The Travel Vertical

Weekly stories curated exclusively for digital tourism marketers

Roger Dow | Opinion: Attacks on State Tourism Promotion Don’t Add Up

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Roger Dow, President and CEO of U.S. Travel Association, contributed this article to HuffPost on June 21, 20-17.

He cites the following examples of strong tourism promotion budgets as sound fiscal policy that translate into massive benefits:

* Every dollar New Mexico invested in its “New Mexico True” campaign generated $7 in tax revenue and $72 in visitor spending.

* The “Lake Erie Love” campaign has been a success for Lake Erie Shores & Islands with every dollar invested multiplying four time in tax revenue returns.

* Nashville’s “Music City” brand has helped attract more than $5 billion in visitor spending, supporting 58,000 job and attracting $1 billion+ in new development.

Read more here.

Brand USA Under Threat in Trump Budget Proposal

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Brand USA is funded by private donations and fees charged to international visitors who register for visas to enter the U.S. The Trump budget would divert the fees to pay for increased border protection.

“The creation of Brand USA was a bipartisan effort led by Republicans that passed both chambers by overwhelming majorities. Brand USA isn’t funded with a dime of taxpayer money, reduced the deficit by $50 million, and by the OMB’s own accounting eliminating it would put the federal budget further in the red.” – Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association

-> Voices of concern from industry leaders to the Trump FY2018 Budget which would eliminate funding for Brand USA:

“It’s especially perplexing that the elimination of Brand USA is on the table when both Commerce Secretary Ross and [Office of Management and Budget] Director Mulvaney each have supported it previously.” – Roger Dow

“It makes zero economic sense to scrap a bipartisan program that encourages international tourists to visit the U.S. It’s especially important for jobs in Florida and other tourism dependent states.” – Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)

“We need Brand USA’s strong marketing message to remind visitors that the U.S. is open for business.” – Katherine Lugar, chief executive of the American Hotel & Lodging Assn.

“Brand USA’s story is a compelling one that clearly demonstrates the significant impact the organization has had on fueling the nation’s economy by bringing millions of incremental visitors and billions of incremental dollars in spending to the USA.”  – Anne Madison, Chief Strategy Officer, Brand USA

“The funding shift comes as travel industry leaders worry that other Trump proposals — a travel ban from several Middle Eastern and African countries and a wall along the southern border — have sent a message that the U.S. does not welcome foreign visitors.” – LA Times.

Read more from our sister publication, Inbound Report, here.

VisitScotland and TripAdvisor are Doing a Test Deal

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VisitScotland has bags of history. And now it has a new partner for touting its story. For the first time, TripAdvisor is partnering with a European DMO.

VisitScotland will have access to the TripAdvisor website and app to directly upload VisitScotland content to the TripAdvisor site. Those not considering Scotland but looking at something else on TripAdvisor will be shown material encouraging a Scotland visit. Estimates are that the deal could give a £150 million (nearly $200 million) boost to tourism in Scotland from UK travelers over the next three years.

To get more details on what the collaboration means, click on the BBC article found here.

Q & A with Utrip Founder & CEO Following $4M Funding Round

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We’re continuing to showcase old friends (The Travel Vertical: 12/7/2016). At a “Bright, Shiny, New Object” session at eTourism Summit two and a half years ago, Utrip Founder and CEO Gilad Berenstein presented the startup’s destination service to attendees. In February, the Seattle-based personalized trip planner powered by artificial intelligence announced $4 million investor funding to build out both its consumer and B2B platforms.

This explanation comes from the company’s press release: “Utrip creates personalized day-by-day itineraries for travelers with recommendations on restaurants, parks, nightlife, museums, and more. The itinerary is personalized to best suit each traveler, such as foodies seeking to eat like a local with recommendations from the city’s top chefs, or adventure lovers wanting to discover the city’s thrills based on suggestions from local outdoor enthusiasts.”

-> The Travel Vertical talked to Gilad to learn more about how the platform uses travelers’ interests and budget to sort through millions of options, including must-see sites, activities, events, and restaurant recommendations to immediately deliver personalized itineraries using sophisticated algorithms that optimize itineraries for seasonality, hours of operation, and geography.

Q: What are the unique benefits Utrip brings to DMOs?

A: One of the main things is creating more delivery mechanism for DMOs to reach their travelers. We host a suite of features that introduced ways for membership-based DMOs to highlight their partners and to track consumer interactions.

Q: For example?

A: Three ways, really. First, member support. Utrip’s data and analytics allows DMOs to see exactly which type of their members are being added to personalized itineraries by consumers using the app. Conversely, they can see where others of their members may be overlooked. This allows DMOs to support their partners and also to focus their ad dollars.

Second, content creation. DMOs tell us that keeping up with their social media presence is a huge draw on time and resources. Utrip can help significantly via its automated social media content creation tool. We input data points that prompts artificial intelligence to generate targeted suggestions, solving the research aspect of content creation within minutes. AI pulls tips from other sources: Facebook, Twitter, TripAdvisor, Yelp, for example.

Third, analytics. Utrip makes traveler data directly accessible to DMOs, breaking it down in slice and dice elements that cover psychographics, demographics, and behavioral preferences. Combined with geographical, that paints a very full picture that allows a DMO to better understand their customers. In addition to knowing what’s trending where and with whom, DMOs get research in real time, a big step forward in replacing stale studies and data that can be a couple of years old. Also, within the hour we can identify and jump on a trend, sometimes known as “news hacking”, for really deep engagement.

Q: Where can we see case studies of this kind of thing in action?

A: We’re proud of our work with Dallas, an early adopter, which is showcased on our website at Utrip Pro. Monterey County (Calif.) also has a case study online. Nashville is one of our best partners for some deep learning results and we’re working with San Francisco Travel, Visit Seattle, Palm Beach County, Team San Jose, even a wine country destination at Woodinville, Washington.

You can check out a handful of destination case studies at Utrip Pro here.

 

‘Unforeseen Perils of Success’ as Visit Florida Funding is Under Threat

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The Florida House took its first step toward killing two state agencies charged with promoting tourism and economic development, reports the Miami Herald (2/9/2017).

In subcommittee, Florida Republicans voted for a bill that would kill both agencies, block counties from spending local hotel tax money on stadiums for sports franchises, and end tax credits for film makers. It passed by a 10-5 vote, despite Gov. Rick Scott’s opposition.

Join us at next month’s eTourism LABS where presenter Will Seccombe, former CEO of Visit Florida, now founder, Revolution Strategy, is sharing his insights about what DMOs of all sizes need to focus on for success in the future.

UNFORESEEN PERILS OF SUCCESS: eTourism LABS | March 15, 2017

Visit Florida’s strategy drove visitation international and out-of-state visitors 82 million in 2010 to over 106 million over a six year period of record visitation. While delivering results by operating as a private business, distrust of government in an election year can place even the most successful private/public partnerships under the microscope of bureaucratic scrutiny, using programs such as Florida’s Pitbull influencer campaign as scapegoats that resulted in the resignations of three top senior executives, including Seccombe.

 

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Laurie Jo Miller Farr, Editor
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