Treasure in Tourism

Destination Marketing Organization Efforts Paying Dividends

Love may make the world go round, but numbers cause its businesses to succeed or fail. For most in the hospitality industry, making the numbers add up in their favor requires funneling dollars to their bank accounts from customers outside the city limits. Tourism figures recently shared by Todd Davidson, CEO of Travel Oregon, suggest that efforts by the state’s Regional Destination Marketing Organizations (RDMOs) are putting restaurateurs and lodging operators in position to capitalize on visitors to the Northwest. By his accounting, consumers are increasingly selecting Oregon destinations for their vacations, filling seats in northwest eateries and putting heads in its hotels’ beds.

“We believe in the power of the travel and tourism industry to be a primary driver of Oregon’s economy and to create good jobs for Oregonians,” says Davidson. “As the state tourism office, we have a role to play in creating demand for travel to and within the state. Our research is telling us that we are running one of the most effective advertising campaigns in the country, where $1 that we spend on our media advertising campaign is generating 193 new incremental dollars from visitors” – not a bad return on investment.

Travel Oregon spends a significant percentage of its resources on out-of-state prospects. “Domestic and international out-of-state marketing is an incredibly important component of what we do,” explains Davidson. “Those are new dollars coming into the state of Oregon. If you look at the dollars that are being spent, it’s 40 percent in-state and 60 percent out-of-state. The reason for the differential is that you have a large percentage of the in-state trips that are day trips.”

That doesn’t mean that Travel Oregon turns its back to regional customers. “We don’t think Oregonians need to leave the state to have a great vacation experience, and we certainly don’t want the leakage that’s going to come from them traveling out of state,” says Davidson. “We make sure that we have a presence here in our advertising campaigns so that our in-state visitors know what Oregon has to offer as a vacation destination.”

The results seem to support the state and RDMOs’ strategies. “We learned that 85 percent of the visitors who traveled to Oregon in 2010 were very or extremely satisfied with their vacation experience here,” continues Davidson. Those who were dissatisfied with their trip cited reasons ranging from the weather and traffic to their vacations weren’t long enough. “To me that is a nice problem to have if people are dissatisfied with their vacation because they thought their trip was too short,” he laughs. “Weather and traffic, there’s not a lot I can single-handedly do with those.”

All Davidson and Travel Oregon can do is let the world know about the many charms of the Beaver State. “We need the business involvement to complete the story that we begin telling through our advertising, through our social media sites, through the journalists who we invite to travel to Oregon to experience this place,” he says. “That’s the beginning of the story. The story continues when they are actually able to then purchase at a particular lodging property or make a reservation at a restaurant.” Ensuring that customers’ expectations are met or exceeded during their visit often leads to a happy ending.

Kevin Wright, Travel Oregon’s director of domestic consumer marketing, suggests that the hospitality industry can help ensure a success story by getting involved. “Getting involved could be as simple as signing up for the Travel Oregon industry LISTSERV, so they are aware of opportunities and campaigns that are coming down the pike as well as getting involved with their local DMO,” he explains. “Know what’s going on because a lot of times there could be subsidized marketing campaigns you could draft off of.”

Participation multiplies the odds of success, according to Davidson. “At the end of the day, we at Travel Oregon can create demand, but you can’t essentially buy what we’re selling,” he concludes. “You can buy into the idea, but the transaction has to happen at a restaurant, lodging property, or with the tour operator at the gate of an attraction.” Those defining moments of engagement are critical to building lasting relationships and helping the whole region prosper.

Greater Portland, Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge

Jeff Miller has just returned from a marketing trip to the United Kingdom, yet the president and CEO of Travel Portland still finds time to talk about the organization’s efforts to draw visitors to the Rose City and nearby regions like Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. “The weakness of the dollar really helped us over the summer with our international travel,” he reports. “We’re also a destination that is getting to be known a little better internationally because of a lot of years of work there, but there is also this vibe that people hear about in Portland. People want to see the ‘real’ America.”

According to Miller, Travel Portland’s marketing campaigns have performed extremely well. “It was an exciting summer to see it come back as quickly as it did,” he says, adding that lodging occupancy rates in the city exceeded 80 percent in both August and September. “The convention business was very good last year, so we’re able to really see the effects of strong campaigns that had very bottom-line driven metrics to them.”

That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. “One of the things that we’re trying to do better is to really speak to itineraries, so that we give visitors ideas of things to do,” explains Miller. “We can try to connect the dots for people to have planned itineraries that they can explore before they come. What we know is that people who are coming to Portland want the urban experience, but they still want access to the outdoors.”

Mt. Hood and the Columbia River Gorge offer plenty of nearby opportunities to satisfy that desire. “With so many great lodging options both on Mt. Hood and up through the Gorge, visitors can travel the loop to see it all,” says Miller. “They enjoy hiking mountain trails and skiing then make their way toward wind surfing and other great adventures down the Gorge. You really can’t find this combination of awe-inspiring experiences outdoors anywhere else in the world. You really begin to understand what a great place we live and how easy it is to attract visitors both regionally and internationally with these kinds of assets.”

They’re also looking for a good meal. Response to the annual June Dining Month has grown every year, according to Miller. “We know from those restaurants that are participating that they saw dramatically increased business this last year over the year before,” he says.

“Culinary tourism is something we put a little more money into last year. In this coming year, it is a major focus and drive of our marketing effort because we find that almost everything we do can connect back to culinary in some way, be that a bike tour of wineries or be it a culinary experience in downtown Portland, morning, noon, and night. With the addition of Feast Portland: Food and Drink Festival that will happen next September, we really want to take advantage of the world knowing about the food scene in Portland and how important it is not only to our culture but to our economy. We absolutely always try and emphasize the importance of our restaurant scene wherever we go.”

To accomplish that, Miller and other Portland area DMOs need feedback from hospitality-oriented businesses. “Knowing what is new and exciting with them is very important,” he says. “Staying close to your DMO and figuring out ways that you can plug into what they’re already doing is very helpful to us because of depth of content and experiences you can provide.” continue →