FY 14. Haines Convention & Visitors Bureau Marketing Plan. Tanya Carlson Director Haines CVB FY 14

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1 FY 14 Haines Convention & Visitors Bureau Marketing Plan Tanya Carlson Director Haines CVB FY 14

2 MISSION / VISION STATEMENT MISSION STATEMENT The Haines Convention and Visitors Bureau is a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) working to effectively promote, support and grow the economic capacity for the Haines Borough and Visitor Industry. VISION To work with the Haines Community to promote, support and continue to develop Haines tourism industry. To continue to develop the Haines Adventure brand through marketing, assisting with current and new events and promoting the natural qualities that Haines residents enjoy on a daily basis. To partner with cruise lines to promote Haines as a viable and unique small port geared toward catering to one ship at a time thus offering an exclusive experience to cruise guests. To help drive economic success in the Haines Borough through community partnerships, convention / meeting sales, cruise line partnerships and destination marketing. HAINES BOROUGH TOURISM INDUSTRY The Haines Convention and Visitors Bureau (HCVB) is funded by 1% sales tax in the Haines Borough. This revenue goes into Fund 23 which funds both Economic Development and Tourism Promotion. The organization is non-member based and thus markets all visitor services including, shops, restaurants, tours, parks, accommodations, meeting spaces, etc. The inventory of lodging in the Haines Borough, during peak season, includes 144 Hotel / Motel / Inn / Condo rooms, 31 B & B rooms, 20 Cabins, 18 Vacation Rentals (available rooms), 125 Private RV Sites, 81 Public RV Sites and 74 Camp Sites. There are 15 restaurants / bars and 47 shops in the borough along with 3 museums, 18 tour companies, 1 golf course and 5 state parks / state recreation sites / preserves. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE & PARTNERSHIPS HCVB is a department of the Haines Borough Government directed to promote the Haines Borough as a visitor destination. The HCVB markets Haines through print media, web marketing, consumer trade shows and travel trade conferences/conventions. The HCVB operates out of the Haines Visitor Center. The department consists of: Director of Tourism Visitor Information Coordinator Tourism Staff Aid (part year, part-time) o This position should be considered for a part-time, year round position to assist with Meeting/Convention bids and creation of monthly Newsletters to industry businesses and partners and to the general public seeking information on Haines. 2

3 One seasonal hire part-time Staff Aid TOURISM ADVISORY BOARD (TAB) The Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) is a group that advises the borough assembly through the borough manager and mayor on the formulation of policies governing the planning and execution of programs dealing with all phases of tourist promotion and services to tourists. This group consists of seven members; the Tourism Director and one assembly liaison both serve as exofficio members. MARKETING GOALS & OBJECTIVES In 2011, Haines implemented a new brand image as The Adventure Capital of Alaska. All ads and marketing materials that have been developed since this brand inception have taken this concept into account. So far the brand has been met with a widely positive response from locals and visitors alike. As the brand has only been in the market for a couple of years it will still take a few years to see if this will make a positive impact on Haines tourism with increased visitation. Many changes were developed and implemented in the past year in regards to marketing and statistics. A broader range of statistics were gathered including people arriving and departing Haines via plane and the number of people arriving via fast ferry as independents versus on tour. Online statistics were also expanded greatly and have aided and will continue to aid in developing more targeted online marketing campaigns. The Marketing Goals and Objectives for the upcoming fiscal year will have some changes but not the complete overhaul that last year received. Previously, numerous expensive print ads were discontinued. None of these will be picked back up in the upcoming fiscal year. FY 13 directed more funds toward internet marketing. This strategy will continue in the upcoming fiscal year. The main changes will be to redirect the Discovery Media campaign to Seattle s KING5 / NWCN (Northwest Cable News) online marketing. This change will directly target a couple of Haines top 10 markets. It has also been a proven campaign for a sister community in Southeast. The TripAdvisor campaign and page ownership will continue. Google ads will increase but will be more directed in their approach. Facebook ads will also be added. Our Yukon push will remain an integral part of the department s marketing efforts as they are Haines number one market. Ads will continue in the Yukon News prior to all events and Canadian long weekends. Haines will begin its 16 week ad on the side a Whitehorse Transit bus this spring. With the closing of the Whitehorse Chamber the welcome packets given out in rental cars and RV s and aboard Condor Air flights is currently up in the air. As this program costs nothing for the department to participate in Haines CVB will continue to talk with the Yukon Tourism Board and Travel Industry Association (TIA) Yukon to see if either will take over this project. Another target area includes Juneau. New strategies are being looked at to target this audience. Capital City Weekly has been the main marketing stream in the past but, as typical with print media, the ROI is hard to prove. This is not to say that no print advertising will be done in this market but rather it will switch to the Juneau Empire, which is a less costly advertising stream and features a buy one get one free for non-profits. It is a goal of HCVB to continue to cultivate better community partnerships over the next year. In the past year the Haines CVB has had a close working relationship with Haines Chamber of Commerce, the Southeast Alaska State Fair and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Haines CVB will continue to develop its relationship with the Haines Arts Confluence by assisting in 3

4 the development of a Haines Artists & Gallery booklet and Haines Art Street Fair. There are many aspects of overlap in various areas between the Tourism Department and these organizations and it can only help everyone involved to work more closely with one another as we move into the future. Meeting & Convention bids are also a focus for HCVB. Having recently finished a new and expanded Meeting / Convention packet, HCVB is in a position to offer organizations the information they need when making decisions on where to hold their next conference/ meeting / convention. HCVB will be working to develop its Meeting / Convention Planner page on its website next. HCVB will also be actively pursuing meetings / conventions that are small enough for Haines to host. FY MARKETING HAINES VACATION PLANNER The Haines Vacation Planner is the key collateral piece that HCVB sends to possible visitors. This item highlights the Haines Borough and all businesses that cater to visitors. The cost for printing decreased substantially in recent years. An online edition of the Vacation Planner was also added to the Haines CVB website. This new online planner was easier for guests to utilize and download compared with previous versions and may factor in to the decrease in Vacation Planners mailed to potential visitors this past year. In FY 13, 34 boxes of Planners were left over at the end of the year compared to only 6 boxes in FY 12. Due to this fact, the print run will decrease by 5,000 planners (roughly 24 boxes) in the next fiscal year to 30,000 Vacation Planners. These planners are distributed at consumer trade shows, the travel trade and travel media. The plan for FY 14 is to participate in more co-op Trade Shows to distribute the estimated left over Planners. These co-op trade shows are attended by ATIA who offer a certain number of member s participation in brochure distribution at numerous shows during the year. CANADIAN MARKETING With the population of Whitehorse continuing to grow, HCVB will continue to target this region in the year ahead. Yukon News ads are planned for all major events and Canadian long weekends. Four winter ads are also planned to entice Yukoners to come down and enjoy some winter activities. A side panel of a Whitehorse Transit bus will run a Haines Ad geared toward the Yukoners for 16 weeks. Whitehorse Transit buses run different routes so the ad will have maximum exposure all over Whitehorse. This campaign will begin spring of 2013 and is budgeted in the current fiscal year. The Whitehorse Chamber was closed this past autumn by the Yukon Government. HCVB will continue to work with the Yukon Tourism Board and TIA Yukon to see if any of the Chamber s programs will be continued (i.e. Welcome Packets and Stay & Play program) Ads in the Yukon Vacation Planner, Whitehorse Visitors Guide, Yukon Winter Guide and Last Great Road Trip (English & German) will continue. REGIONAL ADS HCVB will increase its Juneau marketing presence in FY14. Dollars that have gone to the Capital City Weekly will be redirected to the Juneau Empire. The Juneau Empire offers better rates for larger ads and a buy one get one free to nonprofits. This will help bring our Juneau presence up to match marketing efforts in Whitehorse. Ads will still be placed in the Juneau, Ketchikan, Fairbanks, Mat-Su and Skagway Planners. 4

5 LARGE PRINT PUBLICATIONS Sunset Magazine has generated thousands of leads over the years and is therefore staying in the budget. This publication targets Southern California and the Pacific Northwest (depending on the issue). Both regions account for a large number of visitors to the Haines area. 4 Issues have been budgeted for the next fiscal year. Careful consideration was given to the Alaska Magazine. HCVB has advertised in 3 issues a year for a number of years. As with many print ads ROI is very difficult to track. HCVB cannot prove or disprove its benefit to Haines. In the end, this publication was discontinued in FY14 budget minus one issue that had already been contracted The Alaska Vacation Planner is a proven lead generating ad and will remain in the budget. Although the back cover of the AMHS schedule was discontinued this past fiscal year the Community Co-op page inside will remain. This page is now more expensive because due to the loss of the multiple ad discount. The back cover of the Milepost will remain in the budget for FY14. This ad will continue to be closely monitored. Although print ads are difficult to track ROI, we can track those that type in the unique URL this ad features. A QR code was added to this ad beginning in A QR Code is easily tracked for usage and has been the number one producing QR code. HCVB also conducted a Visitor Survey during the 2012 season. One question asked how they heard about Haines and if an ad was selected it asked where the ad was. Over 32% wrote Milepost, the next highest was Lonely Planet at 11%. We also know from past Visitor Center surveys that a large number of visitors in the Visitor Center mark in the comment book that they found out about Haines from the Milepost. Fish Alaska will remain in the FY14 budget but Alaska Sporting Journal was dropped. This decision was made early in FY13. The Golden Circle Publication is printed once every five years. This is a $5000 endeavor and each Golden Circle community pays the same rate. It was decided in FY13 to cut the Alaska Sporting Journal for 5 years to make up for this cost. This publication has yet to move forward for various reasons in FY13 but will continue to develop in FY14. Northwest Travel Magazine has been added to take the place of Alaska Magazine. This magazine directly targets some of the top 10 key markets for Haines. The periodical is distributed throughout northern California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho and includes travel editorials for BC, Montana and Alaska. They publish six issues a year and the ads are cheaper than Alaska Magazine. This enables HCVB to advertize in all issues thus accomplishing the repetition needed in advertising. WEB MARKETING HCVB previously made numerous changes to include this largely untapped segment in previous years. FY14 HCVB will continue with Google Ad Network. Keywords will be added that help target searches that pertain to features of Haines. Utilizing Google Analytics, ads will further target demographics and geography. Develop pushes through Constant Contact to consumers. This will be a consumer version of the Haines Adventurer Business & Community Newsletter. Continue to sponsor the Haines Tourism Page on Trip Advisor which gives the Haines CVB control over the top photos, videos and events listed on the page, offer a link to the Haines CVB website and run Haines ads on the page. Run a banner ad campaign on TripAdvisor providing 175,000 impressions over 3-4 months to a targeted audience. Targeted 3 month banner ad campaign with KING5 / NWCN out of Seattle. The campaign will run in the fourth quarter of KING5 / NWCN offers a tourism match grant that essentially matches funds spent with KING% on NWCN. Facebook will also be added to the web advertising. HCVB will be running contests via Facebook. The HCVB Facebook page has really grown over the last year and the goal is to continue to gain follows and entice them to come see Haines for themselves. 6 months, matching three print issues, banner ads on Northwest Travel Magazine website. Northwest Travel Magazine offers a 50% discount on banner ads with print advertising. 5

6 LOCAL ADS Local ads will continue to be placed in support of community events. Haines Coupon Book This project began in FY13 as an effort to increase visitor traffic to Haines businesses and spending money. Travelers like to feel they are getting a deal and coupons / coupon books are always a very popular item for travelers. The Haines coupon book features deals for Haines shops, restaurants and attractions and has an accommodation section. The book will again be distributed to cruise guests on the pier, at the Yukon Trade Show and at the TIA Yukon Conference. HCVB will be seeking volunteers to distribute the Books at the ferry terminal this summer and urge all businesses to carry some in their stores to hand out. Princess has agreed to distribute the books onboard to their guests prior to arrival in port. HCVB will continue to work with the other cruise lines, large and small, to see about distribution on board. Local sponsorships have also been added. Local sponsorships and ads help remind the community that tourism supports the community and gives back. o This is something should grow even more in the future. BROCHURE DISTRIBUTION HCVB pays Anchorage Brochure Distribution for Haines Vacation Planners to be on four AMHS ferries. Rec-Vee Adventures distributes Haines Vacation Planners at several RV shows in Canada and the mid-west. This is scheduled to continue. PR Services Distributes the Haines Vacation Planner along the Alaska Highway in BC and the Yukon. Partnerships and memberships with other CVB s allow the Haines Vacation Planner to be distributed at their Visitor Centers. HCVB will take advantage of ATIA s brochure distribution for Trade Shows that match the markets for Haines travelers but not shows that HCVB will be attending. The advantage of this is to have our brochures available at these additional shows. The disadvantage is that ATIA delegates do not know Haines as well as HCVB which is the reason why HCVB attendance at some shows is crucial. OTHER MARKETING / PROMOTION PLANS Social Media o Continue to develop Haines Facebook presence. Run a Photo Contest. Winning photo could be featured in the next years Visitor Planner and on the HCVB website or prizes from local businesses could be won. Develop paid advertising on Facebook o Develop Haines Twitter page. o Monitor TripAdvisor and make regular post to assist guests looking for more information on Haines. Start Your Haines Adventure video campaign. Videos will be taken with HCVB Flip Video Camera and placed on HCVB website via YouTube. Video release forms will need to be signed by participants. Create a Geo Cache atop Mt. Ripinsky and/or Battery Point. This would be advertised through the HCVB website. Geo Cache could have just a log book or could feature take an item / leave an item. Could do more than one Geo Cache capitalizing on another trail in the borough. This is a good project to partner with the Parks and Recreation Board. 6

7 TRADE SHOWS LA Travel & Adventure Show in Long Beach is a great target area for Haines. This is a large show seeing nearly 30,000 visitors with average household incomes around $100,000. Haines having its own booth draws attention to our destination for both cruise and independent travelers. Outdoor Adventure Expo in Seattle. This will replace the Seattle Golf & Travel Expo. The show is a better fit for Haines and its brand image and should see more interest from its attendees. Seattle is in the top 10 cities for Haines visitors and should continue to be a target market. Focusing on Markets closer to Haines: o The Yukon Trade Show is an annual trade show that Haines participates in and targets our neighbors to the north. This show is always well attended by Yukoners. o Southeast Alaska Sports & Recreation Show in Juneau. This will be a good show to target the Juneau residents to come to Haines for a weekend retreat. CONVENTION ATTENDANCE The National Tour Association (NTA), which has now partnered with United Motorcoach Association (UMA), is an important Convention for Haines to attend. This convention caters to the group and FIT Tour Operators. Haines does have several Tour Operators that bring groups through. HCVB is working on cultivating these partnerships and increasing the number of tour operators that bring groups to/through Haines. Tour Operators help fill large quantities of hotel rooms which is greatly needed in the Haines borough. Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) Convention is the key convention for the Alaska Travel Industry. The convention allows for networking, education and input for the next years operations. Western Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus (WACVB) CEO Forum is an important educational convention. It allows for CVB directors to network, problem solve and bounce ideas in marketing and operations off each other. It also features educational seminars geared toward the industry to assist in marketing and convention sales. o In FY14 HCVB will replace the WACVB Annual Convention with the WACVB Tech Summit. The Tech Summit includes all things in technology that are important to the CVB and travel industry. This convention will help educate on the trends in travel from a technological standpoint (i.e. online advertising trends, computer programs, social media trends, etc.). Alaska Media Roadshow is targeted to Travel Writers. Roadshow gives CVB s, Tour Operators and Accommodations the opportunity to pitch unique story ideas to the press and entice them to come to Haines and feature our destination in stories for Newspapers, Magazines and Travel Blogs. It s important to stay fresh and keep writers interested in our destination as the place to be. MEETING / CONVENTION MARKETING The Meeting / Convention information packet was updated in FY13. o The packet includes all available locations for possible meetings / conventions, diagrams and photos of locations, available accommodations with seasonality and available dining and catering options. The next step will be in developing the Meeting / Convention page on the HCVB website. Links will be included to various websites for meeting / convention locations but all information will be available on the Haines website. Keep our database of past and possible future meetings and conventions for Haines up to date. One staff member will be designated to continue to research other possible meetings / conventions and conduct cold calls for future meeting / convention hosting possibilities. Bid on any possible meetings / conventions that could be held in Haines. 7

8 TRAVEL MEDIA As with Alaska Media RoadShow, working to get travel media to Haines and writing stories about the area is an integral part in marketing a destination. Although many of Haines businesses are very helpful in working with Travel Media there still tends to be costs involved in hosting them in our community. Money will be budgeted in FY14 to aid in getting Travel Media to Haines and assisting them while here. PARTNERSHIPS & MEMBERSHIPS REGIONAL PARTNERSHIPS HCVB partners with a majority of other CVB s in the state. This enables HCVB to have a listing in their Vacation Planners and place the Haines Vacation Planner in a majority of Visitor Centers along the main road system. INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS HCVB continues to monitor relevance and importance of industry partnerships. These partnerships add another level of available marketing to different travel segments. American Bus Association (ABA) and US Travel Association will be dropped in FY14. ABA is very similar to the National Tour Association (NTA). A majority of Tour Operators are members of both organizations, which means HCVB has access to them via NTA. HCVB does not attend any ABA or USTA conferences or participate in their advertising. Our benefits are very minimal for the cost of the membership. Memberships will continue with the following organizations. National Tour Association (NTA) Alaska Cruise Association (ACA) Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) Western Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus (WACVB) Southeast Alaska Tourism Council (SATC). Many of these memberships allow HCVB to remain up to date on the latest industry news and trends and grants HCVB access to useful targeted industry information and statistics. NTA gives HCVB the opportunity to target group and FIT Tour Operators. ATIA and SATC are both strategic partnerships for marketing Alaska and the Southeast region. HCVB will be applying for membership with the Gay and Lesbian Convention and Visitors Bureau (GLCVB). This is a very affluent travel sector that takes part in a large majority of adventure travel destinations and activities. This travel segment is a proven spending source in travel. HCVB will be the first and only Alaska member in the organization. We hope this will set us apart in Alaska for this travel segment and hopefully prove to be profitable in the years to come. This growth will not happen overnight. HCVB should stick with this membership for at least five years in order to see any type of return before considering changes. COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS It is important for HCVB to partner with various organizations within the Haines Community. HCVB will continue to work closely and partner with the Haines Chamber of Commerce. Both organizations work toward bettering the Haines economy and there are several aspects of both organizations that overlap. HCVB already works closely with the Chamber for participation in the Yukon Trade Show each spring. The Chamber has also created an ex-officio seat for the Tourism Director on their Board. 8

9 The Southeast Alaska State Fair is responsible for two of Haines most popular events and organizes many other events that can certainly grow in the future. HCVB will continue to market many of the events the State Fair organizes and possibly assist in the creation, implementation and marketing of future events. HCVB will continue to develop a close partnership with the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board. Many of the elements this groups works on parallel what HCVB markets. It would also be good to have a joint meeting a couple times a year with both the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the Tourism Advisory Board to discuss tourism topics that affect parks and recreation planning and vise versa. The Alaska / Haines Arts Confluence has been working very hard this past year with Haines artists. This presents the perfect opportunity for HCVB to partner and continue to develop a Haines Artists & Galleries Booklet, something already in the works. Discussion has also started on developing a Haines Art Fair sometime during the spring or summer months. Art Fairs are very popular and this event could easily be marketed to our surrounding communities of Whitehorse and Juneau. SPECIAL PROJECTS FORT SEWARD INFORMATIVE SIGN REPLACEMENT The signs currently in Fort Seward are peeling, rusting, fading and in desperate need of replacement. HCVB will request redesign and replacement bids for the informative signs in Fort Seward from several signage companies. Ideally HCVB would like to partner with another non-profit community entity and work on a grant once cost parameters have been outlined. Our goal is to have new signs by the start of the 2014 summer tourism season. PUBLIC RELATIONS AND EDUCATION The goal of HCVB is to develop a strategy to help educate the community on tourism related matters by: Continuing to publish the Haines Adventurer business and community newsletter. Developing and maintaining an list of all Haines tourism related businesses in order to facilitate a regular means of direct communication between the Visitors Bureau and the tourism businesses. Continuing to develop the Haines website to maximize the information available to visitors about Haines and its businesses. Continuing to develop data collection about Haines tourism that can be used to inform tourism businesses and the public of trends in our local economy, and to guide decision-making. Working with the Chamber of Commerce to strengthen their role in providing tourism related information to their members and the public. Continuing Tourism Community Night in the spring to encourage Haines residents to learn more about their local businesses and the importance of tourism to the local economy. Contracting to have an Economic Impact Study of Haines Tourism conducted for both summer and winter months to better educate the community on the importance of tourism dollars. 9

10 MEASURING PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS The goal of HCVB would be to provide a framework for measuring the effectiveness of the tourism marketing plan by such things as: Continuing to develop a database of tourism related information (i.e. available facilities, capacity, occupancy levels, seasonal demand, etc.) that can be used as a benchmark to guide decisions and aid in bidding on conventions and meetings. Continuing to develop methods of tracking the results of advertising and other direct marketing efforts in order to evaluate spending decisions. Analysis of data collected during the year to help determine methods of monitoring trends in Haines. 10