2020 Team Tourism In an effort to boost attendance and bring more quality to our Team Tourism meetings we will take a slightly different approach with communication in 2020. There will be time to network after each meeting if you choose. We plan to have a guest speaker at meetings and share all staff updates via email to address anything that needs immediate attention.
Please mark your calendars for the following meeting dates: Tuesday, May 5th Tuesday, August 4th Tuesday, December 1st (holiday gathering) Meetings will be held at the CVB administrative offices at 201 N. Capitol Ave., Suite A (inside the Emporium Mall building) from 9 am to 10 am unless otherwise noted.
National Travel
& Tourism Week Please mark your calendar for this year's National Travel & Tourism Week celebrations May 3-9. Watch your inbox for details in the coming months for details on how to get involved with the efforts the CVB will take to make our community aware of the importance of tourism in Harrison County. Indiana Tourism Association Annual Conference Special We are excited to be hosting the Indiana Tourism Association Annual Conference at Caesars
Southern Indiana March 2-4! We would love for as many of our partners to participate as possible and are offering you an ITA member rate as well as a $100 reimbursement on a full conference registration. With this special offer you can attend the entire conference for $199! The CVB will not cover overnight accommodations and reimbursement will only be submitted after you have attended the entire conference and we have received an invoice from you. Please follow this link indianatourismconference.com/registration to register and for a list of speakers/events. Should you have any questions regarding this amazing opportunity, feel free to reach out to Stacy Pirtle stacyp@thisisIndiana.org or call 812-734-0065.
LEISURE
2020 Leisure Travel Shows There’s still time to get involved with our 2020 leisure travel shows! This year the CVB will be visiting the Louisville Boat, RV, & Sportshow; the AAA Columbus (Ohio) Vacation Expo; and the Southern Women’s Show in Nashville.
Each show is a great promotional opportunity for Harrison County attractions. There are 2 ways to participate:
Interact with potential customers during a shift at our booth. Book your time slot for Louisville HERE and Nashville HERE.
Offer items for a giveaway (signage on our booth will promote your business and
the giveaway items)
Both opportunities are FREE.
“Give the Gift of Great Memories” Results We closed out 2019 with “Give the Gift of Great Memories,” a campaign that encouraged people to spend money at our local businesses during the holidays by purchasing gift cards for presents. See the microsite here: greatmemories.thisisindiana.org
Overall, I think the campaign was successful because we tried something new, learned more about our audience, and developed ideas for how to improve.
Scope
Criteria for
participation: Businesses willing to sell and mail out gift cards sold over the phone or online were eligible to participate.
19 businesses participated
The businesses were grouped into four categories (Adventure, Foodie, Fun All Year, Historic Downtown Corydon) to encourage someone to gift an entire collection—which means
more money spent in the county.
The campaign was promoted through emails, Facebook and Instagram ads, and Google ads.
Results
Social media ads/Google Ads: 3,142 click throughs
Email: 8 emails sent; 1224 click throughs
Website visitation: 4,141 sessions
Clicks to your sites/calls to your businesses: 202
What We Learned
Businesses that sell gift cards online received the most engagement. The business that received the most clicks to their website received6X as many clicks as
the highest performing business that took calls.
Next year, we will try to develop better discounts to incentivize spending.
Thanks to everyone who participated!
Please contact Amanda Ramos with any ideas or questions.
SALES
Lindsey Poe with Old Town Store/Corydon Extravaganza Wins Group Tracking Program Grand Prize Thank you to all of our partners that participated in our 2019 group tour tracking incentive program. This program awarded anyone returning their monthly tracking report with $5.00 in Chamber Buck’s, along with your name entered into our grand prize drawing at the end of the year for a $150.00 gift card, each time you returned your form. The program
resulted in over 750 groups being reported as visiting Harrison County an increase of over 200+ groups from 2018.
2020 Group Trade Shows Select Traveler – March 22-25 Indiana Association of Homeschool Educators – March 27-28 (The Harrison County Convention and Visitors Bureau will have a booth at IAHE. We are seeking volunteers and giveaways. Please download a form here and return it to Stacy via email or print and return) Small Market Meetings Summit – May 12-15 Tourism Alliance Partners – June 15-18 Small Market Meetings – October 4-6 Boomers in Groups – November 5-8
Group Travel Profile Sheet and Follow-up As many of you are aware when attending group trade shows we are only allowed to give the planner our profile sheet and contact information. However, upon returning from a show I always do my own follow up as well as email all leads to our partners. Please take a close look at the leads and do follow up of your own as well, you can follow up at
no cost just by sending an email or giving the planner a telephone call. If you have a group profile sheet that you would like for the CVB to include in our follow up mailings please send a supply of 150 to Stacy Pirtle 310 N. Elm Street, Corydon, Indiana. Should you ever have a question concerning the group market please feel free to reach out.
VISITOR SERVICES
Brochure Inventory It’s a new year…and our staff is currently taking inventory of our brochure closet! If you have a new brochure, please be sure to get a supply to the visitor’s center. Our Travel Counselors may be giving you a call about getting a new supply of your brochures, so please
don’t delay and get those to us as soon as you can, believe it or not spring will be here before we know it!
All brochures can either be delivered or sent to: Blaine H. Wiseman Visitor Center Attn: Sheryl Scharf 310 North Elm Street Corydon, IN 47112
Brochure Racks The CVB manages a large number of brochure racks throughout the county in an effort to get as many brochures as we can into the hands of potential guests.If you would like us to provide you with a
rack please contact Stacy Pirtle at stacyp@thisisIndiana.org or 812-734-0065 to set up that service free of charge.
Visitors Center Traffic
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