Tourism brands that attract “staycationers”
Posted on July 15, 2008
Perhaps the most depressing media creation out there right now is the summer “staycation.” With gas prices eating into the family budget, more and more people are canceling expensive vacations and finding things to do closer to home.
It turns out the Botetourt, Franklin and Craig Counties may have been ahead of the curve in developing their own tourism plans. For people who live in the region, there are a lot of unexplored destinations right under our noses.
In 2006, the counties enlisted the assistance of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission to study tourism infrastructure and economic impact. Using this data, teams of community stakeholders developed the plans. All shared strengths that were led by natural beauty and weaknesses including limited infrastructure, data and funding. The plans also included detailed tactics including destination branding, tour packaging, websites and associated marketing materials.
The Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) also markets the counties as part of its comprehensive plan. Botetourt and Franklin Counties pay about $10,000 annually into the fund that supports the Bureau. Craig County has not contributed the fund for the last several years. One might ask why the counties would need to market themselves when the Bureau already markets the region. Part of the answer may lie in the fact that the Roanoke Valley CVB operates on a budget that is roughly 20% of what Asheville spends. When the pie is too small to slice up, sometimes you have to make your own pie.
The structure of tourism marketing is a lot like automotive marketing. The Virginia Tourism Commission spends a great deal of money marketing the state as a destination to a national and international audience, much like the Ford brand would run national television ads to promote its products. The Convention and Visitors Bureau promotes a group of regional destinations, the way the Ford regional dealer group pools advertising dollars. Finally, our individual municipalities try to attract visitors like an individual dealership would on local television.
The trick is maintaining brand consistency from the top down. Using the same analogy, Ford national advertising sets the tone for the brand. Regional promotion, while consistent, rarely fits perfectly with the slick brand image established on national television. And, when you get down to your local dealer yelling from his parking lot you rarely, if ever, get a message that supports the brand.
If you look at the current campaign that the Virginia Tourism Commission is running, it tells visitors to “Live Passionately” and depicts dramatic historical scenes. The Roanoke Valley CVB uses the line “It’s in Our Nature” to promote the natural beauty of the area and generally uses slice-of-life outdoor recreation scenes to support it. Botetourt’s new efforts encourage visitors to “Start Exploring” and uses items like compasses overlaying scenes of attractions.
This is not to say that any of these approaches are wrong. However, there are synergies and economies of scale that are lost when the messages and media are out of synch. In fact, there is cooperation from the state down to local destinations. As members of the CVB, each county is fully aware of the direction the region is taking and contributes to the fund that promotes them collectively. Likewise, the state provides grants to regions and municipalities to develop tourism infrastructure and promote it.
The question still looms whether or not tourists have a compelling reason to choose Virginia and then narrow their choice to our region. However, with most of Botetourt, Franklin and Craig visitors coming from a short drive away, and with limited attractions in each place, the counties efforts are somewhat standalone. In a lot of ways, they are competing amongst themselves for our “staycationers.”
Unless a destination has a signature attraction with a national draw, it is very difficult to build a viable destination brand. Let’s face it, there aren’t many families in the Midwest discussing their summer vacation to Botetourt County to see the Roaring Run Furnace. Again, this is not to slight the counties’ efforts. Each county has seen an increase in inquiries and tax revenues from tourism. The results would be compounded if that same family in the Midwest were planning their summer vacation to experience one of our regional attractions. The problem is that our region lacks an identity in tourists’ minds.
We need to ask ourselves how tourists identify our region. It seems we are constantly grasping for an identity that will make everyone in Roanoke happy. The Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership recently changed its name to the Roanoke Regional Partnership to be more inclusive. The CVB, on the other hand, promotes our collective tourism product as the Roanoke Valley. Are we to assume that out-of-state tourists plan vacations to the Roanoke Valley and businesses consider sites that are in the Roanoke Region?
The fact of the matter is that the only real national draws in our region are the pathways that run through it. None of those scenic or historical routes have the name Roanoke in them. For most tourists who pass through on the Blue Ridge Parkway or the Appalachian Trail, Roanoke is a stop along the way with a quaint downtown market, an interesting rail heritage, a funky new art museum and a neon star on a mountain. So, in a lot of ways, the counties’ efforts are dead on target, offering a unique respite for tourists passing through and raising awareness of local attractions for day-trippers.
The sooner we realize that people are coming through, not coming to, the sooner we can start “Living Passionately” and encouraging our guests to do the same.
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