Website design Archives - The Travel Vertical

Brand New MMGY Survey Reveals What DMOs Think, Technology-Wise

June 14, 2022 by Laurie Jo Miller Farr Leave a Comment

The final results are in. For the fourth consecutive year, MMGY Global has fielded the Destination Marketing Technology Survey for DMOs.

In partnership with Connect Travel, the 2022 survey was conducted at eTourism Summit in Orlando this month and initial results were shared during a live-audience session of The Travel Vertical Podcast with our guest, Robert Patterson, SVP of Marketing Technology at MMGY Global.

DMOs are dissatisfied with the degree to which their websites represent travelers with disabilities; LGBTQ+ travelers; and Hispanic, Latino, and Black travelers. In addition to other information, the report tells us about the top three changes DMOs would focus on to improve a user’s website experience and the top three technologies DMOs wish they could adopt if budget and resources allowed.

To check out the summary highlights and download the full report for free, click here.

Treasures Are Trending: Steal This Idea & Destination Roundup

October 5, 2021 by Laurie Jo Miller Farr Leave a Comment

*By Yolydia – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20470660*

Does your website have a dedicated page for “Only-in-XXX” treasures?

We’re not talking T-shirts and mugs, but rather conversation pieces and keepsakes that provide cultural insights.

Play to your sense of place, pointing out where visitors will find unusual, interesting, , authentic, quality — and often famous — souvenirs and gift items while supporting local at the same time. (What’s missing? Only the ‘Made in Taiwan’ label.)

Discover Puerto Rico has a landing page called: Supporting Local Artisans and Makers: Where to Buy Locally Made Items. P.S. How cool is this vejigante mask?

*at Charleston City Market* (screen shot)

Traditional crafts like these are inextricably part of the destination’s identity :

In Charleston: intricate hand woven sweetgrass baskets
In Nantucket: a ($$$) lightship basket purse
In New Orleans: a voodoo doll
In Austin: master boot maker for quality craftsmanship and fit
In Chinatown: custom handwritten calligraphy
In Sedona: an authentic willow hoop dream catcher

In Northern California Wine Country, Sonoma County Tourism launched a new video series, “Cultivated in Sonoma County,” to share engaging, often untold stories behind the destination’s local flavor in a meaningful, down-to-earth way. The series captures a first-person perspective of several notable makers who each describe the inspiration behind their community-driven products and services. The video series is featuring the first three of 10 stories: an Asian American Herbalist Erin Wilkins of Herbfolk; an LGBTQ+ winemaker Brad Beard of Mercury Wine; and Jenny and Mike Griffo, owners of Griffo Distillery.

Springfield (MO) Convention & Visitors Bureau has launched Ozarks Coffee Trail. Coffee lovers can check-in via smartphone for a chance for a free commemorative ceramic coffee mug. The program is modeled after the popular Ozarks Tap and Pour Craft Beverage Tour developed in 2018 with local breweries, wineries and distilleries.

Discover Monroe-West Monroe (LA) is hosting their first Pumpkin Decorating Contest. Participants are asked to decorate pumpkins with a theme to highlight something wonderful about Ouachita Parish by painting or carving at home, then bringing it in to the visitor center by mid-October for a small prize. (Hope they have well-ventilated a storage area.) Winner is announced at Halloween.

A new exhibition, “Barbie: A Cultural Icon” is opening in Las Vegas on Oct. 22, 2021. Accompanied by digital storytelling, about 150 vintage examples of the doll introduced by Mattel in 1959 are assembled for the ticketed show at The Shops at Crystal. The exhibition is going on tour from January 2022.

Visit Milwaukee has released a report on positive economic impact for three rounds of playoff games and NBA finals during the Milwaukee Bucks’ historic championship, putting the figure at $57.6 million in direct and indirect spending.

It was calculated using Destination International’s economic impact calculator for sports events.

The DMO took advantage of this spotlight by running a 30-second commercial, “Powered by the People,” in drive markets, deployed targeted email campaigns to travel media and sports meeting planners, plus paid and organic posts on social channels. Visit Milwaukee also partnered with the Milwaukee Bucks’ DJ Shawna to create a captivating presentation about the city as part of a sponsorship at the Connect trade show that brings together about 1,000 meeting planners from around the country.

*By Visitor7 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21979633*

From June 30, 2022, Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority is assuming management of four meeting facilities from ASM Global, including Reno-Sparks Convention Center, National Bowling Stadium, Reno Events Center, and Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center.

Over each of the past five years, the facilities have sustained a loss of $3 million — rising to $6.58 million last year — in addition to costing RSCVB $200,000 annually in payments for outside management. The RSCVA intends to hire 81 staff to focus on the facilities, more than doubling the current staffing levels.

*By Prayitno – www.flickr.com/photos/prayitnophotography/45455390815/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86545127*

American Queen Voyages, a new company formed from the merger of Miami-based Victory Cruise Lines and American Queen Steamboat Co., is opening a new headquarters in Fort Lauderdale. The move creates 100 jobs in sales, marketing and operations for the group of seven vessels, growing to eight in 2023. Some staff will relocate from New Albany, Indiana.

“South Florida is home to thousands of cruise jobs from Miami-area industry giants including Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line. The region also serves as the base of operations for Virgin Voyages, the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and the U.S. headquarters of MSC Cruises. Windstar Cruises in Seattle also announced it will move its headquarters to the region. PortMiami and Port Everglades were the No. 1 and No. 3 passenger ports in the world ahead of the pandemic,” reports South Florida Business Journal.

Update: Phase one of the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center is now open, featuring 350,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space – that’s about six football fields.

Visit Florida will be asking lawmakers to fund the organization at $75 million. During the upcoming legislative session, the agency will also seek an extension to its Oct. 1, 2023 sunset date.

For the current fiscal year, which started July 1, lawmakers approved $50 million in state money for tourism marketing, the same as in fiscal year 2020-2021. An additional $25 million came through federal stimulus programs.

Visit Rochester (NY) has a fresh, new website in time for fall. Now live, it’s built in partnership with Simpleview.

Visit Cheyenne and the local city council have approved a Memorandum of Understanding to create a railroad visitor center. The current proposal calls for a line of rail cars to be featured at the visitor center, which is near the historic former Union Pacific depot downtown. Inside the refurbished carriages, there’d be shops, boutiques, a restaurant and more.

Domenic Bravo, president and CEO of Visit Cheyenne, said he agrees with the optimism that this will be a major attraction for the city, as reported by Wyoming News. He is hopeful construction will start as soon as next summer.

More from Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park, the nation’s first, turns 150 next year. Visitors from around the world are expected to make a date with the remarkable wilderness landscapes in the 2.2-million-acre park (that’s more than 10 times the size of New York City…all five boroughs!) that typically attracts four million+ annually.

Tourism Ireland is investing big — to the tune of $4.9 million through Jan. 14, 2022 — in a new campaign called Green Button. The multimedia campaign targeting U.S. travelers, encourages them to press the Green Button to book a vacation to Ireland in the coming months. Obviously, green means “go” and is associated with the Emerald Isle.

The DMO seeks to attain 30 million impressions and engage audiences with the highest potential to travel to Ireland via broadcast and streaming television (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Wash DC and San Francisco. Ads will also be seen on select streaming services: Hulu, Warner Media and Sling.

Further programming includes online video and display, social media, rich media and strategic media partnerships via platforms and publications: YoTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Travelzoo, Tripadvisor, and Hearst Media Elle, Esquire, Town & Country). This digital program will deliver 164 million ad views, according to Tourism Ireland. Ten “top-tier” influencers will be hosted in the coming months as well.

MMGY Global: Destination Marketing Technology Survey and U.S. Hispanic Traveler Spending Study

September 28, 2021 by Laurie Jo Miller Farr Leave a Comment

Free download! For the third consecutive year, MMGY Global has prepared the new Destination Marketing Technology Survey Report for 2021. After announcing the findings at eTourism Summit last week, this report is now publicly available.

What do destination marketers think? Highlights include:

74% of all respondents see email as more important since the pandemic, up 5 percentage points from April 2021
67% are not currently investing in a data measurement tool
58% would like to have improved segmentation options in their email marketing platform
55% say they’d like to adopt augmented reality technology
53% are somewhat concerned about their ability to conform to consumer data policies
38% of DMOs plan to invest in their websites in the next 12 months

*an example of the easy-on-the-eye report*

This report is compiled from survey input from over 175 destination marketers that provided their insights on the current and future states of marketing technology in the tourism industry. This year’s study was conducted as a live webinar event in partnership with Connect Travel and Simpleview.

Download the report here.

Vistas Latinas: A Landmark Study on U.S. Travelers of Hispanic Descent by MMGY Travel Intelligence will be released on Oct. 1, 2021.

This is the first study to assess the spending power of U.S. Hispanic travelers, finding they spent $113.9 billion on domestic leisure travel in 2019 and accounted for 13% of all domestic leisure travel that year.

Key findings include:

80% of Hispanic travelers prefer to identify as Hispanic, while 25% prefer Latino/Latina and 3% prefer the term Latinx (respondents could choose more than one preferred term).
57% agreed they are more likely to visit a destination that embraces Hispanic cultures and celebrates Hispanic business and cultural contributions.
52% of respondents said they are more likely to visit a destination if they see Hispanic representation in the destination’s advertising and/or marketing materials.
Hispanic travelers are predominantly consuming all forms of media in English.
93% travel with family, including 59% with immediate family, 30% with parents and 28% with adult siblings.
71% would like to do explore Latino destinations and cultures, beyond where their family originated.
Six-in-10 Hispanic travelers want to learn more about their own origin and history.
The top three domestic destinations for Hispanic overnight travelers are California (21%), Texas (15%) and Florida (14%). This correlates to the three states with the highest number of Hispanic residents.
Most Hispanic travelers (85%) have visited the country/territory of their family heritage, with 15% returning more than once a year and 22% returning annually.

“MMGY Global and its supporting sponsors — Destination Cleveland, Discover Puerto Rico, Hilton, Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, NYC & Company, Travel Oregon and Tripadvisor — are proud to share that MMGY Global will donate 100% of its total profits from sales of the report to non-profit study partner Travel Unity.

Travel Unity’s mission is to make the world of travel welcoming to people of all backgrounds and abilities.”

This will be the first opportunity for a more in-depth look at the results.

Register here for the Webinar Premiere, Oct. 6, 2021 at 1 p.m. CDT.

What’s Your (Font) Type? Plus, Steal This Idea: Cool Stuff on DMO Websites

May 4, 2021 by Laurie Jo Miller Farr 2 Comments

We’ve moved beyond ‘wash your hands.’ Got a website that’s communicating innovative stuff? Tell us all about it.

Ciao, Calibri. Microsoft is changing its default font for the first time in nearly 15 years. It’s time to ditch the workhorse font that’s been the default for Word docs, Outlook emails, and powerpoint since Calibri replaced Times New Roman in 2007.

Now, Microsoft wants people to weigh in on selecting their future default font. While all five of these commissioned fonts are being added to Microsoft Office, only one can be the default. You can get a feel for each one and a design description here. Pick your favorite via social media @Microsoft365.

All Means All: I Love NY

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I Love NY has created an Accessible New York page on their website, which gets high marks from TravelAbility. There’s a sortable database of accessible activities, attractions, and businesses throughout the state, including accessible entrances, bathrooms, and more.

Resolving digital barriers as well as physical ones.

New York Department of Economic Development explains, “For visitors with digital accessibility needs, I LOVE NY offers the Ally Toolbar that allows our visitors to use tools that read any page on our website aloud and customize the appearance of our site with a visual toolkit. Enable the Ally Toolbar to access these tools across iloveny.com.

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TravelAbility says, “Our take: I Love NY, working with the consulting division of Open Doors Organization, has done the important work of creating a page to welcome disabled travelers to New York.”

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Get in touch with Jake Steinman at TravelAbility to learn more about TravelAbility Summit, digital inclusion and building your destination’s accessible landing page.

Thinkin’ Lincoln

Springfield (Illinois) Convention and Visitors Bureau has developed a new way to help families “Reunite in Springfield.” The campaign doubles as a relocation effort, encouraging travelers to “Come for the Visit. Stay for the Life.” There are nine participating hotels offering special rates plus offers from the Springfield Park District, the local zoo, several restaurants, and a big attraction — the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.

Kickstart in San Francisco

With little to no convention business on the books, San Francisco Travel is getting behind “Meet Local!” They’re launching a promotion centered around a marketing toolkit found on the website aimed at driving small event bookings of a few dozen people to a few hundred guests at venues around the city.

In addition to ready-to-download graphics, SF Travel also provides the latest relaxed Covid guidelines, a campaign logo, imagery, sample copy for email, social media and newsletters, the hashtag #MeetLocalSF for anyone who might share the campaign with colleagues, associates, and clients.

Partner organizations who have already committed to participate in the campaign include the SF Chamber of Commerce, the Hotel Council, the Bay Area Council, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, and multiple Community Benefit Districts and Business Improvement Districts.

P.S. The new font thing is catching. The City of San Francisco has its own font, too. And it’s inspired by the old.

Love ’em or Hate ’em? — Cicada Stories

Who had “Cicada Stroll,” on their Bingo card? As we reported last week, Visit Fairfax (VA) did! Mind you, Explore Ocean City (MD) is going with “Cicada-Free Zone” instead.

At a recent tourism commission meeting, members recalled the successful 2004 campaign. “This time 17 years ago, we had a cicada promotion,” a member was reported as saying. “It was really effective.” Mayor Rick Meehan said with Brood X’s emergency imminent, the town is preparing to roll out the Cicada-Free Zone campaign again. “We have everything ready,” he said referring to the opinions of top entomologists to confirm the Brood X cicadas would not make their presence felt in the resort area because the soil isn’t conducive to their growth cycle. “We’re waiting for the right moment. It was a fun and popular promotion.”

Visit Anaheim: Fairy Dust Plus

It’s all eyes on Anaheim as Disneyland welcomed guests to the park for the first time in 412 days. So, Visit Anaheim sprinkled some fairy dust on a new destination website to match the timing.

Visit Anaheim Communications Director Lindsay Swanson said, “The new site features a Plan Your Trip feature. Website visitors have the ability to flag hotels, restaurants and attractions they are interested in while they travel around the website. The website will store the items that are flagged for the website visitor for later reference. When ready, the website visitor can review the items they’ve flagged, see them on a map to gauge proximity, and even compare features. A URL of the website visitor’s flagged items is created for easy reference later or for sharing a proposed trip with family and friends.”

As for timing? “This new site launched at the perfect time as our destination is safely reopening,” said Jay Burress, president & CEO. “Travelers interested in visiting our destination for a day at Disneyland or to catch a game at Angel Stadium or to stay at one of our new luxury hotels, can now find everything they need to plan the perfect Anaheim vacation right at their fingertips.”

The website by Simpleview has Yelp reviews; hotel, restaurants and attractions search; translation into 60 languages; and venue comparisons for meeting planners among its enhancements.

Community Job Board

Visit Stockton is collecting information from its hospitality partners to spread the word on available part-time and/or full-time positions at hotels, restaurants and local attractions. There’s a landing page where partners can enter the job details and a DMO staffer’s contact for those who may need assistance. “Our local hospitality businesses are struggling to find employees. You can help by sharing this list everywhere,” says CEO Wes Rhea. A great benevolent service.

Save the Date to Participate: MMGY Survey is Interactive

April 13, 2021 by Laurie Jo Miller Farr Leave a Comment

Be Nimble. Be Quick.

Just like Jack jumping over that candlestick, we’ve all focused on being flexible without getting burned, finding technology-supported solutions that go well beyond Mother Goose’s wildest imagination.

MMGY Global says, “We’re committed to serving the rapidly changing needs of destination marketers worldwide. In partnership with Simpleview and Connect Travel, we’re launching a free, interactive research event to deliver our 2021 Destination Marketing Technology Survey.”

Calling all DMOs to share your opinions. Join Robert Patterson, SVP of Marketing Technology at MMGY, Jason Swick, VP of Strategy and Insights at Simpleview, and Will Seccombe, President and Managing Director of Connect Travel on Wednesday, April 21 at 1 p.m. CST as they conduct the survey in real time and provide all participants with immediate industry insights.

Register Now: https://bit.ly/2RhCsuU

Background

The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated change across every touchpoint in the traveler’s journey. Marketing technology solutions and digital products appeared nearly overnight to respond to the rapidly changing needs of travelers, destination organizations and the communities we all serve. What seemed like temporary fixes have evolved into long-standing solutions that will be with us for years to come.

Because we recognize the need to get data and insights into our partners’ hands as quickly as possible, we are evolving our approach for 2021. This year we will be launching a free and interactive research event in partnership with the Connect Travel team. The first event will take place in April, with an identical follow-up event in August. Survey results will be captured and distributed in real-time to all participants.

What’s Next?

After the first event in April, there will be an identical follow-up event in August with results captured and distributed in real-time to all participants. The entire survey culminates at the eTourism Summit in Las Vegas in September, where we will present all findings and hold an in-depth panel discussion around the significant shifts and trends in the space.