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, a multifaceted organization specializing in sports and entertainment, but also serves on many civic boards and assists numerous philanthropic organizations; and
WHEREAS, Shabel’s tireless passion and dedication for growing Philadelphia’s tourism industry have helped firmly establish GPTMC as one of the country’s best regional marketing organizations, significantly increased leisure business to Philadelphia and the surrounding region, and solidly placed hospitality as the second largest industry in Philadelphia, resulting in more jobs and more revenue for area businesses; now therefore
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILDELPHIA, That Council hereby honor and thank Fred Shabel for his leadership of the Board of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to Fred Shabel as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.
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