Oregon Tourism Commission
Staff Report | December 2018
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Optimize Statewide Economic Impact...... 2 Drive business from key global markets through integrated sales/marketing plans leveraged with global partners and domestic travel trade ...... 2 Facilitate the development of world-class tourism product in partnership with community leaders, tourism businesses and key agencies ...... 8 Guide tourism in a way that achieves the optimal balance of visitation, economic impact, natural resources conservation and livability ...... 9 Inspire overnight leisure travel through industry-leading branding, marketing and communications ...... 10 Support and Empower Oregon’s Tourism Industry ...... 36 Provide development and training opportunities to meet the evolving tourism industry needs ...... 36 Implement industry leading visitor information network ...... 44 Fully realize statewide, strategic integration of OTIS (Oregon Tourism Information System) ...... 45 Deploy tourism programs (e.g. RCTP, Competitive Grants) in a powerful way that fulfills unique opportunities and challenges as defined by the tourism industry ...... 47 Champion the Value of Tourism ...... 51 Grow and align strategic partnerships to leverage resources and capacity to address key issues ...... 51 Empower and equip Oregon’s tourism industry with power of travel and issue-oriented messages ...... 53 Run an Effective Business ...... 55 Attract, develop and retain top talent ...... 55 Continuously review, improve and document policies and processes/procedures ...... 56 Measure and drive employee engagement and satisfaction ...... 56
December 2018 Commission Meeting McMinnville, OR
OPTIMIZE STATEWIDE ECONOMIC IMPACT
Drive business from key global markets through integrated sales/marketing plans leveraged with global partners and domestic travel trade TRADESHOWS AND SALES MISSIONS Toronto Sales and Media Meetings: October 15-17, 2018 Travel Oregon visited Toronto to meet with key trade, media, and airline partners. Trade meetings included Merit Travel, Intrepid, and Senior Discovery Tours. Partnership and media meetings included Brand USA, Air Canada, Travelzoo, The Globe and Mail, and Baxter Media. As a result of the meeting, Baxter Media will be attending the Road Rally in 2019. Visit USA Training: Frankfurt, Germany, October 27, 2018 Travel Oregon participated in the Visit USA German Committee training, a B2B event for travel agents. During the event, Travel Oregon, in partnership with German tour operator CANUSA Touristik, hosted 10 interactive Oregon workshops educating on experiences and available product in all seven Oregon regions to inspire agents to promote the destination with their clientele. A total of 121 travel agents attended the event. NTA Travel Exchange: Milwaukee, November 4-8, 2018 Travel Oregon was a sponsor of NTA Travel Exchange taking place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NTA included one-on-one scheduled meetings with domestic, Canadian and receptive tour operators. The show focuses on small and large group tour business. As part of the sponsorship, Travel Oregon had a booth and more than 40 confirmed appointments. Oregon had a delegation of 18, representing several regions, lodging properties and attractions. French Sales Mission: France, November 4 – 9, 2018 Travel Oregon, with tourism partners Travel Portland, Washington County Visitors Association, and the Newport Chamber of Commerce, participated in a sales mission to France this fall. The mission included sales calls and trainings in Lyon and Paris. The focus was to maintain existing itineraries in the fly-drive market, aid in developing new product for FIT and leisure travel, and to meet with new clients to develop Oregon itineraries. The mission also included a consumer and media launch event promoting a new Portland city guidebook. The delegation had a total of 30 travel trade media and airline partner meetings. ReiseLust Travel Show: Bremen, Germany, November 9-11, 2018 Travel Oregon, in partnership with German tour operator America Unlimited, participated in the ReiseLust, a three-day consumer tradeshow in Bremen, Germany. The show attracted 38,000 consumers. In addition to meeting potential consumers throughout the show, Travel Oregon also held a 20-minute presentation each day to inspire travel to the state and promote tour bookings to Oregon with America Unlimited.
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CITAP Winter Function: December 4, 2018 Canadian Inbound Tourism Association - Asia Pacific (CITAP) hosts a full day program for their Winter function that will include morning educational sessions, an afternoon trade show, known as the Winter Marketplace, networking reception and dinner. This event targets the Chinese Canadian market. Travel Oregon will have an exhibitor table at the Winter Marketplace and will attend the networking reception and dinner. CITAP expects more than 140 exhibitors at the Winter Marketplace, which is a free-flow, mini- marketplace.
Vancouver Trade & Media Meetings: December 5, 2018 Travel Oregon will meet with Flight Centre, JAC Travel, Air Canada and will host lunch for 13 media who have previously traveled to Oregon.
MEDIA FAMS The Sunday Independent: Ireland, September 29 – October 6, 2018 Travel Oregon hosted a freelance journalist for an upcoming travel article in The Sunday Independent. The publication is the largest newspaper in Ireland with a circulation of 222,000. The press trip was sponsored in part by Aer Lingus and tour operator Platinum Travel to promote the new direct flight from Dublin to Seattle, showcasing Oregon as a convenient road trip destination from the gateway. The article focused on Oregon’s Native American, pioneer and ranching history and the unique ways visitors can experience the American West. The coverage was also presented on a TV segment for Virgin Media/TV3.
El Souvenir: Mexico, October 13-20, 2018 Travel Oregon hosted two journalists from El Souvenir - a tourism digital magazine dedicated to promoting the world’s natural and cultural attractions. The site receives more than 100,000 unique monthly visitors and has a Facebook following of more than 300,000. While in Oregon, they focused on Portland, lighthouses along the coast, Crater Lake National Park, Bend, and Mt. Hood.
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Brandy Y Productions: Canada, October 22- 28, 2018 Brandy Y Productions filmed an episode for a series called “Seeing the USA” for PBS. It is also set to air on PBS’s channel Create® TV that reaches 46 million viewers nationwide in the USA and Canada. The channel is produced and distributed by APT, WNET New York and WGBH Boston in association with NETA and PBS. The production crew visited Portland, Pacific City, Albany, Bend, Fossil, Pendleton and documented their journey on social media.
&C: The Netherlands, October 25 – 30, 2018 Travel Oregon, in partnership with Icelandair, hosted two journalists from &C (and see) for a press trip to Oregon. &C is a 360 media brand with a monthly magazine, mobile application, website and online TV channel. Print circulation of the monthly lifestyle magazine is 100,000 and includes articles on fashion, beauty culture, wellness and human-interest travel. An eight-page feature on Oregon will be published by &C in Spring 2019. The coverage will include Portland, the Hood River Valley, Central Oregon and Pacific City.
New Zealand Herald: October 31 – November 9, 2018 The Deputy Editor of the New Zealand Herald visited Oregon to research content for three, two-page stories in the publication’s Tuesday and Sunday travel magazines. New Zealand Herald Travel reaches approximately 360,000 readers with varying budgets and travel objectives. Additionally, with a nation of avid travelers and readers who are actively looking for getaways, the New Zealand Herald is the perfect place for destinations that want to speak to a travel-minded audience. The coverage included Portland culture and lifestyle, self- driving holidays throughout Oregon, including a few of Oregon’s 7 Wonders, and the maker culture/community in Pendleton.
TRADE FAMS Delta Air Lines Japan Tour Operator FAM: October 25 -29, 2018 Travel Oregon, in partnership with Travel Portland, The Port of Portland, and Delta Air Lines, hosted influential product managers from Nippon Travel, JTB, ST World, Kinki Nippon Travel (KNT) and H.I.S. The purpose of the tour is to promote Delta Air Lines non- stop service from Tokyo to Portland International Airport and highlight easy access to the
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MEDIA EXPOSURE Japan Association of Travel Agents: September 2018 Crater Lake National Park was recently selected as one of the Japan Association of Travel Agent (JATA)’s, “30 unforgettable landscapes of the Americas” campaign. In September 2018, the Travel Oregon team in Japan presented information related to this award during the JATA Tourism EXPO in Tokyo. The announcement has been posted to Risvel, an information source for Japanese travel writers and content producers. This content portal receives around 100,000-page views per month and is a favorite resource for this audience.
Delta Sky Magazine Japan: September/October 2018 The Japanese edition of Delta Air Lines in-flight publication Sky Magazine featured a cover story focused on Portland and Eugene. Content included a focus on Oregon’s culture of running and the connections the state has to track and field history. The magazine is distributed in 1 million seat-back pockets on Delta Air Lines flights operating to and from Asia and the United States.
Radio Live New Zealand: October 2018 Radio Live New Zealand hosted a culinary themed radio interview featuring Portland, the Oregon Coast, the Willamette Valley, Feast and the array of culinary experiences available in Oregon. The interview included a discussion with Portland chef, Vitaly Paley. This opportunity generated approximately 189,000 impressions and is one of three exposures as a result of their research trip in September 2018. To date, Oregon has received 30 minutes of air time from this exposure with additional impressions coming by way of New Zealand Women’s Weekly (circulation 75,704) and Cuisine Magazine (256,000 circulation).
KOL China: October 2018 A Chinese KOL and top Fliggy & C Trip Travel blogger recently posted video content via a Weibo microblogging feed reaching 2.3 million readers. The promoted posts highlighted hiking, beer tasting in Portland, and winter sports at Mt. Bachelor. Posts were also featured on WeChat, and China based digital video platforms, TengXun, Youko and Iqiyi.
Food & Travel Magazine, Germany: October 2018 The German edition of Food & Travel Magazine included an 11-page feature story on Oregon as a culinary destination, with a focus on numerous locally owned wineries, artisan food producers and restaurants in the Willamette Valley and Oregon Coast. Circulation for the publication is 30,000 copies. See Appendix for full article.
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Le Devoir Magazine: Canada, October 2018 A journalist from Le Devoir Magazine visited Eugene in August and published a feature story, both in print and online, in October. Oregon was mentioned on the cover. The print circulation is 1,135,000 and the online story can be found at ledevoir.com
Like Vancouver: Canada, October 2018 Like Vancouver published “5 Reasons Portland Should be Your Next Fall Getaway” highlighting the Portland Book Festival, Duniway Hotel, Pedal Bike Tours and the Holidays Lights, as well as several dining options. The story can be found at likevancouver.ca.
El Souvenir: Mexico, October-November 2018 El Souvenir traveled to Oregon in October and started to produce content immediately. Since visiting, they published two articles: 7 Reasons to Visit Oregon and 8 Things to Do in Portland as well as multiple posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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NEW PRODUCT
Alpine Travel Service: Japan, October 2018 Alpine Travel Service Japan will launch a 2019 hiking tour program focused on fall foliage in Oregon.
JST: Japan, October 2018 JST, based in Nagoya, Japan, is finalizing plans for the Summer 2019, “Love it Oregon” tour including day trips to Astoria and overnights in Eugene and Corvallis. This popular, single- departure tour sells out every year.
JTB World: Japan, October 2018 JTB World is developing a three departure, multi-state group tour itinerary that includes Portland, Bend and Crater Lake National Park. These departures will operate in Summer 2019.
Fancy-Free Holidays: Domestic, October 2018 Fancy Free Holidays launched a new product “National Parks & Pacific Northwest” for 2019 that includes three nights in Oregon – Portland, Newport and Crater Lake Lodge. The itinerary can be viewed on fancyfreeholidays.com here.
Southwest Adventure Tours: Domestic, October 2018 Southwest Adventure Tours is developing two new tours for 2019. The first includes Portland, Columbia River Gorge, Astoria, Cannon Beach and McMinnville. The second includes Portland, Newport, Gold Beach, Shady Cove, and Bend. Both itineraries focus on hiking and outdoor adventure as well as unique Oregon experiences. Group size will be 10-15 passengers.
Globus: Domestic & International, October 2018 Globus updated its “Oregon’s Coast, Cascades & Craft Beer” tour to only feature Oregon, arriving and departing from Portland for 2019. Previously, the tour included multiple nights in Washington. Overnights include Portland, Astoria, Newport, Medford, and Bend. The itinerary can be viewed on globusjourneys.com here.
Facilitate the development of world-class tourism product in partnership with community leaders, tourism businesses and key agencies
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Oregon Business Magazine Highlights Oregon Food Trail Oregon Business Magazine worked with Travel Oregon’s Destination Development and Industry Communications teams to produce a two-page article on Oregon Food Trails in the magazine’s October issue. The article featured interviews with participants along the Wild Rivers Coast Food Trail as well as imagery from the Great Umpqua and East Gorge Food Trails.
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Following the published article, Travel Oregon will work with Oregon Business Magazine to also develop a short companion video featuring Oregon Food Trails filmed along the East Gorge Food Trail. The video is expected to be complete by the end of 2018.
Industry.TravelOregon.com/OregonFoodTrails Following the completion and launch of four Oregon Food Trails in 2018, Travel Oregon created a landing page for the program on its industry-facing website as a way to drive digital interest in the new product. This webpage includes a brief overview of each Food Trail, links to digital versions of brochures, local Food Trail websites, and trip ideas. Mt. Hood/Sandy/Estacada Visitor Profile Study The Visitor Profile Study project is now complete, pending a presentation from the consulting firm RRC. This data will help guide tourism development work in the corridor as well as be useful the for the “around the mountain” transportation project that is studying the transportation corridor around Mt. Hood.
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Guide tourism in a way that achieves the optimal balance of visitation, economic impact, natural resources conservation and livability
ELECTRIC VEHICLE TRANSPORTATION New EV Charging Stations Through its partnership with Forth, Travel Oregon successfully delivered the final of the first round of rebates through the Oregon Electric Vehicle Charging Station Rebate Program in September. Rebates were earmarked for tourism entities in Oregon that install a Level 2 or DC fast charging station that is publicly available to residents and visitors to the state. Through the program, Travel Oregon and Forth aimed to support tourism businesses that are interested in providing services that advance the adoption of electric vehicle tourism throughout Oregon. By prioritizing gap areas in electric vehicle infrastructure in rural Oregon, installation of new charging stations will also help to expand the Oregon Electric Byways program and drive new forms of visitation to less-trafficked areas of the state. The rebate program has now provided $5,000 rebates to the tourism-related entities below for successful installation of Level 2 or DC fast charging stations: • Estacada City Hall, Estacada • River House Inn & Old Town Inn, Florence • Amity Flats, Amity • Pfeiffer Winery, Junction City • Old Parkdale Inn, Parkdale • Cedar Creek BBQ, Oakridge
The new charging stations at Pfeiffer Winery were also highlighted by KEZI News in Eugene in July. You can watch this news segment online here . Looking ahead, Forth and Travel Oregon seek to identify additional funding sources and partnership opportunities to continue to provide rebates through the program.
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Inspire overnight leisure travel through industry-leading branding, marketing and communications
FALL CAMPAIGN 2018/2019 The Fall campaign launched on October 15th in the “Only Slightly Exaggerated” (OSE) campaign style, using illustrations to showcase the variety of activities and destinations available only in Oregon’s fall and winter seasons. We created seven still images to inspire Oregonians, nearby outdoorsy types, and those familiar with the OSE campaign (members of the Travel Oregon community who follow us on social media channels, subscribe to our e- news, and TravelOregon.com visitors). Each week we will launch a new illustration featuring a region across all Travel Oregon channels.
Results and feedback across our channels show that the campaign is resonating well with our audience. The content is performing well, and Oregon residents and travelers are seeking out the posters and the wallpapers as keepsakes.
Paid Media Parameters: • Timing: 10/15/18 – 12/16/18 • Markets: o Primary: Oregon o Secondary: Seattle & Boise • Target: “The Active Adventurer” • Budget: $800K Key strategies: • Activate existing community with engaging trip planning content • Inspire active adventurers through premium placed visuals • Spark curiosity through custom content partnerships • Drive lower funnel demand through OTA partnerships
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The role of paid media is to take Active Adventurers from awareness of Oregon’s winter experiences to booking a trip:
* Online Travel Agency
Print The OSE creative lends itself well to print, and we are buying print in targeted Pacific Northwest publications. Strategies include: • Tap into Oregon and PNW regional publications to inspire local Active Adventurers • Contextually align to editorial content in book • Secure digital extensions to provide opportunities to engage readers online We will be in the following publications in December 2018:
Portland Monthly Alaska Beyond 1859 Magazine 1889 Magazine
Travel+Leisure Food & Wine Sunset
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Search For the fall campaign, we will expand our Always-On paid search program. We have regional campaigns based on top cities, attractions and general keywords. In addition, we initiated our winter keyword group that features seasonally specific keywords like skiing Oregon, winter hikes in Oregon, snowshoeing Oregon, etc. Related specifically to the fall campaign, we created new keyword groups around the Oregon Mural Trail, OSE wallpapers and OSE posters. Search continues to be an affordable, high traffic media partner.
Content Partnerships We will work with key content partners to capture our audience with custom content that showcases why Oregon is the perfect fall and winter destination.
Strategies: • Leverage the equity of trusted publishers to story tell around the “Only Slightly Exaggerated” campaign • Diversify our content to inspire Active Adventurers in our region via social and owned channel distribution
Buy details: CHANNEL DESCRIPTION FLIGHT GEO- DETAILS TARGET Thrillist is an online media 10/15 – Oregon, Custom video, articles, and brand that offers city guides for 12/16 Seattle & banners highlighting Oregon’s metro hubs. It provides food, Boise regions distributed via social drink, travel and entertainment and Thrillist site content targeted to major cities around the US and Europe.
Social Media Because the goal of this campaign is to inspire the existing Travel Oregon community to encourage immediate travel in and around the state, this campaign represents our largest social media buy to date (31% budget allocation). This is the opportunity to share relevant and inspiring imagery and content across those channels.
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Parameters: • Timing: 10/15/18 – 12/16/18 • Markets: o Primary: Oregon o Secondary: Seattle & Boise • Target: Retargeted audience from Spring 18 + Active Adventurer • Platforms: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter The key strategy for social media is to activate and inspire our audience by immersing them in a range of things they can see and do in each region this fall and winter. We will accomplish this though tactical executions of OSE images, User Generated Content (UGC), Moments of Zen (MOZ)1, Influencers and Click Ads.
Regional theme: A travel theme was picked for each region that relates to the OSE illustrations. It gives us a gateway to inspire audiences to the broader travel experiences in each region in addition to the specific place in the illustration. The regional themes are:
• Southern Oregon: Culinary and hiking • Eastern Oregon: Snow sports • Oregon Coast: Natural history, nature and wildlife • Central Oregon: Apres-ski2 • Willamette Valley: Winter wine tasting • Mt. Hood & The Gorge: Stay and ski • Portland Region: Arts and culture
The content team identified and updated content in our portfolio, which was then curated across key landing pages on TravelOregon.com.
1 Moment of Zen: Serene live moments of picturesque Oregon destinations to give our audience a break from the frenzied pace of life. 2 “Apres-ski” – the social activities and entertainment following a day’s skiing
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The story for each region unfolds each week with the following tactics: • Awareness posts: Introduce our audience to each week’s illustration and promote via paid media across social. The campaign kicked off with the illustration of Lithia Park from Southern Oregon and a proclamation that the impending cooler season brings opportunities for adventure. • Regional User Generated Content (UGC) posts that support the regional themes; for example, the Lithia Park illustration highlighted fall foliage and hiking in Southern Oregon and drove to the content on TravelOregon.com. To prepare for this effort the content team reviewed, edited, rewrote and refreshed more than 150 trip ideas and points of interest to feature on the seven regional landing pages. • Instagram Stories: Each regional theme will be showcased through Instagram Stories. The screenshots below show the first few panels of the 5 Things Not to Miss in Southern Oregon story. Each panel links to a specific story on TravelOregon.com.
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• Moments of Zen (MOZ): Leveraging success of 2016/17 livestreams on Facebook, we will inspire our audience by sharing relaxing and visually engaging scenes from each region. These “slow content” experiences are an antidote to the fast pace of modern life, inspiring the audience to take a few moments to enjoy a virtual getaway to a beautiful Oregon landscape. For Lithia Park week, we showed a 20-minute stream of plein air artist Jeanne LaRae who painted vivid fall colors for the audience.
• Influencer Takeovers: These will showcase the OSE campaign locations and experiences from the point of third-party validators. The selected influencers are from the Pacific Northwest and are scheduled to be in market during the
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campaign (one influencer per region). Influencer selection was based on the following criteria (see Appendix A for a list of influencers): o Content and interests align with each region’s theme o Ability to travel to region during that region’s focus timeframe o Audience primary market in Oregon and secondary markets of Seattle and Boise o Ability to produce and share quality assets and content with Travel Oregon in perpetuity • Other Posts: We will support each region with click ads directing to curated regional content, the campaign hub page, the Oregon Mural Trail , the sweepstakes and the digital downloadable wallpapers . • Through online promotion of the posters, we will drive people to in-region locations like local visitor centers, breweries, hotels and more. We want to reward the behavior we are trying to drive with the giveaways including Fall campaign posters being distributed through regional partners.
OTA’s3 We’ll partner with OTAs to drive travelers down the funnel and convert interest into bookings. Strategies include: • Drive travel intent with OTA turn-key partnerships • Surround trip planning environments to create awareness • Reach consumers as they move down the funnel Buy details: Expedia and TripAdvisor flights will be October 15 – December 16 and target Oregon, Seattle and Boise.
3 OTA – online travel agency
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TravelOregon.com Each week the illustrated creative will be featured as the hero on the homepage and link consumers to the region page where we tell a broader story about winter travel activities in that region.
Regional pages were updated to feature more detail on the focused destination (e.g. Eagle Cap Wilderness) and other fall and winter travel ideas designed to inspire folks to plan a trip immediately. For example, during week two we will showcase a variety of experiences in Eastern Oregon including Wallowa Barn Tours, backcountry trails and ski areas, Anthony Lakes and Ferguson Ridge.
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Finally, all destinations are featured in a progressively updated hub page (right) that showcases the regional creative and encourages consumers to click through to find more ideas on each regional landing page.
Sweepstakes This winter we are inspiring our audience with the best that Wine Country has to offer with the Magical Oregon Wine Escape. The sweepstakes highlights the indoor and outdoor experiences available year-round in the Willamette Valley. The sweepstakes runs from October 19-December 15, and the prize includes: • Roundtrip airfare for two with Alaska Airlines • A three-night stay at the new Atticus Hotel • Dinner at an acclaimed Willamette Valley restaurant • A personalized tour through Oregon’s award-winning wineries • Danner boots
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Oregon Mural Trail One of the most impactful ways we bring the OSE creative to life is through the Oregon Mural Trail. In collaboration with the nonprofit Forest for the Trees Northwest, this trail of seven regional murals across the state showcases images of the OSE campaign. The project began in Spring 2018 with a cross- functional team working on a community-beautification project that incorporated campaign promotion and media outreach. To support the mural project, the team created content on TravelOregon.com, developed the Oregon Mural Trail, created a time-lapse video showing the creation of a mural, completed collateral, and executed Oregon Mural Trail events (detailed below).
The locations of the murals are within an approximate 60-minute drive of a regional media market that has completed a tourism studio and has alignment with the creative. Installation will be at the following locations: • Southern Oregon o Roseburg Public Library (1409 NE Diamond Lake Blvd, Roseburg, OR 97470) • Central Oregon o Crooked River Brewing (420 N. Main St, Prineville, OR 97754) • Willamette Valley st o Oakridge (Across from City Hall: 48318 E 1 St, Oakridge, OR 97463) • Mt. Hood/Columbia River Gorge nd o Leeland Property Management building (723 E 2 St, The Dalles, OR 97058) • Eastern Oregon th o Red Apple Market (555 SW 4 Ave, Ontario, OR 97914) • Portland Region o 2001 Main Street, Forest Grove, OR • Oregon Coast o On 101 facing the road and Heceta Head Lighthouse Oregon Mural Trail Events The Communications team worked with the Public Affairs Manager and Global Strategic Partnerships on seven regional mural unveiling events/ribbon-cuttings with the purpose of
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generating a sense of community excitement and pride for the new murals and the region. The two main community events took place in Roseburg (October 20) and The Dalles (October 27). Due to the impacts of wildfires this summer, Travel Oregon decided to host the larger community events in the regions most impacted to have greater visibility into these communities as a place to visit now. In addition, there were three smaller events in the communities of Oakridge, Prineville and Ontario with the goal of raising awareness of the murals with local policy makers and media. Ribbon-cutting events and media outreach will take place in Forest Grove (Portland Region) and Yachats (Oregon Coast) once the murals are finished. Travel Oregon is encouraging people to post their photos at each mural and use the hashtag #oregonismagic (the title of each mural).
Response to the murals was incredibly positive with robust community engagement and strong attendance by policy makers and media. A full round-up of coverage will be included in the next Commission Report.
The project has been a great success and we are currently confirming plans of how to continue the project in 2019.
SPRING 2019 CAMPAIGN UPDATE This spring we will continue with the OSE campaign style and create animated video assets that will target our audiences in Portland, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle. This content will allow us to introduce consumers to Oregon and Travel Oregon owned channels. There are two nuances compared to Spring 2018: 1. We will be creating a similar style video as Spring 2018, but it will not be the exact same creative. Rather than third-person looking at stunning vistas, we are creating scenes and experiences where the consumer can have a second-person experience. 2. We will use the learnings from Spring of 2018 to create the long form video with defined breakdowns for media placements. We are also exploring how to roll out creative and/or have continuous planned opportunities for consumers to re-engage with Travel Oregon content. Specifically, we will create opportunities to gather consumer information and create Travel Oregon fans to reach during non-campaign time periods. PROMOTIONS Capitol Christmas Tree (CCT) Project The Travel Oregon team entered the final phase of partnership with the Willamette National Forest (WNF) to promote and distribute earned media, content and social media support of the Capitol Christmas Tree. Below is an outline of upcoming programming. We will have a full recap after the tree lighting ceremonies in Washington, D.C. in December.
Program Goals: • Raise public awareness, stewardship and visitation to the WNF
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• Generate positive media coverage of Oregon’s national forests, their value and recreation opportunities, and how to be stewards through fire prevention, Leave No Trace programs and volunteering • Engage with and invite policy makers and stakeholders along the route • Nationally, reinforce Oregon’s reputation as home to majestic yet accessible public lands; increase out-of-state visitation. • Elevate the 50th anniversary of the National Trails System Act (#FindYourTrail) and the 175th commemoration of the Oregon Trail.
Tactics: • Engage with policy makers and stakeholders along the route by meeting with them and inviting them to key events • Community engagement – engage with partners to discuss and promote the importance of public lands in Oregon/their forest and build relationships. • Marketing the WNF and public lands in Oregon. Although this is a one-time event, it is an opportunity to create a communications plan around the importance of outdoors. The event gives us the opportunity to start those conversations with consumers and media. • Promote the WNF and nearby communities - create itineraries that Travel Oregon and partners can leverage to increase visitation to the forest and nearby communities • Incorporate/promote public lands and outdoors ethics messaging • Create evergreen content
Schedule:
August – September Draft architect visit/tree selection press release and media advisory; conduct media outreach and follow-up. Monitor, track and report coverage and create content
October – November • Begin promotion and distribution of content • Promote and support Tree Cutting and Whistle Stop tours (locations where the Tree will stop on its way to Washington D.C.)
December • Travel Oregon media and policy team to support and attend Tree lighting events in Washington D.C. and Congressional receptions promoting Oregon themes, details below • Travel Oregon is partnering with the Oregon State Society to co-sponsor Senator Wyden’s Congressional Breakfast
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• Travel Oregon has worked with Oregon partners to ensure Oregon product is present at the many receptions and events including: o Stoller Family Estate o Deschutes Brewery o Stumptown Coffee • Bonnie Morales from Kachka will be Oregon’s celebrity chef • We Three, the musical group from McMinnville and recent participants on America’s Got Talent, will be representing Oregon’s local talent • Promote content on social media
Industry Coverage: The CCT has garnered a lot of coverage for Travel Oregon and our partners in the USFS and Willamette Valley. September’s CCT coverage included topics ranging from the hand-quilted tree skirt crafted by Sweet Home residents to the search for the 4th grade student whose winning essay will send them to Washington D.C to light the tree. See below for a list of Q1 coverage. • Statesmen Journal, Oregon narrows search for perfect Christmas Tree for U.S. Capitol (7/6/18) • Statesmen Journal, The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree has been found in an Oregon forest, but it's a secret (8/10/18) • Capital Press, Willamette National Forest to provide U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree (9/4/18) • KVAL, Oregon 4th graders invited to enter essay contest for chance to win trip to D.C. (9/12/18)
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Oregon Trail 175th Anniversary Oregon Trail 175th Lyft Promotion: The Communications team partnered with the rideshare company, Lyft, and the Oregon Historical Society to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the Oregon Trail by bringing mule-drawn covered wagon rides through downtown Portland August 28-31. In addition to the wagon ride, the event had a coloring station for children, an interactive photo booth, iPads to play Travel Oregon: The Game, and two actors providing Oregon Trail historic facts. Overall, more than 1,000 families rode the wagon and donated over 500lbs of food to the Sunshine Division4. On August 27, Travel Oregon invited members of the media to preview the experience. This resulted in coverage on KOIN, KATU, KGW, KPTV and OPB (online, radio and broadcast). In total, the promotion garnered 57 stories (including an Associated Press) with a total circulation of 64.8 million and an average story score of 8.7 out of 10.
1859 Partnership Travel Oregon worked with 1859 for a 10 page insert on the Oregon Trail that featured the history along the trail, traveling the Oregon Trail today, and a map.
Discounted advertising was offered to Travel Oregon partners through the Oregon Trail Coalition. We also promoted the 1859 sweepstakes that was run in conjunction and had readers use #OregonTrail175 to win a 3-day Oregon Trail Trip. There were over 2,000 entries with over 575 opting into Travel Oregon’s e-news.
4 Sunshine Division has been providing food and clothing relief to Portland families and individuals in need since 1923
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DIGITAL CONSUMER PLATFORMS TravelOregon.com Traffic to TravelOregon.com was down 16.7% in in Q1 compared to the same period last year. This was due to losses in July and August in paid, social and direct traffic from interest in the solar eclipse last year. In September, traffic was up 19% YOY with organic, social and paid traffic contributing to the increase.
TravelOregon.com Platform Updates: Traveler Alerts In response to the need for rapidly curated traveler alerts, we launched enhanced alert bar functionality. This new feature allows the team to quickly create multiple alert messages and select exactly what page(s) the alert appears on, without having to edit the pages themselves.
Visitor Transportation Services The team is working to educate and showcase the state’s travel options beyond a personal vehicle - from public transit to privately-run, shared transportation - via a multi-pronged approach: • Developing and promoting car-free itineraries on TravelOregon.com • Developing and enhancing transportation-related listings in OTIS • Showcasing transportation options/listings contextually, on TravelOregon.com (for example: show me all the shuttle companies near me in Bend, Oregon)
There are several car-free itineraries live on TravelOregon.com and four more will be live by the end of 2018.
Final listings for transportation providers, transportation service offerings and service areas were received during Q1. The Integrated Marketing (IM) team is determining how best to store this data in the Oregon Tourism Information System (OTIS). The IM team has also been developing the best way to showcase this information, contextually, on TravelOregon.com. This work and our approach are being finalized, and the team expects data to be live on TravelOregon.com by the end of 2018.
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Industry.TravelOregon.com We began the industry site redesign project with a staff survey in June 2018. From there, a 12-person, cross-functional stakeholder team was assembled to represent the organization alongside the core project team. Each team has a primary and secondary stakeholder to ensure team needs are represented.
The project kicked off with a stakeholder workshop on September 14th intended to orient the team to the project and surface project goals, audience motivations, key user tasks, content requirements and key pages of the new website. The outcomes from these exercises, along with the staff survey and analysis of our website data, helped inform a brief survey and card sort exercise that was developed to solicit industry input and guide how we structure and prioritize content on the new website.
The survey and card sort exercise were sent to industry partners in early October. Key insights from the research are:
• Industry Resources — and specifically grant programs — are the most popular content on the website. o Other top visited industry resource pages include: Oregon Outdoor Recreation Initiative, State Welcome Centers, Travel Oregon 101 Seminars and Governor’s Conference • Users expect to find key Travel Oregon initiatives such as “Agritourism,” “Sustainable Tourism” and RCTP under a section titled Programs • Due to its popularity, Grant pages need to be moved higher up the site • The current site is structured to be navigated by Department; however, we need to simplify and reframe the site so that we present content in three major pathways: “who we are”, “what we do” and “here’s how we can help you” • Give users the option to filter all content by region
The next step is to use these insights to finalize the site map, information architecture and wireframes. Once we’re through the discovery process, implementation will begin in Q3.
Social Media
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Overall reach for the quarter was down 32%, likely due to the eclipse which had higher media spends in July 2017 and elevated interest in travel to Oregon. Things were on the upswing in September as interest in FeastPDX and our wildfire recovery efforts peaked. Highlights this quarter included: • IGTV5: We began experimenting with IGTV in September when we published Living with Wildfire: An Oregon Story. We received 2,592 views, 71 likes, and three comments. Around 8% of people made it through to the seventh minute of the video, so we will work with video length in the future to increase retention rate. • Our content partnership with Oregon Humane Society (OHS) commemorating OHS’s 50th anniversary was successful, with OHS Takeover and Corgi Beach Day being our #1 post on Instagram in July.
• We supported the Lyft partnership to support the 175th Anniversary of the Oregon Trail by broadcasting a Facebook Live video featuring The Gay Beards who experienced a taste of the Oregon Trail in downtown Portland with a covered wagon ride.
Other top performing content across social included: • Posts about fun trips and unique places to stay such as: Mt. Hood tiny house village , Minam Lodge and covered wagons • Posts covering places off-the-beaten path such as: Applegate Valley, Wallowa Barn Tour • Epic travel experiences including How the summer in Oregon is more than a season, Taking a weekday wildflower hike, Otherworldly stargazing spots, and epic fall colors. • Timely and newsworthy posts such as Portland International Airport being named the best domestic airport (again), wildfire recovery and Halloweentown (see images below)
5 IGTV is a standalone vertical video application owned by Instagram made primarily for smartphones. Unlike Instagram, it allows users to upload vertical videos up to 10 minutes in length or up to 60 minutes
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Email Marketing
Travel Oregon’s consumer email marketing programs were identified as a key initiative for 2017-2019. The email programs allow for ongoing communication with potential travelers to keep Oregon top of mind.
Total list size was 189,961 at the end of Q1, up 2.3% compared to the prior year. However, compared to the start of the fiscal year, our list size is down 0.2%. Looking at our newsletter lists, the general list lost 1,224 subscribers, while the culinary and outdoor list added 886 subscribers in Q1.
From an engagement standpoint for the quarter, our general newsletter saw a YOY drop in open rate (-6.8%) and click through rate (-11.8%). The decrease this quarter was primarily due to elevated interest last year in the Great Oregon Eclipse and other popular stories such as “summer swimming holes.”
Our culinary list remained level with last year with an open rate of 27% and clickthrough rate of 20%. Lastly, the outdoor list improved open rate by 9.6% and click through by 7.9% compared to last year.
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Note: We’ve adjusted the metric here from net gain/loss in subscribers to a change in total list size to better visualize the overall growth or decline in our list. This is a more accurate way to track our list size over time. We’ve also outlined our goal list size for the end of the fiscal year. Due to projected decreases in website traffic and pending database purges in accordance with General Data Privacy Requirements, we are anticipating a 10% drop in list size for FY 18/19.
The team is working on several email improvements related to the VLM project including an email welcome series and email preference center. The welcome series will serve as an introduction to the Travel Oregon newsletter program and will be designed to stimulate swift engagement. The preference center’s goal is to provide more customization by allowing subscribers more flexibility with managing their subscription levels and cadence. This should help slow the unsubscribe rate and keep our list healthier. We’re targeting launching these programs in January 2019.
PUBLISHING & CONTENT We produced and distributed 44 stories in Q1. The publishing lineup included: • 7 feature stories: These long-form content pieces were designed to evoke an emotional response and ignite a desire to travel to Oregon. • 18 news stories: These stories were informational and designed to keep Oregon “top- of-mind” with information about events and happenings within three months. • 7 blogger stories: Stories from local Oregon personalities and content partners using their independent voice. • 19 special project stories: Stories produced to support special partner request and/or specific partner events, including 7 sponsored stories.
Fall seasonal features included a narrative of three women on a mountain biking trip on the North Umpqua Trail, a deep dive into explaining fresh-hop beer season, a round-up of trips to take using Bend and Central Oregon as your hub, a spotlight on farm stays, a look at five iconic Oregon ingredients through the eyes of local chefs, a trip into the landscapes made famous by the documentary “Wild, Wild Country,” and a video that takes viewers to the new National Neon Sign Museum in The Dalles.
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Travel Oregon Visitor Guide:
Guide orders for Q1 were down 16.6% YOY. This decline was expected and was due to pausing all promotions of the guide orders while we were in transition to a new fulfillment vendor. As we start layering those promotions back in, we expect to see our numbers recover.
We’re in the planning phases for the 2019/20 edition of the Travel Oregon Visitor Guide (TOVG). The content team reviewed visitor guide surveys and current trends and worked with a cross-departmental internal group to identify expanding or changing certain sections of the guide. Major changes to this edition include: • New Sections: o Travel Well — this section will encapsulate tread-lightly, leave-no-trace and need-to-know tips in a fun, helpful checklist that puts Travel Oregon’s values and local character front and center. o Trips for Now — This mix-and-match section will highlight specific trip ideas that include multiple regions (not all in a single trip). The focus will still be on imagery and the copy will summarize itineraries and reference the website and regional sections for more specific info.
• Activity sections: o Adding “running” to the “hiking” section. o Water Play — expanding this section and breaking it out into several subsections based on activity: paddling, rafting, boat rentals/jetboats, kiteboarding/windsurfing. o Outdoor Adventures: We will call out opportunities for guided experiences in the relevant subsections (though not mentioning specific guide companies); we will include new “featured events” o Food Trails — highlight food trails around the state o Beer Experiences — focus on the different kinds of experiences you can have with craft beer in Oregon: regional beer trails, sudsy festivals, fresh-hop season, and unique breweries o Culture and Heritage: adding a focus on LGBTQ, new “featured events”, and highlighting special exhibits and notable happenings
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• Regional sections: o Rather than a seven-day itinerary across an entire region, we will highlight seven trip ideas. This will allow RDMOs to highlight their region without the constraints of a single itinerary and appeal to more travelers with diverse experiences. As with the day-by-day itineraries, we will work with the RDMOs for their input on specific trip ideas.
Other content highlights: • Three stories created to support the Willamette National Forest’s Capitol Christmas Tree campaign, including a guide to the forest and itineraries to the Detroit area and Sweet Home. • Refreshed content for all Scenic Byways pages and addition of the three new byways to TravelOregon.com: Trees to Sea, Marys Peak to Pacific, and McKenzie River. • A new story highlighting more accessible trips across the state. • A last-minute guide to Feast Portland supported by a social media push before and during the event. • An itinerary through the South Willamette Valley to support the work of a marketing tourism studio community. • Spotlights on the new Whiskey Run Mountain Bike Trail and the new Great Umpqua Food Trail. • A sponsored story highlighting a Wallowa Barn Tour was the top-performing Facebook post for the Travel Oregon page in August. • A kickoff to support the ski season through Ski Oregon’s round-up of Winter Ski Season Kick-Off Events. • A new story to promote the popular Spirit of Halloweentown in St. Helens.
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CONSUMER COMMUNICATIONS Global Communications: Consumer Coverage
The Global Communications team saw great success in Q1 of FY 2018/19. Travel Oregon-led familiarization tours for top-tier media and stories resulting from NYC deskside briefings helped us to achieve these results. As seen in the chart above, the Communications team will now be reporting on the number of stories garnered (rather than story score) as this is a better reflection of our work to highlight Oregon as a premier vacation destination through robust media outreach and engagement. These stories resulted in a circulation sum of 513.2 million and an average story score of 8.5 out of 10, a 51% increase in circulation and a 1.2% increase in score over the previous year. See below for highlights of Travel Oregon- influenced coverage for Q1. • Kathleen Squires wrote a story on historic Oregon City that ran in the Wall Street Journal (online and print) • Rosemary McClure (who attended an SATW tour in October 2017 and was hosted in August 2018 by the Communications team) produced a story on clamming and crabbing on the Coast that ran on LATimes.com and on the cover of the Travel section • Terri Colby’s Oregon Trail story saw AP pick up in four additional publications (the original story ran in the Chicago Tribune). Additionally, Colby returned to Oregon in August to explore Portland, the Coast and the Willamette Valley. In September, she wrote a story for Forbes.com, “Dive Into Fall With A Trip To Oregon's Pacific Coast” • USAToday.com, “Drive-in movie theaters in (almost) every state” (includes 99W in Newberg) • Jen Stevenson’s piece in 1859 on “Weekend Wanderings” in Central Oregon, and a story about Minam River Lodge written by Jen Stevenson • Two articles by John Mariani ran on Forbes.com • TravelAndLeisure, “Top 10 Domestic Airports” by Sarah Bruning includes PDX (Travel Oregon met with Bruning in NYC in May) • Sunset.com, “32 Best Free Camping Sites” included Sparks Lake, Pine Mountain Observatory and Mt. Ashland campground
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• Oct.co, “America’s Most Beautiful Beer Trails”written by Adrienne Jordan (Travel Oregon met Jordan in NYC in May), includes North Coast • Brides.com, “These Far-Flung Luxury Lodges Are So Worth the Trek” by Lindsay Cohn features Minam River Lodge • Fodor’s.com, “America’s 25 Cutest Main Streets in Small(er) Towns” (includes Jacksonville) • RD.com and MSN.com, “The Most Charming Small Towns in Every State” (includes Joseph) • FoodNetwork.com, “PDX for Le$$: The 25 Best Cheap Eats in Portland” and “Where to Eat Great Steak From Coast to Coast” (includes Ox in Portland) • Sunset.com (and in print), “6 Places to Stay Cool on Your Summer Vacation” (includes the Oregon Coast) • Parents Magazine (print only), “Epic Outdoor Experiences;” listed outdoor experiences to try with kids that included Out N’ About Treehouses in Cave Junction • RD.com, “The Most Majestic Mountain Towns in America” (includes Bend) and “The 20 Best Little Lake Towns in America” (includes Oakridge), both produced by Lindsay Cohn who Travel Oregon met in NYC in May • NBC’s Golf Channel filmed a five-minute segment with Silvies Valley Ranch that ran on their “Morning Drive” show
Feast Portland In September, Travel Oregon worked with regional partners to host 22 media on four #TrailsToFeast tours around the state.
Trips included Central to North Coast, Tualatin Valley, Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon/South Coast. Attendees included contributors for Huffington Post, VICE Munchies, Food Network and Travel Channel (among others) and a mix of local bloggers and influencers.
To date, pre-Feast coverage included a round up on FoodNetwork.com naming Feast as one of the summer’s “can’t miss” foodie events; a segment on the podcast “Right at the Fork;” an article on WanderWithWonder.com about the Central Point Artisan Corridor in Southern Oregon; and a post naming “9 Amazing Things to do in Willamette Valley (Other Than Wineries).”
Travel Oregon also garnered Feast coverage on two AM Northwest (KATU) broadcast segments. The second, Feast “superfan,” Jenny Block, speaks to her love of Feast and how experiencing more regions of the state through the #TrailsToFeast media tour makes the festival experience much richer.
Altogether, we placed eight stories with a circulation sum of 29.3 million and an average story score of 8.4 out of 10. Last year during the same time period, Travel Oregon placed two stories with a circulation sum of 24.4 million and a story score of 9.5. This represents a
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400% increase in number of stories with a 20.5% increase in circulation and a slight decrease of 8.4% in story score, which still exceeds our score goal of 8.
MARKETING INSIGHTS & VISITOR SERVICES Research Oregon Residents’ Perspectives about Tourism (full report in Appendix) Travel Oregon worked with researchers in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University (OSU) to understand Oregon residents’ attitudes toward tourism across the seven tourism regions. The results of this sentiment study along with the visitor impact numbers will inform Travel Oregon 2019-21 strategic planning. The study aimed to accomplish two main goals: 1) Identify Oregon residents’ attitudes toward tourism and 2) Identify Oregon residents’ perceptions of tourism’s contribution to the quality of life.
To address the project goals, we designed a questionnaire administered to Oregon residents using two survey modes (opt-in panel and mixed-mode mail survey) in the summer of 2018. We received 1,477 completed questionnaires, and the statewide initial findings were as follows: • Respondents were more likely to vote for tourism promotion (75%) than against it (25%) • Tourism was ranked in the top five industries in Oregon. • Overall, residents perceive both positive and negative social effects in their community because of tourism, and the positive impacts outweigh negative impacts. • Results indicate increases in several subjective wellbeing domains (i.e., financial, community, and recreation) due to proposed 20% tourism growth
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% of respondents from each region Vote (%) for promoting more tourism by region
Visitor Life Cycle Management (VLM) The team selected Marketo as our marketing automation platform vendor and has been onboarding Marketo, while preparing to migrate data from our current email service provider. In addition, the team has been preparing our database so we can upload it into Marketo. We plan to send email through Marketo by the end of December.
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SUPPORT AND EMPOWER OREGON’S TOURISM INDUSTRY
Provide development and training opportunities to meet the evolving tourism industry needs
INDUSTRY SERVICES Travel Oregon 101 In October, staff presented the Travel Oregon 101 as a workshop at the annual People’s Coast Summit in Waldport. Partnering with OCVA on this event provided an opportunity to connect with over 30 tourism industry attendees at the 101 and many others at the Summit.
In November, staff presented a 101 along with an International Sales Development Workshop in Pendleton with over 35 registrants. The final 101 of 2018 will be December 3 in McMinnville, the day before the Oregon Tourism Commission meeting. Locations and dates for the 2019 seminars will be announced in December 2018.
The Travel Oregon 101 is a free seminar designed to benefit visitor-related businesses, organizations and communities. Seminar participants gain an increased knowledge of the many opportunities available through Travel Oregon and the network of local, regional, national, and international industry partners.
Travel Oregon 101 attendees network at The People’s Coast Summit in Waldport
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Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism Internal planning work for the 2019 Governor’s Conference continues, including the development of new internal and external mission and vision statements:
INTERNAL VISION Support the industry through investing in education and the development and leveraging of partnerships for a healthy Oregon tourism ecosystem.
INTERNAL MISSION The Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism is Travel Oregon’s premiere platform to deliver strategic education on marketing, partnerships, development and sales best practices and industry trends. It also provides the opportunity for tourism stakeholders to connect and collaborate with business partners through purposeful, scheduled conference programming.
EXTERNAL VISION Educate and connect tourism stakeholders and business partners, advancing alignment for a healthy Oregon tourism ecosystem, which inspires travelers to visit Oregon.
EXTERNAL MISSION The Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism brings the industry together to educate, inspire and connect tourism stakeholders and business partners. Through innovative programming, we help advance, guide and align Oregon’s seven diverse tourism regions.
Sponsor and Exhibitor Partnerships Sponsor and Exhibitor sales for the 2019 Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism are now open. New partnership opportunities are available this year, including: Title Sponsor, Night Out in Eugene, and Breakfast Pavilion. Creating these new sponsorship opportunities continues to bring innovative programming that educates, inspires and connects tourism stakeholders and business partners. Also new this year, an opportunity for exclusive customized industry or consumer-facing marketing opportunities for some of the top-level sponsors.
Lisa Itel, Director of Global Strategic Partnerships, and Matthew Finn, Global Strategic Partnerships Coordinator, will work closely with the Industry Services team on securing 2019 conference partners. You can view here the 2019 Sponsor and Exhibitor Partnership Opportunities guide.
Registration and Venue Attendee registration and hotel room blocks will open February 2019. Hilton Eugene, the conference venue and headquarter hotel, will soon be called the Graduate Eugene. This will be the first Graduate hotel to open in Oregon. With 21 hotels open or in the process of
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OREGON TOURISM STUDIOS North Coast Destination Management Studio The Destination Development team launched the North Coast Tourism Studio on September 25th in Garibaldi with approximately 82 community members in attendance. At the North Coast Tourism Summit, Future iQ and Travel Oregon staff facilitated the development of a 15-year vision that will help guide stakeholders as they pursue tourism development and implement destination management solutions in the region. Attendees participated in a scenario planning exercise and discussed how four potential scenarios represent their region’s current status, ideal status, and potential future status – see the infographics below.
The next workshop segment took place in Seaside on October 16-17 and focused on the issues of Destination Stewardship and Visitor Transportation for High-Use Destinations. Approximately 40 community members came together to learn about global best practices and discuss regional strategies.
At the time of this writing, there are three remaining segments in this program: • November 13-14, 2018 in Cannon Beach, Oregon o Adventure Travel & Outdoor Recreation Networking Event and Workshop
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• December 4-5, 2018 in Tillamook, Oregon o Cultural Heritage Tourism Networking Event and Workshop • January 15-16, 2019 in Astoria, Oregon o Visitor Communications & Destination Marketing Workshop o Igniting Tourism Action Teams Workshop o Community Celebration Event Fine more information and the North Coast Tourism Studio flyer and brochure online at Industry.TravelOregon.com/NorthCoast
Oregon Tourism Studio Selection Process At the start of the 2018-19 fiscal year, Travel Oregon instituted a new process for communities to solicit help with destination development or express an interest in the Oregon Tourism Studio program. Now, community leaders can start by filling out an intake form that captures a community or region’s issues, opportunities and perceived needs. Intake forms can be obtained by emailing a request to [email protected] and summited to Travel Oregon at any time. Staff will review intake forms quarterly. Consultation calls are then set up and between Destination Development staff and community leaders to determine how best to meet local tourism development needs. Finally, if an Oregon Tourism Studio seems to be a good fit and a desired approach, Travel Oregon will invite community leaders to submit a full Oregon Tourism Studio application. Full applications will be reviewed annually. Programs will be awarded and scheduled up to 18 months following the application deadline.
Since the beginning of the fiscal year, Travel Oregon has received ten intake forms and all ten community leaders were invited to submit full applications. The full application deadline for fiscal year ‘18- ‘19 was November 2. Seven full applications were received: two applications for the Rural Tourism Studio and five applications for a Tourism Experience Studio, either focused on outdoor recreation or culinary and agritourism. At the time of this writing, evaluation of these applications and the creation of a fiscal year 2019-20 Tourism Studio schedule is currently underway. During the evaluation phase, a cross-departmental Travel Oregon team convenes to evaluate a community’s readiness, strength of a local steering committee, program fit and staff capacity.
OREGON TOURISM STUDIO FOLLOW-UP Oregon Tourism Studio Regional Summits Oregon Tourism Studios regions that have completed their studio program and initial projects have been reengaging their broader communities through locally hosted tourism summits. The Tourism Studio steering committee leadership organizes tourism summits to educate the local partners and leaders on the impact of the studios, the projects completed, and best practices learned. Summits have been a great catalyst to regain and boost the momentum that naturally levels off after a facilitated program. The agenda includes gathering feedback, cultivating buy-in for next steps and priority projects, and establishing leadership capacity to develop the next project or initiative area.
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• Polk County Tourism Summit | October 24: Polk County hosted a Rural Tourism Studio in Fall 2014. From the studio, they created the Polk County Tourism Alliance – an informal network of leaders including economic development, city government, chambers of commerce, private businesses and downtown development agencies. The region has completed a wide range of projects focused on culinary and agritourism, outdoor recreation with a road cycling and mountain biking emphasis, signature event development, and collaboration with regional assets like Western Oregon University. Two Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) Placements have been hosted in Polk County to drive tourism development, marketing, and project capacity. This region hosted their third annual summit in October to share significant successes and engage a broader audience of over 50 people in setting priorities for the coming year.
One noteworthy success is the official hiring of Norah Owings as a Destination Development Manager for Polk County. Norah’s position has been co-funded Travel Salem, Travel Oregon, the cities of Dallas, Independence, Monmouth, and their respective chambers of commerce and economic development agencies. Norah was formerly a RARE placement working as program manager for the Dallas Downtown Association.
The community prioritized developing the Willamette River Trail, bike repair stations and infrastructure, a Polk County Food Trail, an Artisan Makers Trail, a second year of Tap Into Polk County and Uncork Polk County culinary weeks, regional branding efforts, growing connections to Western Oregon University, and further building the Polk County Tourism Alliance.
• Gorge Tourism Summit | October 29 - 30: The Columbia Gorge hosted a Destination Management Studio in Winter 2016. At the conclusion of the Tourism Studio they formed the Columbia Gorge Tourism Alliance (CGTA) based on the existing nonprofit status of the Columbia River Gorge Visitors Association. The engagement throughout the Gorge in connection with the CGTA has dramatically grown – the impact and value of those connections were especially visible during the traumatic events of the two massive fires in the region. This region has completed their initial round of projects focused on culinary & agritourism, cultural heritage, outdoor recreation, car-free transportation and marketing.
The summit was the first held in the region by the CGTA – and the largest event produced by this team since the conclusion of the studio. During the summit, around 75 participants were present to hear the successes of the initial projects, updates from other agencies and businesses working within the region, and key focus areas for next steps. At this time, the next iteration of projects and future steps are being solidified.
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Columbia Gorge Tourism Alliance Network Training The Columbia Gorge Tourism Alliance (CGTA), with Travel Oregon’s support, has been engaging with Converge for Impact, a social design firm focused on building impact- driven, sustainable networks. The Gorge is facing complex, systemic issues and it’s essential to engage a broader base of decision makers, stakeholders, and leading agencies to address high- use challenges on the western side to ultimately extend visitation and visitor dollar to the eastern side. This regional leadership ‘alliance,’ which has an active partner count of around 40 entities, has been transforming their organizational structure to establish a more collaborative, innovative design for engagement and impact. The CGTA and Travel Oregon co-hosted an intensive board training on networks to address how to shift structures and clarify purposes. Roughly 16 board members and other staff attended the training. See the Columbia Gorge Tourism Alliance Network Diagram below.
Gorge Tourism Studio Communities Powered by Travel Video Travel Oregon premiered the latest video in the Communities by Powered Travel series at the Columbia Gorge Tourism Summit on October 30, 2018. The video features highlights of progress made by community leaders following the Gorge Tourism Studio, a community- based tourism planning process designed to help address destination management issues in the bi-state region that encompasses the National Scenic Area and two of the Cascade peaks, Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams. The vision laid out by over 225 participants during the 2016 process is being honored and advanced by community and business leaders who formed the Columbia Gorge Tourism Alliance and the Columbia Gorge Tourism Network to further the mission of maximizing the positive impacts of the visitor economy to enhance communities and protect the region. Successes highlighted in the film include the development of a strong network, advancing car-free transportation options, implementing the vision of the region-wide Gorge Towns to Trails hiking loop, and developing visitor communications to inspire responsible behavior. View Communities Powered by Travel: The Columbia Gorge here.
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Travel Oregon Days – Training for Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) Placements and New Network/Studio Leadership Destination Development hosted the new RARE AmeriCorps placements along with several new Oregon Tourism Studio steering committee leaders to present and discuss the resources and opportunities offered through Travel Oregon. This cross-departmental effort included representatives from Global Marketing and Global Sales as well. The RARE placements learned about tourism development, marketing principles, how to capture information for OTIS, how to develop product that feeds into statewide channels, and more. This has become an annual event that engages the new placements at the start of their service term with the intent of maximizing opportunities to leverage and connect with Travel Oregon and learn strategies that can be implemented locally. As the number of RARE placements, network coordinators, and high-impact Oregon Tourism Studio program leaders grow, the need for this in-depth, customized training will increase. In turn, Travel Oregon’s ability to establish and educate leaders on how to develop destinations throughout the state multiplies.
OUTDOOR RECREATION DEVELOPMENT Oregon Outdoor Recreation Network Action Teams The Economic Impact Action Team was created to conduct a statewide economic impact study of outdoor recreation in Oregon. To prepare for this, preliminary work entailed a literature review of existing and planned research on outdoor recreation in the Pacific Northwest. Recent updates include: • The Action Team has met to discuss the scope of the economic impact study in detail, resulting in the drafting of the RFP. The RFP is expected to be released at the end of November. • Fundraising efforts are ongoing. The Signature Trails Action Team was created to identify and collectively support the development and ongoing maintenance of priority signature trail systems that have the potential to be world-class and, when completed, will make a major difference in Oregon. Recent updates include: • The work around utilizing the Oregon Coast Trail (OCT) to demonstrate the concept and components of a signature trail is continuing. The action team is preparing to seek proposals for the mock digital guidebook project, with the goal of depicting the vision of a completed OCT with integrated services including transportation, online booking with tour operators, etc. Oregon Outdoor Recreation Summit Travel Oregon is preparing to host the second annual Oregon Outdoor Recreation Summit which is planned for May 13-14, 2019 in Bend. The Summit will again be in partnership with OPRD and Oregon State University and will aim to bring all sectors of Oregon’s outdoor recreation industry together to learn, share, and network.
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Oregon Trails Summit Travel Oregon’s Product Development team sponsored and participated in the 2018 Oregon Trails Summit in Bend on October 4-5. The two-day summit brought together Oregon’s trails community of activists, users, land managers and stewards to learn, build relationships, and find solutions to the challenges faced in developing and maintaining trails networks in Oregon.
Following the Trails Summit was the first official meeting of the Oregon Trails Coalition, a new cooperative body of broad-based, statewide trail interests dedicated to supporting, promoting, and advocating for the preservation, development, and stewardship of a statewide network of sustainable, world class trails.
Outdoor Recreation Sessions at the Annual People’s Coast Summit The Destination Development team facilitated two Outdoor Recreation sessions at the People’s Coast Summit in Waldport on October 9-10: Fundamentals of Developing Awesome Community-based Outdoor Recreation Products and Assets and Building High Quality Outdoor Recreation Product for Guides and Outfitters. Both sessions sought to provide Summit attendees with information about product development concepts to apply to exploring strategies of improving local product and guided experiences throughout the Oregon Coast.
BICYCLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT Fat Biking on the Oregon Coast Travel Oregon partnered with the Oregon Coast Visitors Association to develop a series of fat biking experiences along the Oregon Coast. As a year-round opportunity, Travel Oregon is excited to provide visitors access to 12 fat biking routes between Brookings and Astoria, along with recommendations for rentals and shuttle services along each route. The series is broken into three geographical sections across the Southern, Central and Northern Oregon Coast. Each fat bike route includes a link to Ride with GPS where users can download GPS files before their trip.
For more information, to review brochures for each section or to learn more about all 12 rides, visit TravelOregon.com/fatbike.
CULINARY & AGRITOURISM DEVELOPMENT Oregon Agritourism Network During the Oregon Agritourism Coordination Meeting in July, a Steering Committee was formed to guide the priorities established by the Network forward. The Steering Committee held its first meeting on October 2nd, during which a definition of agritourism and a purpose statement for the Steering Committee were drafted and continue to be refined. The meeting summary including the draft definition and purpose statement can be found on the Industry website. The Steering Committee met again on November 9th to finalize the agreements for the Committee’s work, take the next step on interagency collaboration and begin planning
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the Oregon Agritourism Network meeting scheduled for February 22, 2019, in Corvallis and two agritourism sessions to be presented at the OSU Small Farms Conference on February 23.
Implement industry leading visitor information network
WELCOME CENTERS
Oregon Welcome Center total visitors for Q1 were down 17% compared to 2017, mainly due to the high visitors for the eclipse last year and wildfires this year. • The Klamath Falls Welcome Center (ODOT Midland Safety Rest Area, Hwy. 97) was down 53% in August 2018 compared to August 2017 • Welcome Center at PDX was down by 50% in August 2018 compared to August 2017. • Oregon City Welcome Center (End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center) visitation increased by 110% in August 2018 compared to August 2017 due to events celebrating the 175th Anniversary of the Oregon Trail.
Visitor Information Training and Education State Welcome Center staff attended the annual season debrief meeting in Joseph, Oregon on September 27 – October 1. The agenda included: digital guestbook tablet performance results; data collection goals for the 2019 season; best practices on digital guestbook visitor engagement; visitor feedback about the marketing campaign and the impact of campaign collateral; overview of the Fall campaign; welcome center brochure program performance; visitor inquiry trends and potential resources needed to support those.
The team also experienced local attractions first-hand during a familiarization (FAM) tour, which helps center staff to more effectively serve visitors. FAM stops included the Wallowa Lake Tramway,
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Wallowa County Museum, Sunrise Iron Museum, Joseph Branch Railway, and a foundry tour of Valley Bronze. While in the area, the team also surprised visitors at AlpenFest with Wallowas posters.
Ashland Welcome Center: The current project schedule from ODOT and Adroit (the construction contractor) estimates the welcome center building will be complete by April 12, 2019. Travel Oregon’s interior installation will take place after that date, and the work will take approximately 1-2 weeks according to our design firm Mayer/Reed. The potential soft opening date is April 26, 2019, provided the construction schedule stays on track. Meanwhile, Travel Oregon and Mayer/Reed will continue to move forward on final design plans.
Fulfillment In September, after a successful RFP process, the Travel Oregon team signed a three-year agreement with a new fulfillment vendor. We are pleased to announce that we are now working with Source Logistics, LLC. We are excited to partner with a local Oregon company, and feel that Source Logistics will be a great addition to our Travel Oregon family. Their knowledge and background in the shipping world will allow us to efficiently get our visitor guide into the hands of travelers across the globe.
Our fulfillment vendor has the unique opportunity to speak directly to potential travelers and can have a large impact on their trip planning process. Over the next six months we will be working closely with Source Logistics to expand our marketing platform and increase engagement with our consumers.
Fully realize statewide, strategic integration of OTIS (Oregon Tourism Information System)
OREGON TOURISM INFORMATION SYSTEM (OTIS) Enhancements + Support The team made enhancements to the platform (e.g. refining helper copy, error messages, updating bulk templates, bug fixes, etc.) and began sending a weekly digest email notifying users of unread messages and listing changes. The team has also been working on refining scripts to aid in the creation of helper videos and is hoping to release videos in Q2.
Partnerships Oregon Wine Board The team has been working for much of the past year to establish a single source of winery and tasting room listing data and to define a process to support that source. Working in
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partnership with wine industry stakeholders6, the team concluded the source of this data should be the Oregon Wine Board and that we should leverage its print guide outreach efforts to gather updates for both its database and OTIS.
Precedent for this process exists with the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association (ORLA). ORLA provides outreach services to lodging properties annually, on behalf of Travel Oregon, to ensure accuracy for the printed Travel Oregon Visitor Guide. Taking this process further, the team is working with the OWB to create an API integration, which would allow OTIS to receive regular updates. The frequency has yet to be determined, but the hope is that the team can leverage learnings from this process and apply them to the lodging process in 2019/20.
The team is targeting having the OWB and OTIS integration live by the end of Q2.
Travefy 7 Travefy functionality includes a content library for lodging, attractions, tours and other points of interest, which are used to build out itineraries. There is duplication between the content library in Travefy and listings in OTIS, and the team is looking to integrate OTIS with the Travefy content library to reduce the amount of rework between platforms.
This project began in August and is currently testing the API. The hope is to solidify an integration plan and timeline in Q2.
Integrations • Visit Seaside integrated events from OTIS into its website • Oregon’s Adventure Coast launched its newly redesigned website, leveraging events and restaurants from OTIS
Trainings The team trained 27 people (22 partners + 5 staff) in Q1 via webinar. We will continue monthly webinars in Q2 and add an in-person training opportunity for the next round of RARE participants (Resource Assistance for Rural Environments).
6 Stakeholders include representatives from the Oregon Wine Board, Willamette Valley Wineries Association, Willamette Valley Visitors Association, and Visit McMinnville. 7 Travefy is a software platform Travel Oregon uses to collaborate with RDMOs to create media and travel trade familiarization (FAM) itineraries
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Deploy tourism programs (e.g. RCTP, Competitive Grants) in a powerful way that fulfills unique opportunities and challenges as defined by the tourism industry
WILDFIRE RESPONSE Cross-Functional Wildfire Team Considering the continuing need for wildfire response, Travel Oregon convened a cross- functional team with representatives from each department to strategize ways that Travel Oregon can assist our industry partners affected by fire and how to mitigate negative perceptions caused by media coverage of the fires. The team collaborated and executed the following tactics to further support and empower our partners during and after wildfires: • In early August, as firefighting resources were stretched thin throughout the state, Travel Oregon led efforts to join with state partners (Office of Emergency Management, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, Oregon Department of Forestry, Oregon Health Authority, and more) to urge caution around man-made fires. The effort resulted in four stories. State partners attributed a 10 percent decline in man-made fires in August due to this collaborative effort as referenced in the Bend Bulletin. (Link to the press release is in the Industry Communications section) • Travel Oregon also partnered with Visit California and Washington State to form the West Coast Tourism Recovery Coalition and organized a press conference to announce the newly formed coalition and address misperceptions about wildfires in the region. This joint effort is not only beneficial for the western region, but it also caught the media’s attention (48 stories) with coverage picked up by the Associated Press (and regionally in all three states). The coalition story was also popular among radio journalists, with a number of radio broadcasts resulting from a nationwide NPR pick up. All stories included numbers from Travel Oregon’s 2017 wildfire impact study and the $51 million in losses. In addition, the coalition worked together to create a website called West Coast Travel Facts that addresses accurate fire stats, fire and smoke resources, along with inspirational trip ideas. (More wildfire coverage is included in the Industry Communications section below.)
Natural Disaster Co-Op • This past summer, Travel Oregon released a Natural Disaster co-op to regional partners designed to support impacted communities. The co-op was developed to create responsive marketing programs that are community/region specific to aid those impacted. Natural disasters occur throughout the state and can have devastating impacts on tourism regions and the community. By missing a few weeks of visitor traffic, there can be extreme financial impacts which affect employment and community readiness for future seasons. • The programming is driven by the region and community closest to the source, so the outcomes are appropriate and impactful.
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o When a region or community is in the “recovery” stage following a natural disaster, the regional lead submits a program brief to the Travel Oregon team. o Travel Oregon then creates a marketing program and works with the regional partner. Throughout the process, Travel Oregon works as project manager running the program through media buy and fulfilling content/creative needs. • Travel Southern Oregon (TSO) partnered with a buy-in and requested a program to drive room nights to make up for lost overnights in July and August. o Travel Oregon facilitated a buy with Expedia that ran 9/13/18 – 10/29/18 o Travel Oregon matched TSO’s buy at 50%, and Expedia matched the overall buy 1:1. This allowed TSO’s original budget of $15,000 to become a $45,000 buy.
Wildfire Video We shared the wildfire video at the September Commission Briefing, the day before it launched on social media. The distribution strategy for the video was to reach the most appropriate audience and share educational messages. The results were the following: • 155,634 video views • 1,529 clicks to the What You Need to Know about Wildfires page • 2,225 likes, comments and shares
We will continue to use this video next spring and summer.
Wildfire Visitor Perception Study The goal of this study is to understand how recent travel seasons in Oregon were impacted by wildfires and how wildfire smoke impacted visitor experience, perception of the state as a destination, and future travel plans. The survey will field after the 2018 wildfire season, and results will be available in Spring 2019.
Wildfire Industry Coverage The wildfire season garnered the bulk of this quarter’s industry coverage. Travel Oregon was able to use the media attention to highlight impacted areas as premier vacation destinations by including strong calls-to-action urging readers and viewers to support their fellow Oregonians by traveling to impacted areas once the fires and smoke subsided. An excellent example is a quote from an article that ran on KATU.com, “Wildfires, smoke taking its toll on Oregon tourism”: “Southern Oregon’s economy has been hit especially hard by wildfires, much like the Columbia River gorge towns still recovering from last year’s Eagle Creek Fire. Travel Oregon says a visit there in the fall would not only make a great vacation for you and your family, but it would give the region a much-needed economic boost.”
Wildfire coverage also resulted from a press release from Senators Wyden and Merkley urging Travel Oregon to undertake another wildfire impact study following the 2018 fire season. This garnered coverage all over the state, most notably on KATU and KOIN.
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REGIONAL COOPERATIVE TOURISM PROGRAM Finalized RCTP Guidelines On October 4, 2018, the Oregon Tourism Commission adopted a revised set of RCTP Guidelines that will help govern and guide the development of the Regional Cooperative Tourism Program into the future. The finalized guidelines can be viewed on the industry site here. The updated guidelines go into effect with the next biennium, RCTP RFP applicants were asked to reference the 2019-2021 RCTP program guidelines.
RCTP Request for Proposals Per the RFP/RFQ cycle determined by the Oregon Tourism Commission in October 2016, Travel Oregon is looking to fill the role of Regional Destination Management Organization (RDMO) for each of its seven tourism regions via RFP. The goal of this RFP is to designate the RDMO for each region who will carry out the work of the Regional Cooperative Tourism Program for up to a six-year term based on three, two-year contracts.
The RFP asks applicants to develop a two-year tourism marketing, development, sales, strategic partnerships and staffing strategy for the Oregon tourism region their entity is applying for. All plans must be in alignment with RCTP Guidelines, Travel Oregon’s Strategic Plan and stakeholder feedback from the 2018 Regional Tourism Engagement Survey. The application closes on December 28, 2018. Applicants will be assessed by a committee of Travel Oregon staff, an external review committee, and final decisions regarding the RFP will be determined by the Oregon Tourism Commission at the February 2019 Commission Meeting.
Menu of Investment Opportunities As we approach the next biennium planning cycle, Travel Oregon teams have been hard at work developing their upcoming regional programming as part of the Menu of Investment Opportunities. Travel Oregon teams combined to develop 83 unique partnership opportunities for our RDMO partners. The 2019-2021 Investment Opportunities is now available to view on Travel Oregon’s industry site on the industry site here.
To ensure RDMO partners are leveraging their work with Travel Oregon’s ongoing strategic imperatives and reinforce a cohesive and thorough statewide tourism strategy, RDMOs are encouraged to invest in a minimum of 20% of their total annual disbursement (budget) into collaborative programming via the Menu of Investment Opportunities that is executed in cooperation with Travel Oregon.
COMPETITIVE GRANTS 2018-2019 Competitive Small Grants On October 17, 2018, Travel Oregon awarded 23 projects a total of $348,640 during its annual Competitive Small Grants cycle (requests up to $20,000). All seven regions were awarded funding with Eastern Oregon and the Willamette Valley topping the list with six projects. Multiple applicants utilized feedback provided during the Competitive Medium
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Grants cycle to submit a more competitive Small Grant application, which in turn was awarded funding. View the awardee list on the industry site here..
Upcoming Fund Cycles • Travel Oregon will administer the 2019-2020 Oregon Wine Country Plates Matching Grants Program with applications open from January 23, 2019- February 22, 2019. The award announcement is set for April 24, 2019. • Travel Oregon’s 2019-2020 Competitive Small Grants program will accept applications from May 20, 2019-June 19, 2019. The award announcement is set for September 12, 2019.
Meet the Funders Travel Oregon’s Grants Manager will be attending a “Meet the Funders” roundtable discussion on November 15, 2018 in Salem hosted by the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF). Funders from OCF, Oregon Cultural Trust, Oregon Arts Commission and the Dallas Community Foundation will also be on hand to present funding opportunities for non-profit entities. Travel Oregon continues to build relationships with other funding entities to create awareness about its grants program and strengthen opportunities for collaboration.
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CHAMPION THE VALUE OF TOURISM
Grow and align strategic partnerships to leverage resources and capacity to address key issues
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Global Microsite/Subsite Translation work is nearing completion on the Road Trips page on the global microsite (now called subsite). Once translations are done in mid to late November, consumers will have videos featuring Brand USA talent and itineraries to access more locations, businesses, and treasures near Oregon’s 7 Wonders in all seven regions of the state. At a similar date in November, a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign supported by Miles Partnerships and MediaCom will go live targeting audiences in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Mexico. A couple new content and resource pages will be developed this Winter and will go live in Spring 2019.
Built Up Festival Travel Oregon was excited to return as a sponsor of the Built Up Festival – an event to celebrate the makers, brands, and regions that together, create Oregon’s unique consumer product tapestry. The sponsorship allowed our team the opportunity to present at key community events throughout the festival, which has helped develop new partnership and content opportunities. An example of a community event Travel Oregon had the opportunity to present was “The Present is Female – How Oregon Female Founders Continue to Reshape the World.” We look forward to supporting Oregon’s consumer product eco-system to help position Oregon as the leader of consumer product entrepreneurship and innovation.
2018 OEDA Conference Travel Oregon had the opportunity to attend the state’s Oregon Economic Development Association’s (OEDA) Annual Conference. This year, the Annual Conference took place in Klamath Falls – Oregon’s City of Sunshine – at the beautiful Running Y Ranch Resort. Over two days, our team gained the latest knowledge on tools, programs, and connections to drive economic resiliency and growth in communities around the state. Travel Oregon has a seat on the OEDA Board. This is an opportunity to partner and work alongside statewide leaders to spearhead OEDA’s efforts. Lisa Itel, Director, Strategic Partnership development currently fills that board position.
2018 Grantmakers Conference Travel Oregon attended the 2018 GRANTMAKERS of Oregon and Southwest Washington. This year’s conference took place on September 26-28, 2018 at Spirit Mountain Casino and Lodge in Grande Ronde, Oregon. This was an opportunity to engage with potential funding partners and develop funding innovations throughout Oregon. The conference allowed our team to build a stronger relationship with the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) and
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continuing the conversation to learn how we can work more collaboratively together in support of Oregon.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS 2018 Utah Tourism Conference The Utah Office of Tourism invited Travel Oregon’s Destination Development team to speak at its annual Utah Conference on Tourism. Alexa Carey, Community-Based Services Specialist at Travel Oregon, led an afternoon case-study style session on Travel Oregon’s Oregon Tourism Studio program. The Utah Office of Tourism is developing a program that supports ‘rourism’ - rural tourism. After hearing about the impact of the Oregon Tourism Studios, their leadership was interested in having Travel Oregon share how this program helps communities, especially in rural areas, cultivate regional visions; identify strategies to harness the power of tourism; develop unique visitor experiences; and build resilient regional tourism networks. This session highlights how another western state is developing destinations using customizable training programs that meet each community’s specific needs. Alexa’s presentation highlighted the history of the studios, the process for development and delivery, as well as the necessary support needed to create change through intentional, impactful follow-up efforts. This presentation through Travel Oregon received the highest positive marks and reviews of the Utah Tourism Conference.
2018 Hawaii Global Tourism Summit The Hawaii Tourism Authority invited Travel Oregon’s Destination Development team to speak at its 2018 Global Tourism Summit in Honolulu. Kristin Dahl, VP of Destination Development served as a panelist for the ‘Managing the Destination – Finding a Balance for Residents and Visitors’ session along with Kim Langmaid, Founder and VP, Walking Mountains Science Center, Vail, Colorado; and Michele Nekota, Director, Parks and Recreation for the City and County of Honolulu. The session focused on addressing economic, environmental and social impacts associated with tourism destinations. Panelists shared best practices and discussed ways to uphold residents’ quality of life, environmental health while continuing to offer a positive visitor experience. The session was well-attended with over 100 people in the room.
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Empower and equip Oregon’s tourism industry with power of travel and issue-oriented messages
INDUSTRY COMMUNICATIONS Global Communications: Industry Coverage
In Q1, Travel Oregon placed 248 stories with a circulation sum of 247.7 million and an average story score of 7.7 out of 10. Because of more local, regional and radio coverage, circulation decreased 21% and story score was down 8.3% compared to last year. While a decrease in circulation and story score may not seem ideal, the communications team was pleased with local coverage, where audiences are smaller, but generally more engaged. Some examples of stories and specific efforts are below.
TheWorldLink.com published its annual “South Coast Strong” series with three articles relating to the tourism economy and its positive economic impact (“South Coast community comes together with tourism economy vision” “On the trail to success,” and “Cycling grows on the South Coast”).
Press Release 7/23/18 “Travel Oregon Awards $853,000 to Local Tourism Projects” 8/14/18 “Oregon Agencies Join Forces to Help Prevent Forest Fires” 8/21/18 “Wagons Ho! Take a Lyft on the Travel Oregon Trail.”
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Industry Website Users In Q1 11,651 people visited the industry site, down 10% from the same time period last year. While users spent more time on site, page views were down 4% from last year. The average session duration increased 17.75% (from an average of two minutes in 2017 to two and a half minutes in 2018). Because page views were down but time spent has increased, users likely found the information they needed from the site without jumping from page to page.
The top ten most visited pages on the industry site have consistently been the following: the homepage; matching grants program; contact page; governor’s conference; registration for governor’s conference; press room’s fast facts about Oregon; industry resources; research; and the homepage of the press room.
In Q1, our newsletter subscriber list grew to 4,378, a 5% increase from Q1 last year. We continued to see a strong open rate averaging 30-35%. We consistently received positive responses to our general and niche (Outdoor Rec, Culinary & Agritourism, Bicycle, Destination Development) newsletters. Our most read newsletters tend to be grant related and/or present an opportunity to our partners and have a specific call to action. We saw an increase in readership for Breaking News compared to our general newsletters.
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RUN AN EFFECTIVE BUSINESS
Attract, develop and retain top talent
STAFFING Recruitment Update Our Operations team successfully completed their search for an Office Manager – Gracia Camizzi joined our team on October 1st. Gracia brings well-rounded experience in office management and general business operations, including work related to financial management and HR initiatives. Gracia most recently worked for local non-profit St. Andrews Legal Clinic, where she oversaw finances, managed the office, and worked to support the staff, board and clients.
Additionally, our search to fill the Operations Coordinator position (vacated when Beth Albany transferred to Integrated Marketing) was just completed. Nicholas Hindman was selected to fill the role and will join our team on December 1st. Nicholas has a strong background in supporting general business operations with roles focused on accounting, customer service, and the implementation of business systems and procedures. Nicholas has been supporting our accounting team in a temporary capacity and we look forward to his joining us full-time.
As noted in our last report, we have begun the process of building and refining job descriptions and expect recruiting to take place before the end of the calendar year for additional roles that were budgeted and approved for 2017-19 (VLM Coordinator within the Global Marketing department, and Manager of Community-Based Services within the Destination Development team).
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION (DEI) INITIATIVES Travel Oregon has selected a consultant (Michael Hulshof-Schmidt with EqualityWorks NW) to guide us forward with this important area of work, which will inform our 2019-21 Strategic Plan and help us approach our work through an equity lens. In October, focus groups were conducted to assess how Travel Oregon understands equity, allowing Michael to establish a baseline for designing training for our team. Training sessions take place in late November through mid-December.
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Continuously review, improve and document policies and processes/procedures
INTERNAL WORKGROUPS As noted in previous reports, our annual staff survey resulted in the identification of three key focus areas for improvement: 1. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (Teresa O’Neill) 2. Policies & Procedures (Jeff Hampton) 3. Effective Meetings (Kevin Wright)
Each focus area was sponsored by an Executive Leadership team member and cross- functional, volunteer teams were formed. Two of the areas defined (Policies & Procedures and Effective Meetings) have concluded their review, while work in the area of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion has launched with all staff input and training sessions (see above).
Measure and drive employee engagement and satisfaction
CLARIFYING OUR VALUES Travel Oregon is engaging all staff in the development and refinement of updating our agency values. The work began with input received via all staff surveys and continued with targeted exercises during a recent strategic planning session. We intend to complete the work by the end of January.
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