News from Tahoe South 10.19.09

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The US Travel Association reports that recent signs of positive growth in housing and in business investment suggest that this economic recession may be coming to an end, though the waiting game continues for the travel industry. Weak consumer spending patterns and bottom-dwelling travel indicators are evidence of consumers’ cautious mood. Recovery seems elusive, at least for those of us engaged in the travel economy. Analysts do seem to agree that travel overall is likely to rebound somewhat over the next 12 months, but a full recovery is unlikely until 2011 or beyond.

When I read these reports (and there are lots out there like this), it reminds me we are not the only destination affected and we’re not the worst, either.  We could use an early winter, and if it comes we should all be screaming it from the mountain tops.  LTVA public relations efforts are poised for just this case.  As we know, if we get out ahead of the holidays we’re likely to gain the momentum sustaining us through the season.  So cross your fingers and start that snow dance!

And while you’re dancing, here’s a bulletin as to what staff, marketing committee and board have been up to:

The Strategic Plan is in final stages of review and sets the stage for a new “community based” marketing approach. 

The LTVA’s new advertising agency, Duncan/Channon, squeezed in a summer campaign video and still photography shoot last week. Six days of work will reap an action packed TV and online campaign slated to begin in May 2010. 

Soon we’ll be separating our community information website from our visitor information website.  Creating this separate identify will allow us to better communicate the LTVA’s message to you – our constituents.  This change will let our partners access industry information and resources much more easily.  Watch this space for details in the coming months.

On October 15 we had the first of a series of meetings vetting out the South Shore “summer kick off” event.  Everyone is welcome to attend, particularly if you represent a group planning an event in late May or June.  We want to support you and would welcome promoting your event along with all of the others.  The meetings are at the Administrative Building at 169 Highway 50, Stateline, NV, in the main conference room.  Next meeting date to be announced soon. 

We’ve just completed some event specific survey work that supports what we thought about visitors and event attendance, but also gives us some insight as to how long they stay and how much they spend.  More on that to come. 

We just closed the Meyers Visitor Information Center for the season.  Between the three VC’s over the summer, we interacted personally with over 42,000 visitors in just four months.

I attended a Sustainable Tourism Summit hosted by the California Travel and Tourism Commission, and I’m providing a few choice tidbits here for your consumption.  My recommendation is to take this information seriously as the trends regarding green product consumer choices are accelerating.  The trend is for more people to make choices based upon green versus price and green vs convenience.  And, it is becoming very to somewhat important to consider environmental impact during travel planning.   Finally, 31% of US travelers are willing to pay a premium for green options. 

The Marketing Committee and Board of Directors approved the development of a new website which will launch along with the 2010 summer campaign.  And btw, you can get to the current and future website by using our new URL www.TahoeSouth.com.  Yep, we’re going south and blue is moving on.  So, I guess we need to rename this blog.  The new campaign is being cooked and will be served up in May, but for now, we’ll just go with TahoeSouth.

Carol Chaplin Executive Director
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority

Inside Blue 8.25.09

There’s no excuse for the lack of blog on my part, except for the overwhelming success of the American Century Championship, celebrating its 20^th anniversary here on South Shore at Edgewood.  When there’s no good news about the economy out there, we blasted the past record of 31,000 attendees, with a whopping 16% increase over the six day event. Lodging properties hit 100% occupancy on tournament nights and ran close to full midweek. Saturday’s second round was the largest, single-day attendance in tournament history at 10,500.  Talk about a great event from start to finish!

But actually, we won’t be finished for quite awhile.  The Lake Tahoe South Shore destination continues to bask in the over $5 million worth of media exposure for the tournament, including the NBC national TV coverage of the event over the weekend.  Even now, I am looking at an article that ran on August 9^th in the Chronicle, touting the event as well as local restaurants and the Black Bear Inn. 

As for touting, South Lake Tahoe was included on the TODAY Show on Friday August 21, with an estimated audience of 1.8 million and a publicity value of $26,811.  The TODAY Show host said, “Anytime of the year, [Lake Tahoe] is fantastic. Summer comes alive…it is so gorgeous. The air is crystal clear.” With a lead from Russ Pecoraro at Heavenly we pitched Budget Travel magazine’s editor Nina Willdorf, with South Lake Tahoe on last-minute Labor Day deals. The segment included deals at Lakeland Village Beach & Mountain Resort and is available to view online: http://today.msnbc.msn.com.

More TV…KGO’s Bay Area Half-Off show will feature numerous South Shore activities, products and properties this fall.  Show host Jennifer Coleman will be on site this week filming.  The segments will start airing early-to mid. September and continue each week until the end of December.  View the segments at www.WatchHalfOff.com. 

The LTVA’s strategic plan is in its final stages of review and implementation begins as early as winter.  Developed for the LTVA by Strategic Marketing Group, the plan sets direction for the next few years strategy, aimed primarily at Northern California.  Roll out of the plan and its tactical action steps will be in the coming months.  As always, input is welcome. 

Oh, yeah.  Along with that, website redesign is high on the agenda.  Not to mention our new local industry website development—a separate website specifically for our partners for information on what the LTVA’s current activities are as well as how we can support your business in reaching out to potential customers. 

I’m back on track with the blog, so look for the next real soon.

Carol Chaplin, Executive Director, Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority

Inside Blue 6.25.09

The summer campaign is off and running. I received a report from a hotel operator that his bay area customers have mentioned seeing our 15 second “bookend” tv spots. Complimenting those, our online banner media campaign links consumers directly to a landing page for trip planning tools. Using geo-targeted travel sites, we are reaching audiences closest to the point of purchase and more receptive to messages. The SEM buy works in conjunction with the banner campaign, reaching travel-mindset audiences and supports searches specific to the campaign messaging to close the loop on trip planning. As the campaign progresses, we can change the key words and eliminate any of the several banner options on the fly based upon program results. As of last week, we understand that the SEM (Search Engine Marketing) click through rate is 154% of the industry standard goal (.77%), and the average page views are 2.21, or 111% of the goal. The rich media banners are performing better than the flash banners and are 700% above the industry average in interaction and we can adjust the campaign to rely more heavily on rich media, however we will continue to use the flash so that we can tag them with our upcoming summer events.

The LTVA’s Geo-caching event was once again a success; check out some of the satisfied visitors’ comments on the website. We’re locking in dates for the 5^th annual, so mark your calendars for June 12-13, 2010. That will, by the way, be the Summer Kick-off weekend (a.k.a. Opening Days). Contact Mike Frye (mike@ltva.org) if you have an event scheduled for that time period that we can help to promote and look for more information on LTVA’s event line up as we move into the fall months.

Speaking of fall, winter isn’t long behind, so winter planning is the topic for the PR committee and what’s new/different/enhanced in your business is what we need information on. Forward that information either to me or Jenn Boyd (Weidinger Public Relations) at Jennifer@weidingerpr.com.

Only one more plug for the 20^th Anniversary American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Edgewood Tahoe, July 14-19. With all of this weighty economic recession news, it’s a bright spot in our community, with ticket sales keeping pace with last year. Thanks to all of our community partners for assisting with rooms for NBC crew and VIP’s: Harveys, MontBleu, Lakeside Inn and Casino, Lakeland Village Beach & Mountain Resort and Forest Suites Resort. Of course Harrah’s has a big sponsorship role directly with NBC as the host hotel, and Edgewood Tahoe is the stunning backdrop for the Tournament. Check out the current players list which is updated regularly.

P.S to all LTSCC members and all South Shore lodging properties: All three Visitor Centers are open and busy with summer visitors. Make sure we have information on upgrades, new amenities, events, etc., so we distribute accurate information about your business.

Carol Chaplin, Executive Director, Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority

Inside Blue 5.14.09

Happy National Tourism Week! The LTVA celebrated our community’s largest industry by selecting two visiting couples to enjoy $300 spending money on their vacation to South Shore.

The Tahoe Beach and Ski Club and Lakeside Inn and Casino assisted us in identifying the winning visitors.

Armed with $300 cash, a journal and camera to record some of their experiences for us, they will represent a typical visitor to our destination, further enjoying their stay as our special guests.

Weidinger Public Relations will also video our visitors which will be posted on our website along with their journal entries and some of their photos.

This should be a fun and interesting experiment as we see what our guests decide to spend their cash on. Upon their departure, they will receive an additional $50 for gas for the trip home. Congratulations and thank you for coming!

Speaking of Tourism, I guess the impact of decreased visitation continues to hit home with the recent Horizon lay-offs and restructure.

We’ve been talking about how important it is to keep our destination in the minds of our visitors and this is just another reminder of how important it is for the LTVA to keep our marketing efforts going, even with reduced budget.

And that would lead me to the summer advertising campaign, launching in our drive markets as we speak. With :15 second bookend TV spots running May-July, complimented by a robust web SEM and banner campaign, we’ll be hitting our Northern California markets as they begin their summer vacation planning. This is a very flexible, responsive, not to mention aggressive approach to reaching potential visitors.

I hear from Strategic Marketing Group, who is working on a 3 year strategic plan for the LTVA that the survey invitation I posted is not being taken advantage of. For all of you out there that have something to say about what the LTVA did, does, should do, this is your chance to weigh in. If you don’t, then stop whining. Here’s the link one more time and you’ve got one more week to get it done. It takes about 10 minutes. http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB2297HNKUMEZ

Carol Chaplin, Executive Director
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority

Inside Blue 4.22.09

 

 

 

April 22, 2009

Regarding yesterday’s City Council decision: First, we agree with City Council members in the respect that we didn’t want to fund an event and delete a job, that said; we’re very pleased to have funding for the Lake in the Sky Air Show  and the King of the Hill Masters Track and Field Meet. We are, however, disappointed that the Council chose not to support the Lake Tahoe Marathon or the Labor Day Fireworks. Both of these events have a proven track record of producing room nights, which in turn produce TOT dollars for the City’s general fund and support the City of South Lake Tahoe. It seemed like a good investment to us…

As for Council Member Lovell’s question about Twitter…yes, the LTVA, through the efforts of Weidinger Public Relations, has been tweeting since March. We have over 160 followers, including several media outlets such as NPR News, RGJ.com, KOLO, ABC News 10 Sacramento, Sierra Sun, and various travel websites. Each tweet includes general information about deals, promotions, conditions and what’s happening in South Shore along with a link to www.bluelaketahoe.com. Our Twitter user name is SouthShoreTahoe.

Moving on, the LTVA is working on a three year strategic plan and needs your input. We’d really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete a short survey. Follow this link: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB2293W44N39Z .
The survey will be available until May 15. I will offer up highlights of the survey results in a future blog.

Speaking of moving on – the TID is proposing an increase in their transient room fees. The Tahoe Tribune has posted an online survey as to whether the fee should be increased in order to fund marketing. That decision is up to the lodging folks, but anyone can weigh in with an opinion. Results will be posted this Friday, so if you do have an opinion vote now on the Trib’s site: www.tahoedailytribune.com. The survey is at the bottom of the home page and it takes about 2 seconds to cast your vote.

Also in the moving on category: The LTVA will represent the South Shore at International Pow Wow in May. This is the travel industry’s premier international marketplace and LTVA’s lead role for the destination makes it possible for local businesses to participate under the LTVA’s umbrella. The LTVA’s Sports Commission also takes a lead role in a year-one US Track and Field Association Masters Meet on Saturday May 30. Go to www.adsportstahoe.com for more information. LTVA’s fourth annual Geocaching event is scheduled for June 13-14. The host hotel is Embassy Suites. Check out www.bluelaketahoe.com/geocaching.php for more details.

And finally – the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship will be held at Edgewood Tahoe July 14-19. This is the 20th Anniversary and there’s already a strong field of celebrities confirmed. There are still volunteer opportunities available – and you don’t even need to know anything about golf! Check it out at tahoecelebritygolf.com/Volunteers.html.

Did you know that visitors to the South Shore spend approximately $675 per day for their immediate party? More facts like this available at the Tourism Forum next Thursday, April 30, 3pm at the Lake Tahoe Community College Duke Theatre. Hope to see you there.

Carol Chaplin, Executive Director

Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority

Inside Blue 4.08.09

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My apologies for the blog gap of a few weeks, but I couldn’t seem to get out of the funk created by the constant bad news all around us. I was looking for a good news blog topic and I was struggling. If you don’t have something good to say, don’t say it, right? But there is good news and that’s where I’m staying:

In a weird series of events, the LTVA made it on to the South Lake Tahoe City Council April 21 agenda. Undaunted (well, somewhat undaunted) by the slam dunk in February, at which the council voted 4-1 to deny approval of the $335k funding contract, the LTVA’s position is that the City should live up to at least part of its original commitment–since our commitment to some of our partners was based upon that funding promise. Our lodging constituency believes that the Labor Day Fireworks draws visitors and enhances their last fling summer visit and I’m asking the City to preserve that event. The Lake of the Sky Air Show has continued to grow attendance and showcases our general aviation airport, and the Lake Tahoe Marathon is a tradition with 13 years of tried and true participation. On May 31, our newly formed Sports Commission is to host our first US Track and Field Association sanctioned Masters track meet and we think that this could become an annual event. So, on April 21, I’m facing the squad again to ask for minimal funding ($85,000) to keep these four events alive. If you believe that the City owes the tourism community at least this much, then I ask for your attendance and your support.

More good news: The Weather Channel visited the South Shore in January to tape stories on the destination and returned in March to air those segments as part of live programming. The broadcast was live from Edgewood Tahoe on March 23. The stories reinforced our branding efforts and key messages: Why the Lake is blue, the Heavenly Flyer (zip line), year round boat cruises, family friendly activities, high altitude exercise and Lake Tahoe factoids. The entire program will air repeatedly, providing increased coverage and exposure. Thanks to Weidinger Public Relations for lots of groundwork, handholding and their usual creative input for story ideas that caught the Weather Channel’s interest.

More: the LTVA board and marketing committee continue to keep their heads down and focus on driving business for the upcoming summer season. A three year strategic planning process has been initiated and will produce a roadmap for marketing efforts aimed at growing awareness as well as visitation in our markets. Tomorrow, the two groups finish the discussion on the summer creative concepts and media plan to launch in May. And, as a result of an RFP process, the finalist advertising agencies are scheduled for presentations with our board and marketing committee selecting one to move forward with this fall.

As always, you are invited to attend. I continually run into folks that say they don’t know what the LTVA is doing. Along with your Wheaties, I’d love to serve it all up to you for breakfast, but I’m afraid that some of this just can’t go door to door. The invitation to the meetings is always extended and the door is always open. Attend and participate. We will continue to strive towards more outreach, but darn it, if you have opinions or you need information, sometimes you just gotta show up.

Last of the good news: With the help of the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce (no, it’s not the “Nevada Chamber….more than 60% of its membership is CA based!), we’re dialed in for our Tourism Forum on Thursday, April 30, 3-6pm. Click here for more information. You should join us.

Carol Chaplin, Executive Director
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority

Inside Blue 3.17.09

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I asked my LTVA colleagues for some blog topic ideas and the resounding response was to speak to some good news instead of bad. Interestingly, I had spoken to several other folks this past week about the deluge of bad economic news day after day and needing a break. So good news it is; we need a break!

While the City Council denied the agreement to support the LTVA funding resolution and the pending loss of that money will hit us hard (and will unfortunately hit some of our partners hard as well), we continue to look for opportunities to bring exposure to the destination. Take the recent Kids Are Free public relations efforts that complimented the South Lake Tahoe Tourism Improvement District’s radio buy: The Dallas Morning News, circulation 338,933, ran an article in the Travel section on Sunday, March 15 about this promotion. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, circulation 194,257, included the promotion in a travel brief on Sunday March 8. In addition, the Tahoe Daily Tribune posted the details online. Also, a blog called “We Just Got Back”, posted the details: blog.wejustgotback.com. We’re reviewing results and may extend into April, so stay in touch with Anne Sutterfield ( anne@ltva.org) for updates.

Interest in the South Shore of Lake Tahoe from far away markets is strong. Sales/Events Manager, Mike Frye has been on a roll, planning with California Travel and Tourism Commission staff and North Shore counter parts to entertain writers and agents from a number of countries this week. Daniel Bolatti from Argentina, and other members of his travel agency staff, are “in the house” and having a blast on the South Shore. He last visited in 1965 as an eleven year old. He noticed some changes! Tuesday, Bronwen Gora, the editor of the Sunday Telegraph, Australia’s largest publication, checks in. She is also a freelance writer for a number of travel and ski publications. We are hoping for sunny skies so she can enjoy the views from Heavenly. Wednesday Yuki Saruwatari from Japan’s CREA Magazine embarks on an ambitious tour of South Shore shops and attractions. Her list is long and deep, we hope Mike can keep up! The U.K.’s www.ultimate-ski.com writer, Dave Cronheim, hits the South Shore Wednesday for his maiden tour. By the time he leaves Saturday morning we’re pretty confident he will know and love the South Shore. Exposure to the destination is the foundation of long term relationships that will result in travel articles and tour itineraries. It takes many partners to make these visits successful and we send thanks to all of you who help.

BTW, Mike will be interviewed on KTHO at 10am on Wednesday if you care to listen in.

In her capacity as Chairperson of the Reno-Tahoe Territory, Sue Barton has been hard at work garnering support for the Nevada Commission on Tourism and Nevada’s fight to keep their tourism agency intact and with a healthy budget. The Nevada Legislature will hear this matter on Thursday at 8am. See www.savenevadatourism.com and consider attending the Tourism Summit in Carson City this Wednesday, March 18, 10am – 2pm.

Believe it or not, it’s Celebrity Golf season for the LTVA staff and since this is a great event for the entire community (33,000 attendees last year), we’re at work on the details of this event. This is the 20th anniversary, and NBC is promising to make the most out of it with an additional hour of airtime on the weekend. If you’re a lodging property, the LTVA is pleased to offer you ticket rates for your packages and offers you the opportunity to post packages on our website. Anne’s the one to send that information to.

The LTVA won the bid for the 2010 Western Chapter conference of the Society of American Travel Writers. In January 2010, approximately 100 professional writers will descend on South Shore, eager for story ideas. Many of our business partners will help us with lodging, meals and activities to properly showcase the destination. This opportunity, that doesn’t come along often and is difficult to gain, brings us face-to-face with many influential writers and has, in the past, resulted in great media value – far exceeding the cost of hosting the group. Good job Weidinger PR!

We’ll be at the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce Business Expo Friday March 27 from 4-8pm at MontBleu. This is a great networking opportunity and we hope to see you there.

Carol Chaplin, Executive Director
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority

Inside Blue 3.02.09

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Surprisingly, the forecast for this year’s travel called for an up-tick in leisure travel, with the real downward impact being in corporate travel. That being said, we all know that leisure travel is spiraling and the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority last week issued some information that tells us that even top domestic leisure travel destinations are feeling the pain. For January, according to the Smith Travel report information, South Lake Tahoe experienced about a 15% negative change, but even Hawaii felt a 12% decline and that makes me feel that we ain’t doing so bad. Misery loves company, but at least it’s good company….

So suck on your lemons if you want, but the South Lake Tahoe Tourism Improvement District set up their lemonade stand in the Bay Area last week with a three week radio promotion themed around “Kids are Free.” And, with a little help from their friends at the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, an additional $46,000 (91% of the original buy) was gleaned through on air promotions and an on-line component that has already got the media buzzing—all the way into Texas and beyond. The Dallas Morning News (circ 340,000) will run a story about the offer in their Sunday, March 15 Travel section and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (circ 200,000) will run it in a travel brief on March 8. The Tahoe Tribune will post details on-line and the “We Just Got Back” blog posted the details last week (blog.wejustgotback.com). This is the way that things happen, don’t you see; good minds get together, confirm a need, identify a goal, develop a strategy and execute a plan.

As I write, we are receiving more interest from the restaurant community to jump on board with a Kids Eat Free component to the lodging/skiing/snowmobiling/cruising/ice skating activities that make up the meat of this promotional effort. The more the merrier (by the way, restaurateurs, it would behoove you to form an association similar to the Lodging Association or the Wedding and Honeymoon Association. There is so much value in the networking, brainstorming and the subsequent solidarity and collective opportunities, not to mention, you could easily broadcast valuable information through that vehicle to the membership). But if you’re interested, Tuesday, March 3 is the deadline to tell anne@ltva.org what that offer is so we can post on-line and on the flyer that participating properties will have at their front desks.

The real lesson here, as some of you sit on the sidelines with your lips puckered from citrus cynicism, is that this is the time to reinvent ourselves, not to mention be as flexible as a pretzel, twisting and turning—even if it’s inside out—to see where the flashpoint is for our customer’s interest. If the LTVA has to coordinate these promotions in addition to the other activities we are charged with, so be it. The end goal is all-important: bring visitors to the destination; keep our tourism engine primed.

As a sidebar to that thought, the LTVA and the Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce understand the value of collaboration and are getting creative in cooperative efforts. And looking at this huge lemon tree, we are seeing gallons of lemonade just for the making. We’re introducing a bounce-back piece that can be distributed at sports and other events. If you want more information on that opportunity (ridiculously affordable), contact Tina Bruess tina@tahoechamber.org. We also received Chamber staff support in soliciting participation (restaurants) in the Kids Free promotion. And, of course, if I haven’t mentioned it several times already, we’re working together to bring you the April 30th Forum on Tourism.

Carol Chaplin, Executive Director
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority

Inside Blue 2.24.09

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Well, some folks still believe in marketing and those folks would be the South Lake Tahoe Tourism Improvement District. The board, at their last meeting, voted to invest $50,000 in a Bay Area radio campaign to drive short term business to the South Shore. The campaign platform is Kids FREE! and the LTVA assisted in bringing recreation, lodging and food & beverage providers into the promotion. The radio spot drives to the LTVA website, www.BlueLakeTahoe.com for information, and links to the participants’ websites for further details. If you’re not part of this yet, and want to be, email anne@LTVA.org. And if you’re a lodging property, we know that you may not have amenities that can be offered to kids free, but you can participate with just a rate offer.  We have only two restaurants participating at this point, and would love to have more to enhance the already great offers. This promotion runs through March and hopefully, combined with the snow alerts we send to the press, the word in our drive market will be to book a vacation full of value and enjoy great ski conditions for the remainder of the season. This type of retail promotion and coordination is a new activity for LTVA staff and we are trying to support our lodging community to drive needed business through their doors.

Any feedback we can get on the success of this campaign (or the February 20% off promotion we coordinated) is appreciated as it will help us determine whether we’re on the right track. Anyway, hats off to the SLT TID for being willing to risk – and wanting to be proactive.

In the event world, the LTVA Marketing Committee recently recommended funding for the 14th annual Gay and Lesbian Lake Tahoe Winterfest. Unfortunately, with the recent City funding cut, we were unable to support the event to the full extent of the recommendation, but we are hopeful that the marketing dollars we provided will help reach a larger audience and result in higher attendance. The event is March 1-8; visit the website at www.LakeTahoeWinterfest.com.

On the public relations front, we’ve had some recent solid hits from the San Francisco Examiner announcing the opening of 968 Park Spa Resort, and from The Argus (Alameda County) with a Valentine/romance piece mentioning, among others, Borges Sleigh Rides, Kirkwood, Heavenly, and the M.S. Dixie II.

Spanish television, Telemundo, just finished a shoot for two Lake Tahoe winter segments featuring Zephyr Cove Snowmobiles, Husky Express dog sledding and Camp Richardson Resort for snowshoeing. Ritmo Deportivo, presented in English and Spanish, will air on March 8 and 15 offering up 350,000 impressions. The Weather Channel also shot here recently and features South Shore as a spring break pick. They’ll be back in March – broadcasting live from Edgewood.

Coming up: we’re in the final stages of summer creative, gearing up for Celebrity Golf (lodging properties: this is a great event to build a package around! The tournament celebrates its 20th year this July and there’s better opportunity than ever to take advantage of our incredible ticket prices available to South Shore lodging properties!), and wrapping up details for our summer kick off event.

Carol Chaplin, Executive Director
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority

Inside Blue 2.17.09

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I’m a few days late in writing, as I’ve been struggling with how to respond to the recent City Council denial of our contract agreement, supporting the funding approval of $335,000 way back in October.  So…what to say?  The implications of such a move are so many I couldn’t begin to address them all in the short space I allot myself for this weekly communiqué.  The far reaching impacts of such a decision will be felt immediately.  Unfortunately, some of the community event efforts we intended to fund this year will feel the Council’s actions first.  The short sighted vision of the Council—not only on this issue but others—should concern us.  And thus a question and a message for those of you who care about the future of your community:  Who did you vote for and who will you vote for?  Enough said. 

 

But in these lean times when you’re cutting your budget to the bone, let’s chew on the fat offered up by Colorado’s first hand experience regarding cause and effect of ceasing its marketing efforts.

 

Tourism funding dried up for Colorado in the early ‘90s.  Within two years, the state experienced a 38% loss of its U.S. tourism market share.  In 2000, the Governor created the Colorado Tourism Office with a $5 million budget and a subsequent increase to $9 million in 2003.  In 2006, the state legislature approved $19 million in permanent funding.  From 2006 to 2007, Colorado experienced a 4% increase in tourism, a 10% increase in tourism spending and the state now stands 17^th in overall market share.  But whoa.  A 15 year scratch and claw back into the fray?  If you’d like to read more, visit www.SaveNevadaTourism.com for the Denver Post story.

 

The lesson learned: it’s a long haul back into the hearts and heads of our customers when we disappear from view.  And, in the meantime, while we trend downward in visitation, the City won’t be putting money in the coffers from TOT and sales tax, exacerbating the entire equation (i.e. until we’re not dependent upon tourism, we’re a tourism economy).  If you don’t get the relationship between revenues into the General Fund and infrastructure improvements in the community, I would urge you to think about it. Until the City Council gets behind this simple concept, you can bet we’re beat. 

 

In the meantime, the LTVA staff is still on task: we are assisting with a TID-funded Kids Free promotion radio campaign that begins next week.  If you haven’t supplied us with your Kids Free information/lodging rate, send it to anne@ltva.org ASAP – deadline is Friday 2/20 so act now!   The Visitors Center doors are still open 7 days/week, continuing to assist visitors with all kinds of information.  Always looking forward, we’re working on our summer campaign, ready to launch in June.  We’re still working on our Summer Kick-off event, scheduled for June 13-14.  And finally, join us the afternoon of Thursday, April 30 for our Tourism Forum, at which you’ll learn more about what the LTVA is doing, not to mention how CA and NV are helping to drive tourism to us – both nationally and internationally. 

 

Carol Chaplin, Executive Director
Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority