Stillwater Convention and Visitors Bureau

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1 1628 E. Southern Avenue Suite 9-PMB 301 Tempe, AZ Phone: Fax: Promoting and Selling Your Destination Stillwater Convention and Visitors Bureau Before you try to convince others to visit your destination, question why you would visit the locale yourself. What makes your destination so special or unique? Would you honestly spend a day traveling to visit your locale? If the answer is yes, then emphasize what makes your destination so different. If the answer is no, then ask what you need to do to make your destination worth a day's travel. Know what your community does not offer and what it is not. A major marketing mistake in tourism is trying to be too many things to too many segments of the tourism population. No location or activity is meant for everyone. It is important to know what you can or cannot deliver to get the best bang for your buck. Think through issues of globalization. In a world in which everyone is copying everyone else, remember that the reason people come to a destination is not what you offer that is similar, but for what you offer that is distinct. Make sure that you offer local products and experiences. Be unique and provide fun. Make each day count. People have less time to travel; so have easy to use travel packages ready. Because people have less time and more stress, the travel experience has to be developed in such a way that personal flexibility is maintained while time is not lost. Too many tourism sites believe that if you build it they will come. Plan around realism rather than pure hope. For example, a golf course may be a wonderful extra for the local community, but unless it is a very unique and world-class golf course, few people will travel hundreds of miles simply to play golf. In a like manner, what do you offer that will pull people in from long distances. Don t go it alone. Concentrate on your tourism rather than the competitions. Too many tourism entities are so intent on beating the competition that they forget about improving their own destination. You can never control the other person's business, but you can improve yours. Try to appeal to an audience that matches your product. Bring in experts; don t try to go it alone. Let Award Vacations join your team without adding staff.

2 Building Tourism with Vacation Packaging Prosperous vacation packaging doesn t just happen, it must be an integral part of the destination s marketing plan. Successful programs can be a lucrative revenue source of new found income, more than offsetting the program s costs, while providing additional promotional and marketing dollars to the CVB. A generous revenue share program with 25% of the gross profit back going back to the CVB. Gross profit is calculated by subtracting the wholesale net prices of hotels and attractions and any other venues from the vacation package selling price. Low Start-up Cost One year agreement, includes setup cost: $7,999 Second and Third year renewal cost, per year: $5,000 Getting Started with Results-Driven Vacation Packaging. Marketing is what makes vacation packaging successful, so Award Vacations has teamed up with industry expert, Linda DiMario the former President and CEO of the Arlington, Texas CVB to deliver results to your vacation package program. The Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau in Texas is one of the most successful vacation package programs managed by Award Vacations. But, successful vacation package programs don't just happen; they are an integral part of a CVB's marketing plan. Arlington's success was driven by Linda DiMario, their former President & CEO. Linda, a 30 year veteran of CVB marketing and management will design your vacation package program. The Turn-Key Destination Package Solution: Get all the operational features of Award s dynamic vacation packaging system, with our team working with your team to create winning package solutions driving visitors to your destination. This dynamic onsite, 2 day, 3 step Let s Get Started Selling Vacation Packages is the program kick off with the CVB team and includes: Exploratory Work o Interview all CVB team members participating in online sales and vacation packaging o Questions exploring the destinations positioning, branding, marketing, partner commitment and marketing challenges. o Create a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis Vacation Package Development

3 o Develop your best and highest performing vacation opportunities to drive visitors o Strategies and tactics for selling and marketing o Review obvious assets, hidden assets and underestimated assets o The CVB team will prioritize opportunities Coaching the CVB and Marketing Partners to Success o The most valuable resource, your marketing partners, the hotels, attractions, restaurants and other related marketing partners to a workshop. o Present the overview of the CVB plans for marketing and promotions, along with consumer research. o Show the marketing partners how to participate and earn incremental revenue. o A Q&A session for the partners for covering their concerns, challenges, suggestions and opportunities Now we are ready to build and launch your vacation package program: Award Vacations Services Include: a. Operating your vacation package Customer Support Center with your dedicated toll free phone number handling sales, questions and any customer service issues. b. Provide user friendly web based booking engine for your visitors or travel agents to book their vacations online and in real time. c. Handle all Operational Processing Confirm purchase of vacation to customer Process customer s payments Confirm sales to hotel and attraction suppliers as requested Pay hotels, suppliers and travel agents per our arrangement. Print and deliver vacation package documents to your visitors Provide online extranet access to 24/7 sales and productivity reports Additional Included Benefits/No Additional Cost plus Revenue Share: Special Event Packaging Reunion and Sports Teams Housing Convention Registration and Housing Accommodations only sales with option to add attractions Special Events, Fairs, Rodeo s and Festivals Ticketing Solutions

4 The Award Vacation Advantage We operate your brand, and your visitors are NEVER moved from your exposure to competing destinations as happens with other tourism websites that claim to co-brand with you and your vacation packages. With more experience in marketing CVB vacation packaging than any other operator, Award will share our experience with you in designing a successful program. We can provide your hotel and attraction vendors with links to your vacation package program so that everyone is promoting the destination together at no charge to further promote your vacation package program. Vacation packaging is designed as a revenue generator. Easy to use booking engine for your visitors with lots of flexibility. No additional charge we provide a Customer Contact Center with your dedicated toll free phone number. Professional Staff to work with, we understand packaging and selling a destination to your visitors. For More Information Contact Bill Reed direct at or billreed@awardvacations.com

5 Award Vacation s Tourism Customers Arlington, TX Baton Rouge, LA Bloomington, MN Buffalo, NY Cherokee Tribe, NC Cherokee Chamber of Commerce, NC Chicago, IL Chicago Office of Tourism Clearwater Chamber, FL Cincinnati, OH Cleveland, OH Columbus, OH Daytona Beach, FL Dallas, TX El Dorado County CVB Fairbanks, AK Frisco, TX Grand Prairie, TX Huntsville, AL Jackson County, NC Kenai Peninsula, AK Kissimmee, FL Lafayette, LA Long Beach, CA Martin County, FL Mobile, AL Montgomery, AL Morgantown, WV Mesa, AZ Orlando, FL Port Canaveral, FL Portland, ME Space Coast, FL South Coast USA Tampa, FL Warren County CVB, OH