Unless you have literally lived under a rock, a white “swoosh” and the brand name of Nike immediately invaded your thoughts.
Branding works, and according to a new study conducted by Longwoods International (commissioned by the US Travel Association), this rule holds true for destination marketing. The study analyzed current destination marketing campaigns which have been instituted by the State of Michigan and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation. Summarized, the study concluded that destination marketing programs drive visitation, generate additional tax revenue and drive the creating of new jobs.
In 1993 Colorado decided, due to budgetary constraints, to abolish their marketing program. According to Longwoods, Colorado lost more than 30% of its domestic visitors (translating annually into a loss of $2 Billion USD in visitor spending). Subsequently Colorado restored their marketing initiatives and, according to the state treasury, the state now experience’s an ROI of 12x on their marketing investment.
The return on investment of marketing campaigns is not to be over looked. Increasingly we, meaning the general public, are faced with political banter of which programs to downsize and/or all together cut. Marketing campaigns are often put ahead of “critical” programs such as healthcare, education and policing. However, according to Bill Siegel, founder and CEO of Longwoods International, “Legislators are ignoring basic economics if they slash a destination marketing program. The return on investment of destination marketing programs is significant and nearly immediate.” Their research study concludes that marking initiatives generate more tax revenue than they consume by increasing visitation, spending and as a result, taxation in local economies.
Please take a look at the article profiling the research (located here) or the actual study (located here). Often we are bombarded with statistics on the revenue consumed by programs and/or the level of a destination marketing tax but without any real world case studies to put the whole picture in perspective. I hope you find the case studies as interesting as I did, as they do provide some context to the benefits which can be realized when a region implements aggressive marking initiatives.
