VISIT
REQUEST FOR Qualifications (RFQ)
Airport Surveying
July 17, 2006
Vicki Allen
Research Manager
VISIT
Services required by VISIT FLORIDA
from Vendors responding to this
Request for Qualifications
July 17, 2006
Sections of RFQ:
• Goals
• Background
• Procedure and timing
• Outline of goods and services provided
• Specific questions for vendors Goals:
The goal of this project is to collect data according to pre-defined statistical sampling criteria, using professional interviewers conducting face-to-face interviews at
Background:
VISIT FLORIDA is the state’s official source for travel planning. VISIT FLORIDA is a public/private partnership responsible for the marketing of tourism to and within
VISIT FLORIDA is not a government agency.
To obtain the ratio of domestic visitors to residents flying out of the 14 largest airports in the state hires a vendor to conduct surveys at fourteen of the state’s largest airports.
Within this RFQ is the procedure outlined for conducting the data collection.
Procedure and Timing:
• RFQ distributed on July 17, 2006.
• Send your qualifications and intent to received RFP and all questions in writing to Vicki Allen, Research Manager (vallen@visitflorida.org, VISIT FLORIDA,
• VISIT FLORIDA will send out the RFP to all qualified vendors who respond July 31, 2007.
• Survey schedule and interviewing begins January 2007.
Duties of the Contractor
Permission to Interview
Contractor will secure permission from appropriate airport authorities for interviewing in the targeted airports on the survey dates randomly selected by VISIT FLORIDA. Should Contractor need support in gaining permission for any airport for any reason, contractor will request VISIT FLORIDA support on an as needed basis. Please note that VISIT FLORIDA has had a vendor under contract for these interviews at the same airports for the past eight years so that should ease the permission process. In cases where an airport authority might require a fee for background checks, class instruction, parking, etc., these are the responsibilities of the vendor and should be considered in the development of the overall bid, but cannot be billed separately to VISIT FLORIDA.
Airport Intelligence
It is of vital importance to the methodology that VISIT FLORIDA have complete and accurate “intelligence” related to airport departure schedules. Such information on an on-going basis is crucial to the determination of airline departure periods and defining appropriate day parts for interviewing.
Contractor will assist VISIT FLORIDA in its intelligence efforts by providing on-going “soft intelligence” on such things as airport expansions, airline additions/deletions, flight additions and deletions, airport construction, concourse changes, security requirements and any other information that
might affect the reliability or validity of estimates made of visitors.
Data Collection
Trained interviewers will survey each “Ith” person passing through security. Generally, a survey team of three or more people will station themselves at locations defined in the pilot studies on the departure side of a gated security area at least 15 minutes prior to the beginning of the selected day part. At the designated starting time one member of the team will serve as “counter,” counting the people passing through the gates and identifying each “Ith” person to an interviewer according to a designated sampling interval. Other members of the team will alternately approach the designated “Ith” person and administer the survey form.
In airports that have more than one security area, data collection time during any given day part will be divided among the various security areas as stated in the Monthly Sampling Plan provided by VISIT FLORIDA. For airports at which transitions must be made from sampling location to sampling location the entire field team will make the transition during the exact times specified in the Monthly Sampling Plan.
At each sampling location, counters will use a counting mechanism to keep track of the volume of persons passing through each gate in a security area. Each time the “Ith” count is achieved one click on the counting mechanism will be made. The total number of persons passing through the security area can then be determined for each day part by multiplying the number on the counting machine by the interval being used and adding to this number the number of people short of achieving the final “I” that are counted. At the end of the interviewing period this figure will be recorded on the top of the survey form under the title “Final Count.”
Only those persons passing through the security areas who are obviously airport or airline personnel will be excluded from the count. All other persons will be counted. In the event the “Ith” person is a child, the adult traveling with the child will be surveyed. No other substitutions will be permitted. In the event that the same passerby is identified for interception, the person will be counted twice but only approached once.
In the event that the “Ith” passerby selected for interception refuses to be interviewed or cannot be intercepted, the next “Ith” passerby will be selected for interception. In the sample table below, where an airport appears with a digit after it, like
TABLE 1
DAY PART OVERVIEW
Airport
Dept
Period
Day
Parts
Security
Areas
Team
Size
Ith
intercept
RSW 0745-2030 0645-1330 A,B 3 10
1330-2030 A,B 3 10
TPA 1 0600-2200 0500-1040 A,E 6 10
1040-1620 A,E 6 10
1620-2200 A,E 6 10
TPA 2 0600-2200 0500-1040 D,F 6 10
1040-1620 D,F 6 10
1620-2200 D,F 6 10
JAX 0600-2200 0500-1100 A,B,C 4 5
1100-1700 A,B,C 4 5
1700-2200 A,B,C 4 5
MLB 0600-2030 0500-1100 A 3 3
1100-1500 A 3 3
1930-2030 A 3 3
MCO 0600-2200 0500-1100 A,B,C,D 9 10
1100-1700 A,B,C,D 9 10
1700-2200 A,B,C,D 9 10
SRQ 0600-2045 0500-1015 B 3 5
1015-1530 B 3 5
1530-2045 B 3 5
PNS 0630-1800 0530-1145 A 4 5
1145-1800 A 4 5
PFN 0600-2000 0500-1230 A 2 5
1230-2000 A 2 5
TLH 0630-1930 0530-1230 A 4 10
1230-1930 A 4 10
MIA 1 0630-2400 0530-1130 A,B,C 6 10
1130-1730 A,B,C 6 10
1730-2400 A,B,C 6 10
MIA 2 0630-2400 0530-1130 E,ES,D 7 10
1130-1730 E,ES,D 7 10
1730-2400 E,ES,D 7 10
MIA 3 0630-2400 0530-1130 F,G,H 6 10
1130-1730 F,G,H 6 10
1730-2400 F,G,H 6 10
FLL 0630-2130 0530-1100 B,C,D,F,E,H 4 10
1100-1630 B,C,D,F,E,H 4 10
1630-2130 B,C,D,F,E,H 4 10
PBI 0600-2045 0500-1015 A/B,C 5 10
1015-1530 A/B,C 5 10
1530-2045 A/B,C 5 10
DAB 0545-2125 0445-0715 A 3 5
0920-1550 A 3 5
1810-2125 A 3 5
In 2007 VISIT FLORIDA will be adding surveying at
Contractor will also be responsible for:
1. Design and reproduction of survey forms.
2. Training, supervision and staffing of field personnel.
3. Data entry and verification.
Staff Recruitment
Contractor will, where necessary, recruit additional personnel to satisfactorily cover all geographical interviewing locations. Similarly, contractor will reduce staff coverage during off-season periods when airport activity is lighter than usual.
Staff Training
Contractor guarantees that all interviewers will be adequately trained prior to the initiation of fieldwork. Contractor is responsible for all training needs of its staff. Interviewers are representing VISIT FLORIDA and must be professional in appearance. Note: Due to tighter security after 9/11 vendor must be prepared to have background checks performed on all employees to interview within the airports.
Quality Control
Contractor will establish quality control in two ways: field observation and ongoing interviewer evaluations. Please note that VISIT FLORIDA staff will occasionally monitor the performance of the interviewers, unannounced.
Data Compilation and Reports
Contractor will sum the data over day parts and prepare a Monthly Summary report for each airport. The Monthly Summary will include for each airline within each airport:
1. The total number of boarding passengers not flying out of
2. The total number of boarding passengers flying out of
3. The total number of domestic visitors
4. The proportion of domestic visitors
Consistent with previous VISIT FLORIDA requests, for the purpose of compilation, visitors from
An example of the format of each report is presented below.
AIRPORT MONTHLY SUMMARY
JANUARY 2003
Airline # Not Fly Out # Fly Out # Domestic Ratio Visitors
Contractor shall transmit the data to VISIT FLORIDA in an Excel spreadsheet and hard copy format for reporting purposes.
Monthly Summary reports will be delivered to VISIT FLORIDA within 10 working days following each month of data collection.
Specific Questions for Potential Vendors:
Vendors responding to this RFQ must answer the following questions:
General
1. Indicate the company’s specific expertise in this type of work.
2. Indicate the number of years the company has been in business.
3. Indicate the number of years and nature of the company’s experience in surveying.
4. Describe the expertise of the personnel to be utilized for each aspect of this project. Provide the following:
a. Number of full-time equivalents assigned to this project
b. Bio/resume of account executive responsible for this contract
c. Number of years of experience on related projects for each team member
5. Indicate which services provided by the vendor are outsourced to subcontractors.
If subcontractors are to be used, indicate your process for information flow and subcontractor management. For each identified subcontractor, provide answers to questions 2 – 5.
6. Indicate if the vendor is part of an academic institution, part of a government agency, or a certified
7. Indicate the procedures that you go through to check the background of potential interviewers.