Oregon Tourism Commission
Staff Report | April 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 ...... 7 Guide tourism in a way that achieves the optimal balance of visitation, economic impact, natural resources conservation and livability ...... 10 Inspire overnight leisure travel through industry-leading branding, marketing and communications ...... 10 Support and Empower Oregon’s Tourism Industry ...... 39 Provide development and training opportunities to meet the evolving tourism industry needs ...... 39 Implement industry leading visitor information network ...... 46 Fully realize statewide, strategic integration of OTIS (Oregon Tourism Information System) ...... 47 Deploy tourism programs (e.g. RCTP, Competitive Grants) in a powerful way that fulfills unique opportunities and challenges as defined by the tourism industry ...... 48 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 ...... 52 Run an Effective Business ...... 53 Attract, develop and retain top talent ...... 53 Continuously review, improve and document policies and processes/procedures ...... 54 Improve internal alignment amongst Travel Oregon departments ...... 55 Measure and drive employee engagement and satisfaction ...... 55
April Commission Meeting Bend, 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 Mountain Travel Symposium: South Lake Tahoe, CA, April 8-14 Travel Oregon along with representatives from Oregon hotel properties, Oregon’s Mt. Hood Territory and Central Oregon Visitors Association attended the Mountain Travel Symposium in South Lake Tahoe this March. Mountain Travel Symposium is the largest and longest running annual gathering of mountain travel professionals in the world, with more than 1,100 representatives from 35+ countries. Travel Oregon met with 20+ tour operators promoting Oregon ski product to international buyers.
Receptive Tour Operator (RTO) Summit East: New York City, NY, April 16-19 RTO Summit East is a marketplace and conference bringing together receptive tour operators with destinations and suppliers for one-on one marketplace meetings and industry educational tracks. Travel Oregon will meet with 10 receptive tour operators mainly servicing European and South American markets.
National Tour Association (NTA) Contact: Charleston, SC, April 18 -21 Travel Oregon attended NTA Contact, an exclusive buyer event that blends business, education and fun in an intimate setting. Contact fosters buyer-to-buyer conversation and partnerships and allows tour operators, travel agents and sponsoring suppliers and DMOs to connect, create and collaborate in a three-day program. Travel Oregon will have a joint sponsorship with Travel Portland which includes prominent logo placement on key cards to keep Oregon top of mind with attendees. Travel Oregon will meet with North American tour operators either currently selling or looking to include Oregon in their tour itineraries.
AeroMexico Mission: Mexico City, April 23-26 Travel Oregon and key industry partners will join the Port of Portland to attend their sales mission to Mexico to support the new nonstop service to Mexico City on AeroMexico. The mission will include meetings with AeroMexico representatives, the Brand USA Mexico office, media and other international travel partners to discuss future partnership opportunities to promote the nonstop service.
Snow Travel Expos: Melbourne & Sydney, Australia, May Travel Oregon, in partnership with Oregon’s Mt. Hood Territory, will participate in the Snow Travel Expos in Sydney and Melbourne, targeting high-value consumers interested in visiting Oregon for skiing and snowboard experiences. This opportunity also aligns with
Pg. 2 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
expo screenings of the Warren Miller film, “Line of Descent” which will be preceded by a :30 Travel Oregon winter sports focused video spot.
US Travel Association’s IPW Tradeshow: Denver, CO, May 20-23 Travel Oregon along with 14 Oregon delegates, representing every region of the state, will participate in the US Travel Association’s 50th Annual IPW. This tradeshow is the largest generator of travel to the U.S. During the event Travel Oregon partners and staff will conduct almost 300 one-on-one, business to business appointments with tour operators, wholesalers, travel buyers and media representing an array of global inbound tourism markets. In addition to official activities, Travel Oregon will host a client event for targeted buyers and media from Oregon’s key global inbound markets at Urban Farmer in Denver. Travel Oregon will also host the Chairman Circle receptions in partnership with Visit California.
Travel Alliance Partners (TAP) Dance: Atlantic City, NJ, June 4-8 Travel Oregon will lead a delegation to the Travel Alliance Partners annual conference – TAP Dance and will serve as a key sponsor. Travel Alliance Partners was officially established in 2001 and is a member-owned organization of premier tour operators in the United States and Canada. Members purchase products in a profitable fashion, pass the savings on to the consumers and increase market share with key suppliers.
RESEARCH TRIPS Delta Air Lines Sky Magazine: Japan, April 26-30 A two-person editorial team from Delta Air Lines inflight publication, Sky Magazine-Japan, visited Oregon researching and photographing print and digital editorial content for a story that that will reach an audience of 1,091,792 active Asian travelers. The magazine is in the back-seat pockets on Delta Air Lines flights throughout Asia as well as US bound flights departing from Asia. This cover/feature story will include Eugene and Portland and will focus on the World Track and Field Championships, running, trail running and unique experiences in Oregon. In addition to the regular travel/destination feature, the team is planning to interview Delta’s new brand ambassador in Oregon, Suguru Osako, a well- known Japanese runner.
Brand USA Mega Fam: United Kingdom, April 28 – May 1 Sixteen UK travel agents will participate in a Brand USA Mega Fam which included four days in Oregon. These agents are the top-selling and most engaged professionals in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They have earned these coveted spots on the MegaFam based on the volume of sales of British Airways and American Airlines flights to the United States. Over 100 agents will participate on several of these MegaFams throughout the States, and at the finale event in Nashville in May, all of the agents will have the opportunity to present their collective experiences to each other.
Pg. 3 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Jucy RV Rentals Instameet: Oceania & Canada, May 9-13 Five key influencers representing the Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. will travel to Oregon for a Jucy Instameet road trip through the state to highlight unique experiences travelers can have on a Jucy RV adventure in Oregon. An Instameet is when a group of Instagram influencers meet in-person, explore a destination and take photos together to post on their accounts. The social phenomenon is used as a destination marketing strategy as a way to generate social buzz among diverse audiences. This program has the potential to inspire an estimated 500,000 global explorers to book a Jucy RV adventure and travel to our state. Jucy RV rentals are a household name in Australasia and their expansion into the Pacific NW will drive incremental, global inbound business to the region.
Albatros Travel: Scandinavia, May 11-17 Albatros Travel is building a new 15-day tour of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana with 5-6 nights in Oregon (visiting Portland, Astoria, Klamath Falls and Crater Lake). Focus of the tour is on cultural travel and nature. Albatros Travel is based in Denmark and sells group tours to all four countries in Scandinavia as well as Poland for clientele over 60 years- old.
SNP Natuureizen: The Netherlands, May 14-27 SNP Natuureizen focuses on active holidays with attention to nature - specializing in walking holidays, cycling holidays, family holidays and active tours. A representative from SNP will be writing an extended travel itinerary in Oregon. Additionally, he will write an article about Oregon and take photos for their magazine, which will be published in December 2018 with a circulation of 35,000.
Pre-IPW Dutch Tour Operator Fam: The Netherlands, May 15-19 Prior to IPW in Denver, Travel Oregon in partnership with Travel Portland will host a group of top tour operators from The Netherlands. This group will explore areas featured in the 2017 season of the popular Dutch TV show “Wie is de Mol?”, regions include Portland, Mt.Hood, the Columbia River Gorge, Central Oregon and Eastern Oregon.
Post-IPW Buitengewoon Reizen: The Netherlands, May 24 Director of Buitengewoon Reizen, a Dutch tour operator selling Oregon travel is visiting Oregon for the first time. She will be scouting wheelchair accessible lodging and activities in all seven regions for her customers.
Delta Air Lines UK Tour Operator Fam: United Kingdom, May 30 – June 5 In partnership with Delta Air Lines and in support of the nonstop airline service between London (Heathrow) and Portland, Travel Oregon is hosting eight top UK operators. The product managers and senior sales staff, are from agencies that are selling Oregon itineraries such as Kuoni, American Sky, Flight Centre, North America Travel Service, Trailfinders and Travelbag. They will be touring the Portland Region, Central and Southern Oregon and the Coast.
Pg. 4 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
MEDIA FAMS LIKE Vancouver & Viva Lifestyle : Canada, April 7-9 A journalist on confirmed assignment for LIKE Vancouver and Viva Lifestyle and Travel traveled to Oregon via 2018 BMW 530e Plug-in Hybrid for a feature on Portland and the Tualatin Valley. This story will focus on a road trip/long weekend getaway for affluent Vancouverites with a focus on eco-conscious luxury travel. This media trip was generated from the recent Canadian Sales Mission, which included participation from Washington County Visitors Association and Travel Oregon among other Oregon partners.
UK Mail on Sunday: United Kingdom, May 7-12 In partnership with America As You Like It, Travel Oregon will host a prominent English actor who writes regular travel articles in The Mail on Sunday and has been commissioned to write a double-page Pacific Coast road trip feature, starting in Seattle and ending in California. The Mail on Sunday is a weekly publication with a circulation of 1.4 million. The travel piece will focus on a Pacific Coast road trip, but there is a particular interest in Portland due to the authors’ title as the 12th Earl of Portland. Other focuses are local festivals and quirky locations/experiences.
Guidebook Authors & Influencers: Germany, May 8-19 Two German guide book authors, photographers and social media influencers will be hosted by Travel Oregon and regional partners to visit Portland, the Columbia River Gorge, the Willamette Valley and Astoria. They will be featuring these locations in several new travel guide books and a blog. There will also be an opportunity for hotels to be included in the special hotel section of America Journal. Focus is on new developments, attractions, restaurants, tours, hotels, etc. In addition to America Journal, the publications they will be writing for are: CityTrip PORTLAND, Iwanowski’s USA Westen and Nordweste, Iwanowski's Reiseblog.
Dark Sky Project, Jeff Bartlett: Canada, May 16-23 Jeff Bartlett Media will visit Oregon this May for a large Dark Sky photography and video shoot to curate a North American Top-5 list. Dark Sky locations are identified for the absence of light pollution, which creates ideal conditions to see the night sky. The Top-5 list is aimed to inspire people to travel to these locations and see the night sky in a way that isn't possible where most people live. They’ve selected the Alvord Desert in Oregon as one of the locations, as it has some of the lowest light-polluted skies in the continental USA. While in destination, they will capture a wide variety of video and photography assets that will be used for editorial content in publications such as the LA Times, National Geographic, GEO Magazine and the Toronto Star.
Food & Wine Magazine Mexico: late May Travel Oregon will host a journalist from Food & Wine Magazine Mexico in partnership with Brand USA, as part of its Mega Media Venture (MMV) - “50 Journalists in 50+ Destinations.” This trip will highlight Oregon’s culinary scene focusing on Portland the surrounding areas.
Pg. 5 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
MEDIA EXPOSURE GEO Magazine: France, March The French edition of GEO Magazine issued a 16-page article about Oregon titled “Oregon, the New Promised Land”. The article highlights Oregon’s natural wonders and their impact on both the local population and visitors. All of Oregon’s seven regions are featured in this story with a focus on the unique variety of landscapes and how the local population and nature are intertwined. GEO Magazine (French edition) is a monthly magazine with a circulation of 175,000 and 3,681,000 readers per month; estimated ad value for the coverage is $585,280. An online version of the article is available here.
Nippon Television Interview: Japan, April Todd Davidson was interviewed for the Nippon Television (Japan) Network’s “Zoom In” Saturday morning news program. The interview focused on Travel Oregon’s Spring 2018 “Only Slightly Exaggerated” campaign and ninety-second animated featurette. Nippon TV is recognized as Japan’s viewer ratings champion having topped all timeslot categories for four consecutive years. This outstanding opportunity will reach an estimated 12,072,237 television viewers throughout Japan and provides exposure to key traveler demographic.
NEW PRODUCT Syltours, France Syltours, a French tour operator, released the first ever French-guided motor coach tour in Oregon as part of their 2018 tour program. The nine-day itinerary features overnights in Portland, Pendleton, Baker City, Bend, Roseburg, and Newport and includes many culinary and cultural experiences throughout the state. See appendix for tour itinerary.
Pg. 6 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Facilitate the development of world-class tourism product in partnership with community leaders, tourism businesses and key agencies
Central Coast Fat Bike Brochure Travel Oregon and the Oregon Coast Visitors Association recently partnered to develop a brochure that highlights fat biking opportunities along the Central Oregon Coast. This is the second of a three-part series to promote fat biking along the Southern, Central and Northern Oregon coasts. The Southern Oregon Coast brochure was completed at the end of 2017.
Four fat biking routes were identified between Lincoln City and Yachats that range from a 3.7-mile family friendly ride to a 27.6-mile ride for very strong riders. As part of the project Travel Oregon also worked with Safari Surf Town in Lincoln City to provide bike rentals, and Bike Newport in Newport to provide bike rentals and shuttle services for the four rides.
The Central Coast Fat Bike Brochure is now available in all state welcome centers and in 265 hotels brochure racks along the entire Oregon coast. You can review the four Central Oregon fat bike routes and a set of corresponding trip ideas on TravelOregon.com/fatbike.
2018 Oregon Scenic Bikeway Map Travel Oregon and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department recently partnered on an update to the Oregon Scenic Bikeways map. The 2018 map includes the newly designated Oregon Outback Scenic Bikeway, the Sherar’s Falls Scenic Bikeway and the Crooked River Canyon Scenic Bikeway.
Pg. 7 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
In addition to providing a map of the state with all 17 Oregon Scenic Bikeways and photos and descriptions of each route, the map includes a short link to review the route on TravelOregon.com. Each TravelOregon.com route page includes a link to access a GPS file and map and cue sheet for riders to execute trips safely.
The 2018 Oregon Scenic Bikeways map is now available in all state welcome centers, on TravelOregon.com and through the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Screenshots from the new map are provided below. You can learn more about the Oregon Scenic Bikeway program at RideOregonRide.com/Bikeways.
Pg. 8 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Oregon Scenic Bikeway Patches Travel Oregon recently developed a program to make it easier for local communities to leverage the unique brand and logo that has been developed for each of the 17 Oregon Scenic Bikeways. Now, local proponents along each Oregon Scenic Bikeway can partner with Travel Oregon to develop iron on patches that are specific to each bikeway.
Modeled as a cooperative marketing opportunity, Travel Oregon will share 25% of the cost of printing up to 500 patches in partnership with local bikeway proponents. For example, the Wild Rivers Coast bikeway proponents placed an order for 500 Wild Rivers Coast patches for inclusion into rider packets for an upcoming Wild Rivers Coast Scenic Bikeway event this coming September.
Mt. Hood/Sandy/Estacada Visitor Profile Study The primary objective of the visitor profile study research is to provide information about visitors to Mt. Hood area (which includes Estacada, Sandy, Government Camp, and the villages along Highway 26) for strategic marketing, destination development and management efforts. This research also describes the transportation preferences of visitors which will influence future transportation planning efforts for “around-the-mountain” slated to start in fall of 2018. Variables of interest: • Visitor Demographics (age, gender, local vs. tourist, income)
Pg. 9 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
• Travel Characteristics (type, frequency, length, day vs. overnight, lodging type, spending, origin) • Current and future transportation choices Survey collection status: • Goal: 1000 intercept surveys by the end of June 2018, including surveys during the winter, spring and summer seasons • Data collection started Saturday, March 3 • Completed survey totals: 220 intercept surveys • Locations include: o Mount Hood Skibowl o Mount Hood Meadows o Mount Hood Express (on the bus and at bus stops) o Timberline o Mount Hood/Meadows Park & Ride (on the bus and at the bus stops) o Milo McIver Park in Estacada o Joe’s Donuts in Sandy o Other locations around town in Sandy, Estacada and Government Camp The results of the study will be compiled by RRC Associates and are expected by July 30, 2018.
Guide tourism in a way that achieves the optimal balance of visitation, economic impact, natural resources conservation and livability
TRAVEL OREGON FOREVER Travel Oregon Forever Fund 2017 was another very strong year for the Travel Oregon Forever Fund. The 20 Forever Fund Business Partners raised $42,886 from Oregon visitors throughout the year. Total 2017 funding represents a 28% increase over 2016.
In March 2018, each of the seven 2016-2017 Forever Fund projects received $6,127 from the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF).
Inspire overnight leisure travel through industry-leading branding, marketing and communications
WINTER MARKETING CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW This winter, we ran the following marketing promotions that worked together to achieve different objectives: • Travel Oregon: The Game (TOTG) on TravelOregon.com
Pg. 10 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
• Winter Passage: An Oregon Retrospective - A full format video with ski and snowboard cutdowns on The Enthusiastic Network (TEN) 1
Travel Oregon: The Game TEN (Ski Film) Timing Oct. 26 - Dec. 16, 2017 Oct. 20 - Dec. 31, 2017 Story Broad Niche Markets Niche (Oregon) Broad (Mountain states, West Coast) Visitor Lifecycle Phase Inspiration, planning, booking Inspiration Budget $1,209,500 $160,000
The following flowchart displays the paid media campaign elements:
Media Objectives • Promote the range of winter activities and regions within Oregon Media Strategies • Drive awareness and encourage game play with high impact video/display and audio • Leverage content partners for deeper storytelling and contextual alignment • Capture lower funnel demand through travel intent targeting and OTA partnerships
1 The Enthusiast Network (TEN) is the largest media outlet for action sports in the United States.
Pg. 11 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Media Target • Oregon and drive markets • Active Adventurer, 25-64
Media Results Overview Below is a recap of our performance by channel. • Premium digital video performed well due to content placement in front of full episode players (FEPs) and natural viewing environments (such as Hulu). o Video completion rate (VCR) was 97.4%, which was higher than the industry average (78.2%) and our 2016 winter Oregon Weather Compass campaign (91.8%). • Digital display and programmatic video continued to drive efficient clicks. Many of our display placements were adjacent to video content, which proved to be an effective strategy. o Average click through rate for all partners ended at 0.35%, which was above the industry average (0.10%) and Spring 2016 campaign (0.16%). • We tested digital radio, which was a new advertising channel for us. Our buy with Pandora drove a 0.09% click-through rate (CTR), which was slightly below the industry average of 0.10%. • Our custom content partnership with Atlas Obscura and Buzzfeed performed well. Buzzfeed led the way with a 1.08% CTR, which was our highest CTR across all mediums. o Our Atlas Obscura list page had a time on page of 1:57, which beat its benchmark of 1:37. • Our OTA partnerships with Expedia and TripAdvisor performed well for us. o On Expedia, we generated 62,190 room nights on the custom landing page. o The TripAdvisor buy showed a 0.12% clickthrough rate, which was better than the industry average of 0.1%. • Paid search for the campaign performed well. Compared to last year’s traffic from paid search, our bounce rate was down 47% to 31%, pages/session was up 754% to 19.98 and our cost per click was down 15.1% to $0.79.
Attribution Partners2 For the winter campaign, we tested two new attribution partners which looked at bookings and arrivals based off people who were exposed to our paid media. 1. Arrivalist – We upgraded to its new A3 product, which tracked arrivals to and within Oregon using cell phone GPS data. We are one of six state DMOs testing this new product.
2 “Attribution partners” determine which ad-serving media partners attribute to bookings and/or arrivals to Oregon
Pg. 12 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
• According to initial stats from Arrivalist, our paid media during the campaign showed an average arrival lift of 58% compared to a similar control group (after removing Atlas Obscura). . Also, as this is a new product, we do not have benchmarks for comparison yet, but will use these as a baseline for future campaigns. 2. Adara – tracks hotel room bookings in Oregon • Our paid media effort drove 11,818 bookings and estimated lodging revenue of $2.6 million. . Aside from our OTA partners such as Expedia and TripAdvisor, which are naturally skewed towards bookings and combine for 82% of the bookings, Undertone and Reddit contributed the highest number of hotel bookings during the campaign period with a combined 1,190 bookings.
Advertising Key Learnings: • For digital video and display, we will continue to balance plans by coupling the awareness driven by premium video with click traffic from more engaging ad units. o Niche targeting showed higher engagement. For example, visitors from Reddit, whose audience contains techies and gamers, showed the highest average session duration on TravelOregon.com at 4:32. • Custom content (Buzzfeed and Atlas Obscura) continued to be a valuable and engaging addition to the plan. • For paid search, we need to start with a broader geo-target to gain the volume we need. Ultimately, we ended with a geo including western and mountain states combined with direct flight markets.
TOTG Social Media Performance The social approach for winter was a two-phase approach with video content from both TOTG and TEN videos used in Phase 1 to broadly reach interested audiences.
During Phase 2, we served click ads to individuals who engaged with the content from Phase 1. The strategy was to provide interested users with deeper content and a greater incentive to click through to TravelOregon.com.
Pg. 13 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Phase 1
Phase 2
As a reminder of the campaign elements, see the following flowchart:
Performance: • Phase 1 goal: Serve nearly 760,000 video views across both streams of content on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at a cost-per-view (CPV) of $0.03. o Actuals: 1,255,862 views for the TOTG content at CPV of $0.02 • Phase 2 goal: Deliver 36,000 clicks at a cost-per-click (CPC) of $0.51. o Actuals: 38,261 clicks from TOTG content at CPC of $0.47
Key Learnings • The TOTG video content consisted of :06 activity spots and :15 intro spots. Both performed well across our social platforms, however the popularity of shorter snackable content across social saw the :06 spots outperform the :15 both in terms of completions and CPV. o :06 spots had a completion rate of 72% compared to the :15 spots at 57%. o :06 spots recorded a lower CPV of $0.0145 compared to the $0.0162 CPV of the :15 spots (this was much lower than Winter 16/17 CPC of $0.65)
Pg. 14 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
• Click ads for the campaign were split between TOTG, the Oregon Trail Feature story, the Tombstone Generator and the Cool Season Adventure content series. o CPCs across click ads varied greatly with the Oregon Trail Feature story recording a CPC of $0.27, winter sweepstakes with a CPC of $0.31 and the Cool Season Adventure click ads $0.57 (Note: CPC for Winter 16/17 was $0.65).
• The real time reaction by @traveloregon on Twitter in response to the Portland Trailblazers’ dramatic last-second win over the LA Lakers was one of the most engaging tweets on record for the account (earning 265 RTs and 993 likes), showing that participating quickly to culturally significant moments for our audience is a winning strategy. • Also, it is interesting to note that despite our best efforts to add share buttons and optimize “share” moments, consumers ended up sharing the game much differently. Instead of using the share buttons or using the Tombstone Generator to create pithy tombstones, most game players shared their favorite moments and experiences as screenshots on Facebook and Twitter. While we cannot track it, we imagine a lot of this also happened via text message. Examples below:
Pg. 15 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
• Finally, our social team sent packages with the TOTG cassette and a Walkman to 23 influencers and media members. This included influencers from Twitter and Instagram as well as media at Buzzfeed, Adweek, and USA Today, among others.
TOTG Website Performance As we developed TOTG, which lived on TravelOregon.com, we had to determine our KPIs. This project was unlike anything we had built before, and we determined tombstone downloads and clicks to deeper content with the goal of week over week growth would help us track engagement and gameplay. Ultimately, the goal of week over week growth proved an inconsistent read on success as we saw a series of spikes and troughs throughout the 10- week campaign. Also, the viral nature of the campaign created an incredible spike in the first few weeks of the campaign.
Pg. 16 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Here are the final results:
Travel Oregon: The Game Results Unique visits to the game experience 550,410 Unique game plays 124,480 Tombstone downloads 4,177 Clicks to deeper content 57,008
While it is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, we compared the performance of the TOTG campaign to the Oregon Weather Compass campaign web traffic. Both campaigns focused on app/game-like programs where the users were encouraged to take a series of different actions throughout the experience. While the routes to the different actions were different, the ultimate goals between the two programs were similar.
OWC TOTG Lifetime of Campaign 10/26 - 12/27 Difference Refreshes/Plays 20,170 124,480 517% Shares/Downloads 484 4,177 763% Clicks to Deeper Content 2,092 57,008 2625%
Lastly, our website performance metrics YOY showed tremendous success. At the beginning of the campaign, we were down for website sessions 29% YOY. The structure of the game and the high-level of consumer game play allowed us to make strong gains across page engagement and volume. This campaign was unique in how it allowed us to drive engagement and volume. Typically, we see engagement or volume.
Final web results by the end of the campaign period:
YoY - All Users 2016 2017 WEEK 10 10/17 -12/27 10/20-12/28 Change Number of sessions 515,963 665,145 28.9% Number of users 412,133 508,245 23.3% Pageviews 1,039,692 9,252,139 789.9% Pages/Session 2.02 13.91 588.6% Avg Session Duration 1:48 3:05 71.3% Bounce Rate 65.69% 31.03% -52.8% % New Sessions 74.78% 72.37% -3.2%
Pg. 17 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
YoY - Engaged Users3 2016 2017 WEEK 10 10/17 -12/27 10/20-12/28 Change Number of sessions 82,274 157,890 91.9% Number of users 72,997 133,748 83.2% Pageviews 486,282 8,252,326 1597.0% Pages/Session 5.91 52.27 784.4% Avg Session Duration 10:04 12:00 19.2% % New Sessions 72.42% 72.51% 0.1%
TOTG Communications Our Communications objectives were the following: • Generate high-quality earned media coverage that highlighted Oregon’s many winter destinations, experiences and activities, along with the natural beauty of the state to raise awareness among media, influencers and consumers that Oregon is a premier winter destination with a wealth of opportunities for visitors to choose. • Boost overnight stays and visits throughout Oregon during the winter months Key media initiatives included: • Campaign press release announcement was distributed to local, regional and national media contacts, on the newswire, in addition to proactive pitching. The press release circulated on several outlets and was also quoted and/or referenced in many of the stories that covered Travel Oregon: The Game. • Broadcast outreach to local and national outlets for on-air gameplay opportunities. The Communications team coordinated feature segments throughout the campaign, including KPTV’s More Good Day Oregon which brought the game to life by displaying how to play the game on air, complete with visits to locations featured in the game, including Lompoc and Salt & Straw.
3 Engaged Users are visitors who have had two or more page visits with a time on page greater than two minutes.
Pg. 18 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
• Custom survival media mailers were sent to 15 top-tier national, regional and local media to entice them to experience the “new” Oregon Trail. The mailer items represented a play on “modern” survival kit offerings —a Poler backpack, firestarter kit, artisanal coffee, hand harvested sea salt and wood smoked jerky, as well as a Travel Oregon: The Game cassette, which highlighted the 8-bit soundtrack of the game.
Final PR Results Travel Oregon secured a total of 41 media articles featuring Travel Oregon: The Game (TOTG), reaching an audience of more than 235.9 million with an average score of 8.6/10. TOTG garnered 485% more stories and saw a 207% increase in circulation over the Oregon Weather Compass (OWC) campaign the previous year.
The OWC campaign garnered seven stories specific to the campaign, with a combined circulation of 76,811,583. The average story score was 9.7/10.
Coverage for Travel Oregon: The Game included: People, Men’s Journal, Mashable, Thrillist, Lonely Planet, and Food & Wine among many others. • Additionally, this coverage helped begin buzz for the 175th anniversary of The Oregon Trail, resulting in an Associated Press pick up that appeared in Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune and Bend Bulletin.
Industry We created and shared a TOTG toolkit for our partners to utilize. The toolkit contained assets for the Oregon tourism industry to leverage the campaign and align marketing messages for greater impact. Assets included videos, custom imagery, banner ads, along with media and PR plans.
Regional Co-Op Results Expedia Co-op: We offered a co-op where regional partners could populate the lodging properties and content on the regional sub-landing page that was part of the larger Expedia buy. The regional dollars that were spent in this co-op went towards media units across the Expedia network of sites that drove directly to the regional subpage on Expedia to encourage booking
Pg. 19 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR at the featured properties. Below are booking results, since this is the first year we have participated in a program like this we consider these baseline results.
Expedia Campaign landing page Campaign data booking data Regional Partner Page Views Unique Room Nights Views Booked* Washington County (bought in for 1,471 1,310 22,114 Portland Region) Mt. Hood & Columbia River Gorge 1,139 1,012 2,309 Easter Oregon Visitors 795 666 2,017 Association Willamette Valley Visitors 783 669 11,662 Association Oregon Coast Visitors Association 1,479 1,219 11,358
*Total number of regional room nights booked through Expedia by consumers exposed to an IP/Geo Oregon targeted campaign banner ads
Search co-op: The goal of our search co-op was to drive consumers to the OCVA regional page on TravelOregon.com and the WVVA regional website. For the Coast portion, we drove over 22K clicks to our coast content of TravelOregon.com. For the WVVA buy, we drove just over 4,000 clicks to its site with a CPC of 0$.94.
WINTER CAMPAIGN 2017/2018 The Enthusiast Network (TEN) Ski Film
We partnered with The Enthusiast Network (TEN) to create a video, “Winter Passage: An Oregon Retrospective,” to highlight the breadth of winter activities in Oregon. This was executed with an eleven-minute film that was broken into three cutdowns (overview, snowboard, and ski versions) which allowed us to target a number of snow sport enthusiast audiences. Photographer Mark McInnis narrated the film as we wove together the story of why different Oregonians love the winter - from surfing the coast to skiing the volcanoes (world renown surfer Jerry Lopez who calls Bend home does both!).
Pg. 20 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Our partnership included dedicated landing pages on several of TEN’s winter focused web properties including powder.com, grindtv.com, snowboarder.com and snowboarding.transworld.net. On these sites, there was a targeted write up, a cutdown version of the full-length film or full-length film depending on audience, and a call to action to join our winter sweepstakes. From there, we created banner and video ads that TEN broadcast across its network of sites that promoted these featured landing pages.
After consumers viewed the creative, we retargeted with click ads driving to winter content on TravelOregon.com/snowsports or to the winter Ski and Surf Sweepstakes. Click ads that drove to this page from social recorded a low CPC of $0.31 while delivering 842,385 impressions on Facebook. Due to our partnership with Ski Oregon, the snow sports page was full of robust content curated during the migration of SkiOregon.org to TravelOregon.com.
Our goal was to leverage TEN's snow sport enthusiast audience while driving sweeps entries on TravelOregon.com properties. We were satisfied with the results (below). Travel Oregon also owns the footage, b-roll and photography from the program, so we can design media programs around these assets in the future.
Pg. 21 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
The Enthusiast Network Results: • Cutdown video views: 498,186 • Full-Length Video Views: 22,702 Travel Oregon Social Promotion Results • 13,887 clicks from TEN content on Travel Oregon social channels to snow sports landing page at a CPC of $0.29 • 513,223 views for the :50 video at CPV of $0.01 Total Sweeps Entries: 15,079
SPRING 2018 CAMPAIGN UPDATE The “Only Slightly Exaggerated” campaign launched on March 12 and uses beautiful, enchanting, and inviting animation to inspire people to come find happiness off the beaten path, all over Oregon. It combines the real and fantastical and evokes what photography sometimes cannot – the magical feeling of being in Oregon.
View the full :90 on TravelOregon.com which features an original score recorded by the Oregon Symphony.
We included activation plans within this report. We will have a launch update at the April Commission meeting and mid-campaign report will be in the June Commission report.
Pg. 22 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Paid Media • Budget o $2,405,000 • Paid Media Strategies o Raise awareness of Oregon and all its offerings through large creative canvases and impactful video o Spark curiosity through custom content partnerships o Drive vacation planning and capture lower funnel demand through travel intent targeting and OTA (Online Travel Agent) partnerships • Paid Media KPIs o Video views o Traffic to TravelOregon.com o Engaged users/quality audience Working with Wieden+Kennedy, we finalized the plan with two lenses: 1. How do we leverage the creative assets and drive consumers to the next phase in the trip planning cycle? 2. Based off partner success from previous campaigns, how do we create the most comprehensive plan?
This was activated through the following plans:
Media highlights • Broadcast o Focus on prime and live programming to drive impact o Extend mass reach in culturally relevant TV moments • Cinema o Feature the :90 in its ultimate environment – large screen, dimmed lights and engaged audiences – this aligned with big releases including “Black Panther”, “Ready Player One”, and “A Wrinkle in Time” • OOH o Bring the beauty of Oregon into each city to inspire travel interest o Extend reach with bulletins & walls located in high traffic areas
Pg. 23 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
o For executions in high traffic pedestrian locations, we included disclaimers such as "Free range mountains may contain traces of wheat.” and “Giant bunnies subject to availability.” o Examples
Phoenix – A gorgeous 20’x120’ of the Three Sisters placed near heavy rush hour traffic offers in a reprieve to the 100 degree heat.
San Francisco - We will have bus shelter placement across the city with a rotation of 4 creative pieces.
• Digital Display & Video - Hulu, gamut, Pinterest, reddit, Zefr, AdTheorent, Thrillist, MNI o Leverage full episode players (FEP) environments for highly engaged, large screen viewing environments
Pg. 24 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
o Serve pre-roll among contextually relevant videos o Tap into inspirational environments
o Engage our audiences with interactive ads that showcase our beautiful creative
• OTA – Sojern & Trip Advisor o Drive travel intent with OTA turn-key partnerships o Engage with consumers as they move further down the funnel TravelOregon.com Campaign Support A key challenge for the team was figuring out how to pay off (and extend!) the magical experience for audiences who are inspired by the animated spot on TravelOregon.com. Working off a mere photograph cannot possibly relay the feeling of being here. Therefore, we
Pg. 25 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
leveraged the fantastical images and characters from the campaign video to immerse visitors in a compelling new world (before they have a chance to exercise their disbelief).
The landing page (or hub) takes visitors on a journey through Oregon, complete with animations (a combination of gifs, parallax and html5 video) and calls-to-action (CTAs) sprinkled throughout. The scenes and CTAs link to deeper content – Trip Ideas (the connections to real places) – as you move along the path.
The campaign landing page bridges the fantastical experience of the animation and real places in Oregon travelers can visit. To that end, the digital experience would be a failure if we simply stopped at the hub. To truly showcase the beauty of Oregon and to connect our audience to authentic experiences throughout the state, we are supporting the campaign by:
Social Media: Spring 2018 has four key strategies driving our three social KPIs: video views, clicks to TravelOregon.com and engagement. Social media content will be positioned to connect the animation with real experiences in Oregon. • Organic Content Distribution o Organic content will provide an additional level of awareness and traffic to TravelOregon.com. This distribution will also extend to GIPHY4 and Pinterest. • Paid Media – video view ads and click ads o Paid media will support the :90, :15 and :06 creative reaching the active adventurer audience in San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, and Oregon. • Influencer Tour rd o Influencers will feature the seven regions and provide a 3 party perspective that you really can experience the Only Slightly Exaggerated creative in Oregon. They will also capture assets for content on TravelOregon.com. • Animations in the Wild o Animations in the wild will bridge the gap between what is fantastical in the animation content and what Oregon has to offer. These videos will be distributed across multiple channels with paid support.
4 GIPHY top source for GIFs & Animated Stickers online
Pg. 26 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
This will be delivered across two phases:
Breakdown of content by channel:
Sweepstakes: Our Spring sweepstakes gives consumers the opportunity to win an epic Oregon experience that mirrors some of the locations and activities featured in the campaign creative. We brought on two Oregon based partners, Hyrdoflask and Leatherman, to expand our reach and equip our winner with gear to make their trip truly memorable. • The sweepstakes runs April 16 – May 29 • Prize includes Crater Lake and Southern Coast lodging and activities, airfare and more • We will promote the sweepstakes through Facebook click ads, Google Sponsored posts and a dedicated email.
Content Support: The campaign hub on TravelOregon.com is a bridge between the fantastical experience of the animation campaign and real Oregon locations travelers can visit. We will showcase the beauty of Oregon and connect our audience to authentic experiences throughout the state in a few ways:
Pg. 27 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
1. Featuring a variety of trip ideas related to key scenes in the :90 second spot; for example, folks who are inspired by kids riding a giant rabbit through a tulip field are connected to Oregon in Bloom, a collection of trip ideas about flower festivals, spring events and waterfall hikes. 2. Commissioning two original stories to support the campaign: a. Crater Lake Creation Story: This heritage feature will tell the backstory of one of the West Coast’s most iconic sights, highlighting the lake’s geological history and illuminating some of the more prominent tribal myths about its formation. b. ‘Oregon is Magic’: Behind the Scenes Story: This story will explore the inspiration behind the Only Slightly Exaggerated campaign. It will talk about why we chose animation, how the regional scenes were selected, how the Oregon Symphony created the original score, and more. A “go there” section at the bottom will include a list of locations featured in the scenes and a link to resources on TravelOregon.com.
E-Newsletter The campaign will be prominently featured across our email newsletters March -May. • March: Lead story in spring Seasonal Features editions • April: A dedicated email showcasing the “behind the scenes” story and custom content • May: A dedicated sweeps email along with a general core story focusing on the Portland Animation Festival.
Guides/Fulfillment: The 2018/19 Travel Oregon Visitor Guide (TOVG) is in the final stages of production and plays off our animation theme in several ways: 1. The cover scene depicts a takedown of the Wallowa scene 2. The dreamy balloon scene is used in our Welcome Letter 3. The regional sections will include regional illustrations from the campaign.
Pg. 28 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
The cover of the TOVG is below.
Pg. 29 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Campaign Communications: The consumer Communications team’s objectives for the spring campaign are to generate consumer and industry media coverage that captures the spirit of the State by highlighting the vastly varied sensory experiences available in Oregon. The team plans to execute and leverage the campaign with three main tactics: • Campaign launch media interview opportunity o On March 12, we invited Oregon media (broadcast and print) to a media interview opportunity at Wieden+Kennedy. The purpose was to give the media an exclusive first-peak at the campaign (prior to posting the press release) and provide interview opportunities with Travel Oregon (Todd Davidson, Kevin Wright) and Wieden+Kennedy (Angela Jones, Planner). KGW, KOIN and KPTV attended the event, which resulted in broadcast stories that ran multiple times on each station. The Statesman Journal, Portland Business Journal, The Oregonian, and KGW also published stories based on our launch-day pitch. • Campaign press release and proactive pitching o On the afternoon of March 12, the Only Slightly Exaggerated press release was issued via national distribution on PRNewswire. We also featured a campaign image in Times Square during peak travel times on March 12 and 29 (image below). In addition, Maxwell PR proactively pitched both national and regional travel media, such as: AFAR, USA Today Travel, TravelAge West, Travel Weekly and Skift to name a few. We have garnered incredible coverage thus far and will share the complete list in the next Commission Report. However, here is a sneak peek at some of the top coverage: . Launch day broadcast on KGW . Entertainment Weekly, “Oregon’s new tourism ad looks like a Hayao Miyazaki movie” . Lonely Planet, “A trippy and magical animation may inspire you to visit Oregon” . Indie Wire, “Oregon’s Dazzling New Tourism Ad Would Make Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli Proud”
Pg. 30 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Industry: In an effort to support and empower our partners, we created a toolkit for the travel and tourism industry in Oregon to leverage and elevate the Only Slightly Exaggerated campaign. The campaign and toolkit were shared with RDMOs through an email callout, with the Oregon tourism industry through a Breaking News press release on March 12, and a follow- up article in the general Industry Newsletter on March 15.
Partners can access and download videos, custom imagery, banner ads, along with the media, PR and social media plans. Partners, such as the Willamette Valley Visitors Association, Eastern Oregon Visitors Association and Mt. Hood/Columbia Gorge region, made the most of the campaign by using the visual assets and story ideas related to the campaign (see images below).
Pg. 31 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Spring Co-Op Program: The 2018 partner co-op is designed to leverage the Travel Oregon media buy and is being executed through Sojern5 March 26 - May 6. Sojern has consistently proven a successful partner during previous Travel Oregon campaigns and lends itself to the creative for Spring. Partners that opted to participate will have their buy go directly towards paid media with a 50% match from Travel Oregon. Sojern will retarget consumers based on their viewing of
5 Sojern is a tourism marketing platform.
Pg. 32 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR the Travel Oregon :15, they will show the regional :06, and link back to the partner site where the Travel Oregon team created a custom itinerary and imagery to support the campaign.
Next Steps: The marketing team began to execute the plans on Monday, March 12. We have seen tremendous success with the campaign over the first several weeks and will share the mid- campaign results in the June.
Below are a few early highlights: • At last count, and across all known and trackable sources, the :90 ad received over 10 million video views worldwide. • 65,981 and 16,000 shares on Facebook and Twitter respectively • Traveloreogn.com saw a 61% increase in traffic YOY through the first three weeks of the campaign.
Pg. 33 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
DIGITAL CONSUMER PLATFORMS The Q3 TravelOregon.com KPI and engagement update will be reported out in the next Commission Report.
Social Media One topic we have been watching has been the news about Facebook and consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. A quick synopsis of the issue is that: 1. Before 2015, apps on Facebook (like quizzes or other apps involving FB sign-on) could collect data on you AND your friends. Therefore, companies have had access to millions of profiles from just a few hundred thousand downloads. 2. This data was sold to consulting firm Cambridge Analytica who then used it along with political operatives from the 2016 Trump Presidential Campaign to craft and disseminate highly-targeted psychographic messaging. 3. Backlash is coming swiftly against Facebook for not disclosing that it knew about this data collection. 4. These apps are no longer allowed to collect your friends’ data, but Facebook and its apps are still collecting data on the specific individuals using them.
Our agency, Sparkloft, and the team are following this story closely. At this time, the top takeaway are the following: 1. Do not panic: Although there have been several headlines about the movement to #DeleteFacebook, US app installs rose in the US on the iOS mobile store since the news broke. Advertisers are not jumping ship yet and advertiser spend on Facebook has remained steady. Facebook is getting bad press, but the platform is not on the brink of collapse as some loud shouters on social media might indicate. 2. Stay away from app-enabled quizzes: Users will likely shy away or disconnect chat bots, quizzes and other apps connected with Facebook. We do not currently have any of these apps in development. 3. Tweak our approach to advertising: We realize this is a time to message our most trusted audiences-- the ones who know us and find value in our interactions. Along those lines, we will continue to leverage retargeting to serve more relevant content to our most engaged users. But at the same time, we will be sensitive to make sure that we do not come across as too personalized or speaking directly one to one. 4. Revisit client privacy policies: Consumers will be more conscious of how and where their personal information is being stored and used. It is important to ensure that privacy policy language specifically includes social media. 5. Continue to build trust: Presenting authentic, truthful content and messaging will be key over the next few months. This may mean expanding community management guidelines and pre-approved messages to respond to users who have direct questions about how clients are using its users’ data.
Pg. 34 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
PUBLISHING & CONTENT This quarter, a management focus for the content team was to create systems to manage and govern our growing portfolio of content. At last count, we were managing 10,861 OTIS points of interest along with 1,543 published Trip Ideas and 103 published topic, city and regional pages.
Content Governance is the practice of setting guidelines that determines how Travel Oregon content is created, published and updated. After working through the scenarios, the team is currently testing the following audit schedule for content on TravelOregon.com: 1) Monthly update of topics and stories on key landing pages including, homepage Places to Go, Things to Do, Trip Ideas, Cities, Events and Travel Alerts 2) Quarterly update of Regional, Outdoor Recreation, Eat & Drink, Culture/History, Attractions and Events pages 3) Biannual update of Attractions, Destinations, Bicycling, Birding, Boating, Camping, Climbing, Fishing, Golfing, Hiking, Hunting, Paddle Sports, Snow Sports, and Sports pages 4) Annual update of all city pages within each region (in coordination with regions)
MARKETING SERVICES Research Oregon’s Wildfire Impact Survey In February, Travel Oregon, in partnership with Dean Runyan Associates, published the Wildfire Travel Impacts Survey in an effort to better understand the statewide economic impacts of the 2017 wildfires. We targeted businesses and organizations across the state that were directly and/or indirectly impacted by the fires.
The Communications team cast a wide net and reached out to stakeholders; businesses; and local, state and federal agency partners through all communication channels, including: Travel Oregon’s Industry eNewsletter, Travel Oregon’s Breaking News, Industry Twitter (@OregonTourism), LinkedIn and email. This resulted in widespread sharing of the information, including direct asks to participate in the survey from Governor Brown.
Pg. 35 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
The Communications team also engaged with media throughout the state, resulting in the following coverage on KTVZ.com, Redmond; KOIN, Portland; KEZI, Eugene; and KGW, Portland, to name a few.
The survey opened on Monday, February 29, and closed on Friday, March 30. Highlights are as follows: • 412 survey participants • 25% of the responses coming from hotel, motel, B&B, resort or other lodging;14% from restaurant/bar; 13% from guides and tour operators; and 12% from cultural, recreation, historic or educational visitor attraction. • All other responses came from commercial campground or RV park (2.5%), campground on public lands (3.1%), retail store or shopping venue (6.2%), event organizer (4%), or other (18%).
Preliminary survey results are expected by the end of April, with finalized results coming in late May. We will share the survey’s initial findings at the Governor’s conference and will publish final results on Industry.TravelOregon.com, through industry news and media outreach.
State and Regional Visitor Profile Study (Longwood’s International) Purpose: The purpose of the Longwood’s Visitor Profile study is to profile the typical domestic visitor to Oregon and provide information on the structure of the Oregon travel market as a whole.
Variables of interest: The current study covers travel during the 2017 calendar year and includes data on basic travel motivators, visitor activities, state of origin, regions visited, and demographic details of visitors to Oregon.
Pg. 36 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Results: The 2017 Longwood’s Travel USA® database and state-level report will be delivered May 2018. The 2016-2017 regional reports will be delivered June 2018.
2016/17 Ad Accountability Study (Longwood’s International) The study measures the FY16/17 advertising campaigns: • Winter 2016 o Phase 1: “We like it here. You might too” o Phase 2: The Oregon Weather Compass • Spring 2017 o Phase 1: “We like it here. You might too” o Phase 2: Salmon 360 Purpose: Measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns in bringing visitors to Oregon during the campaign period and shortly thereafter and increasing intentions to visit in the future • Estimate the return on advertising investment yielded by the campaign, in terms of incremental spending in Oregon by those visitors • Provide fundamental strategic insights about the image of Oregon and its key competitors with respect to key destination choice factors
Data collection method: A custom internet panel of individuals was constructed to be statistically representative of the Travel Oregon advertising markets. Respondents were selected randomly to ensure a representative sample of individuals 18+ years of age. Awareness of the advertising was determined by exposing respondents to actual samples of the creative. The research was conducted in two cycles: 1. A benchmark study was conducted after the conclusion of the advertising periods to measure awareness of specific ads and determine short-term conversion 2. The follow-up long-term conversion study to determine how many intenders actually completed a trip to Oregon will field in April 2018, with the final report delivered late May 2018
Short-Term Conversion Results: • The survey was conducted in late November/early December 2017 and 1,402 surveys were completed. • Visit Oregon’s fall/winter and spring campaigns in core markets generated good awareness: reaching almost 5 in 10 of the intended target audience of travelers. • The advertising had a positive effect on actual travel to Oregon in the period (15 months) we measured from campaign launch. It yielded over 1 million incremental trips that would not have occurred in the absence of advertising. This incremental travel translates into and additional visitor expenditures of $280 million. • In the short-term (the 15 months since launch), the costs have generated an ROI of $133 in visitor spending for each ad dollar spent (similar to the 2008 campaign results).
Pg. 37 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Fulfillment Travel Oregon contracted with F. Curtis Barry & Co. for guidance in the Request for Proposals (RFP) process for fulfillment vendors. The goal is to select a vendor and have a contract signed in time for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2018. The official RFP will be posted publicly on industry.traveloregon.com.
CORPORATE BRAND LOGO We reviewed initial logo design concepts from Wieden+Kennedy for Ski Oregon, Oregon Destination Marketing Organizations, Oregon Tour and Travel Alliance, Oregon Food Trails and Official Oregon Welcome Centers to draft off of Travel Oregon’s newly implanted corporate brand platform. The plan is to present final logo designs to all partners in mid- April 2018 for feedback and approval.
PUBLISHING & CONTENT Umpqua Valley Trip Idea As part of the follow up activities from the 2017 Umpqua Valley Tourism Studio, Travel Oregon recently published a 3 Days in the Umpqua Valley trip idea on TravelOregon.com. This trip idea was developed in collaboration with the Umpqua Valley Tourism Studio Steering Committee and is closely aligned with the itinerary for the German journalist, Bjoern Rosen, that highlighted the Umpqua Valley in the Berlin publication, Der Tagesspiegel, last January.
Representative of Travel Oregon’s tourism studio marketing roadmap program, this new trip idea highlights many of the signature destination assets that were discussed during the Umpqua Valley Tourism Studio bicycle tourism and agritourism workshops, such as the North Umpqua Trail and the Parrot House restaurant in Roseburg.
New Mountain Bike Routes on TravelOregon.com Travel Oregon recently published six new mountain bike routes on TravelOregon.com. These new routes are another step forward for the ongoing relaunch of RideOregonRide.com into the new TravelOregon.com that began in September 2017. You can review the new routes online using the links below: 1. Mountain of the Rogue 2. Mt. Ashland Shuttle 3. Elkhorn Crest 4. Morgan Butte - Chewaucan River Loop 5. Sandy Ridge 6. Surveyor's Ridge
Pg. 38 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
SUPPORT AND EMPOWER OREGON’S TOURISM INDUSTRY
Provide development and training opportunities to meet the evolving tourism industry needs
OREGON TOURISM STUDIOS South Willamette Valley Culinary and Agritourism Studio In partnership with the Willamette Valley Visitors Association and Travel Lane County, Destination Development delivered a Culinary and Agritourism Studio in the South Willamette Valley region on March 5-6. This project included representation from Lane County communities as well as communities located in southern Benton and Linn Counties. Around fifty community leaders participated throughout the two-day workshop. This programming included two full days of content, an evening networking event and a familiarization tour featuring local businesses and products.
Three action teams were formed to move the needle on culinary and agritourism development regionally. The action team priority projects include: 1. Development of a South Willamette Valley trip idea for TravelOregon.com. 2. Generation of robust regional OTIS listings. 3. Food trail development that will leverage the strong culinary and agricultural assets of the South Willamette Valley to increase visitation and boost economic impact.
Destination Development will work closely with these action teams and provide support to reach project completion within six to twelve months.
Oregon’s Outback Outdoor Recreation Studio In partnership with Travel Southern Oregon, South Central Oregon Economic Development District and the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, Destination Development will host a two-day outdoor recreation workshop this spring in Oregon’s Outback. This region includes Lakeview, Adel, Paisley, Plush and the surrounding Lake County communities. This two-day workshop will take place in Lakeview on April 16-17. During the workshop, staff will highlight world-class case studies of outdoor recreation and adventure travel destinations to inspire new thinking, meet the growing demands of the adventure traveler, and address issues of conservation and seasonality tailored to the Lake County area. This is the first stand-alone Outdoor Recreation niche workshop independent of the Rural Tourism Studio.
The objectives of this Outdoor Recreation Studio include: 1. Establish an industry baseline of Lake County tourism assets and recreation industry businesses.
Pg. 39 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
2. Raise awareness of destination development strategies to appeal to targeted visitor markets. 3. Connect existing local assets such as agriculture with the broader recreation industry. 4. Provide an understanding of outdoor recreation and adventure travel market trends, development, and world-class case studies. 5. Cultivate innovative and unique cycling and recreation experiences in this region through connections and collaborations made through the studio. 6. Increase familiarity of product development opportunities and funding resources.
Four Rivers Culinary and Agritourism Studio In partnership with Eastern Oregon Visitors Association and the Ontario Area Chamber of Commerce, Destination Development hosted a Culinary and Agritourism Studio in the Four Rivers region on April 9-10 in Ontario, Oregon. This bi-state region includes the communities of Ontario, Nyssa, Vale, Payette, and surrounding communities in the Western Treasure Valley. The one-and-a-half-day workshop was designed for those interested in developing unique visitor experiences like farm stands, tasting rooms, guided fishing trips, and hands-on culinary and agricultural tours in the Four Rivers region.
The objectives of the Culinary and Agritourism Studio included: 1. Share market trends related to agricultural and culinary tourism. 2. Broaden participant understanding of the variety of visitor experiences based on culinary and agritourism assets, as well as the types of visitors who seek such experiences. 3. Highlight inspirational examples of successful agricultural and culinary tourism businesses and creative partnerships. 4. Provide a question and answer session with local experts in the policies, regulations, and licenses affecting agritourism and culinary tourism businesses. 5. Explore opportunities for collaboration to build a critical mass of visitor experiences options. 6. Develop further momentum around Eastern Oregon Visitors Association’s Four Rivers Farm Trail.
NE Oregon Cycling Workshops In coordination with Eastern Oregon Visitors Association, Travel Oregon is looking to improve support for the region’s recreation development efforts. This effort will kick-off with around ten interviews in mid-May with local recreation leaders within Baker and Grant counties. The input from those informational interviews will inform the content of two local convenings in May: one in Baker City and one in John Day. These workshops will help create a stronger awareness of the current work, projects, and goals within Baker and Wallowa Counties.
Pg. 40 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
The primary goals of the workshops are to: 1. Engage regional recreation and supporting agency leaders. 2. Build connections for improved collaboration around a common vision and process. 3. Highlight and raise awareness around existing projects, efforts, and momentum. 4. Share out top opportunities, challenges, and opportunities reflected from interviews. 5. Solidify group input into a defined plan for next steps forward.
Travel Oregon staff will be co-facilitating these two half-day workshops along with Chris Bernhardt, principal of C2 Recreation Consulting. Chris is an international cycling destination development expert. He has supported the development of cycling destinations across North America, Asia, and Europe, bringing his accumulated knowledge back home to help Travel Oregon and our state’s local communities appeal to visiting cyclists.
Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) Placements Travel Oregon is continuing to provide support for the 2017-2018 RARE placements focused on post-studio tourism development efforts. These five RARE placements have been moving local community projects forward within East Lane County, Columbia Gorge, Wild Rivers Coast, Polk County, and the Umpqua Valley regions. These projects include regional cycling mapping, signature events around agritourism and recreation, food trail development, network development, tourism marketing content development, OTIS listing support, and grant development. Many of the RARE placements were the added capacity necessary to move grant applications forward into funding channels. The RARE service year will be ending in July 2018.
Travel Oregon staff are working with prospective tourism studio community host regions to submit competitive RARE placement applications for the 2018-2019 service year. Due to the competitive nature of the program, the most that would likely be awarded as wholly tourism- focused placements would be a maximum of eight. Currently, ten regions are working towards submitting the community pre-applications to the RARE program by the April 13 deadline. More RDMOs are engaging in supporting these RARE placements as awareness of the program and visible impact of the local placements grows. The on-the-ground development staff capacity through these placements has become invaluable to directing resources to the communities quickly.
Destination Development-Hosted Community Leaders Boot Camp Destination Development will be hosting an annual gathering of Oregon Tourism Studio steering committee members and action team leaders as well as DMO and RDMO development staff at the Community Leaders Boot Camp at Sunriver Resort prior to the Governor's Conference.
The event begins on Friday, April 27 and continues through to Sunday morning, April 29. The first day of the boot camp will provide an opportunity for tourism studio leaders, RDMO staff and Travel Oregon to connect about projects and opportunities to support rural
Pg. 41 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
tourism development. The second day will focus on growing skills and sharing Travel Oregon resources available for rural communities. Ten short case study examples will be showcased as successful projects within rural Oregon communities during the Saturday evening event. The final day will include presentations from a variety of Travel Oregon staff and community connection opportunities to discuss topical interest areas including consultations on utilizing the RARE program, implementing and administering recent grant awards, best practices for tourism networks, and product development input for tourism studio projects.
Through Boot Camp, Oregon Tourism Studio leaders will establish and grow connections with other local, regional, state and topical niche organizations. Participants will increase their knowledge and skills on grant writing, project implementation, product development, destination management, collaboration with Travel Oregon, and utilizing RCTP resources. This workshop will also focus on building stronger connections and opportunities between tourism studio communities and RDMOs – including how to queue-up projects for investment, aligning with RCTP priorities, and how to support investment implementation.
OUTDOOR RECREATION DEVELOPMENT Oregon Outdoor Recreation Initiative Leadership Team Retreat On March 1, the Oregon Outdoor Recreation Initiative leadership team came together for its 9th convening – an overnight retreat at Silver Falls State Park. The first day of the retreat featured presentations by the conveners of each of the seven action teams, providing the leadership team updates on each team's work toward achieving the top initiatives in the Phase One Summary Report as well as an opportunity for input and discussion. Key updates from each team are outlined in the following section.
The second day of the retreat provided an opportunity for open discussion about the path forward for the Oregon Outdoor Recreation Initiative and its leadership team. The group discussed potentially expanding the leadership team, with an opportunity to add those who will bring underrepresented perspectives to the table. The leadership team also discussed the possibility of another statewide "roadshow" of public outreach meetings in the fall, potentially in collaboration with the Roadmap to the Outdoors team and the Office of Outdoor Recreation.
Oregon Outdoor Recreation Initiative Action Teams Update Since August 2017, Travel Oregon has been working to support the seven action teams as part of Phase Two of the Oregon Outdoor Recreation Initiative (OORI). Travel Oregon has been participating in and monitoring each team’s progress, assisting in communications and coordinating meetings; Travel Oregon also co-leads three of the Action Teams. In March, Travel Oregon convened the leadership team and the action team conveners. A summary of the presentations the action team conveners provided the leadership team are listed below:
Pg. 42 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Economic Impact Action Team: • To resolve questions of scope and definition related to an economic impact study of the outdoor recreation economy in Oregon, as well as avoid any duplicative efforts within the state, Travel Oregon has contracted with Temple University to conduct a literature review to establish definitions and look at existing and planned related research on outdoor recreation in the Pacific Northwest. We expect the literature review to be complete by early May. • Once the literature review is complete, we will move forward with the fundraising and RFP process for the full study. We have set an aggressive timeline to complete the report by April 2019, in time for the 2019 Legislative Session.
Communications Action Team (formerly Marketing & Communications Action Team): • Travel Oregon has increased efforts to include safety and stewardship messaging in newsletters to the public and industry and has begun pushing out content regarding facets of the OORI in Travel Oregon channels and through partnerships with other publications, such as this recent article in Oregon Business magazine. • The action team co-conveners will develop a draft Communications Plan to be refined by Maxwell PR and the Action Team. The plan will include a draft Strategic Statement, Communications Objectives, and examples of tactics. • Next efforts will include reaching out to OPRD Office of Outdoor Recreation staff, OSU Outdoor School for All, and others to coordinate and align messaging and communication efforts.
Transportation Action Team: • The action team has partnered with a team of six graduate students in the Masters of Urban and Regional Planning program at PSU who will lead a project assessing car- free access to Oregon’s Top Spots. The first phase of the project will take place in late March / early April and will focus on reviewing the existing literature, policy framework, and heat map of highly used outdoor recreation areas, with the student team conducting field work and phone interviews. • Later phases of the project will bring agency stakeholders and culturally-specific community groups in for focus groups, conduct ground truthing exercises in Mt. Hood, Bend, and coastal regions using existing transportation options, and convene a stakeholder workshop for land managers and transit agencies. The project will culminate with the production of a Transportation Action Plan and Tool Kit which will be delivered by mid-June.
Signature Trails Action Team: • Team has met four times and through discussion and evaluation of various case studies, has developed a working definition of a signature trail as well as the goal to tangibly increase public, political and agency support for and investment in developing, completing, and maintaining signature trails in Oregon. • The team will continue to meet and work on the following strategy areas: o Signature Trails List and Evaluation
Pg. 43 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
o Oregon Trails Coalition o Signature Trails Campaign o Create an investment strategy in signature trails in Oregon
Network Design Action Team: • Over the last 18 months, Travel Oregon has learned that outdoor recreation stakeholders across the state are interested in growing functional regional networks to collaborate on mutual opportunities to advance outdoor recreation in Oregon. In response to this interest, Travel Oregon has been working closely with Three Pin Strategy + Design to develop a survey to explore a network engagement model designed to grow and strengthen the outdoor recreation community in Oregon. • Due to the existing strengths and robustness of the outdoor recreation community in Central Oregon, on March 14, we did a limited release of the survey to this region only, with the goal of gathering data that will inform how we roll out the network engagement model statewide. The Central Oregon pilot survey will close in early to mid-April.
Office of Outdoor Recreation Action Team: • OPRD received 100 applicants and invited 14 individuals to interview for the position of Director of the Office of Outdoor Recreation. However, they did not make an offer for the director position to any candidate. OPRD plans to move forward in the next six months and begin the organizational work despite not having a director in place. Chris Havel will lead these efforts in the interim until a director is hired. • There will be an Advisory Group for the Office, and OPRD will be working to define the parameters of that group including expectations and purpose, as well as how many members should be represented in the group, and from what breadth of backgrounds.
Diversity in the Outdoors Action Team: • First Gentleman, Dan Little began the process and leads this action team. He chaired the Roadmap to the Outdoors Symposium event process, held on February 15 in Portland. A summary of that event can be found in the following section. • Moving forward, this team plans to review the notes captured from table work and breakouts during the Symposium, distill the key findings from the day and inform the path forward for this team's work. The First Gentleman plans to reconvene partners for a meeting on April 9 to begin developing an action plan.
Roadmap to the Outdoors Symposium - February 15, 2018 Travel Oregon sponsored and helped facilitate the Symposium which reached capacity with 250 people in attendance at the Oregon Zoo. Goals of the Symposium included building and broadening connections between organizations that are working to increase outdoor recreation to all Oregonians, identifying barriers and lack of opportunities for people to access the outdoors, and identifying solutions to these barriers.
Pg. 44 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Special Use Permit Workshop – February 16, 2018 Travel Oregon partnered with the U.S. Forest Service to deliver a Special Use Permit Workshop, bringing together 105 tour operators, guides, outfitters and public land managers for a full day of presentations and discussions about the future of special use permits on Oregon’s public lands. Attendees of the workshop were provided an overview of current U.S. Forest Service permitting practices as well as a look at the future of permitting led by recent federal guidance. The workshop also presented opportunities for operators to learn more about compliance and legal risk management for their business, to hear about innovative practices on public lands in the pacific northwest, and to network with land managers and other tour operators, guides and outfitters.
BICYCLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT 2018 Oregon Bicycle Tourism Summit – March 16, 2018 The annual Oregon Bicycle Tourism Summit brought 85 bicycle tourism advocates and proponents together for a full day of informative presentations, discussion and networking around adventure cycling and other bicycle tourism opportunities in Oregon. Meeting objectives included: • Receive an update on bicycle tourism projects in Oregon and discuss opportunities for advancing new products; • Learn about the formula for a world-class cycling destination and consider growth opportunities for existing and emerging cycling destinations in Oregon; • Learn about adventure cycling as a tourism submarket and identify new adventure cycling opportunities in Oregon; and • Take a deep dive into the hut-to-hut concept for signature trails and brainstorm its development in Oregon.
CULINARY & AGRITOURISM DEVELOPMENT Oregon Agritourism Network (OAN) The Oregon Agritourism Network was launched in 2015 by Travel Oregon and partners to cultivate Oregon’s agritourism potential and advance state agriculture, food and beverage industries. As the Oregon Agritourism Network moves into its fourth year, Network members and industry partners were invited to complete a survey on what roles the network can continue to play to support the industry. A total of 121 responses from farmers, ranchers, chefs, food processors, tour guides, planners, regulators and community leaders has provided Travel Oregon with an abundance of data on the barriers facing agritourism operators, success stories, and priority areas for support from the Oregon Agritourism Network. Key findings included:
Pg. 45 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
• Agritourism businesses, and interest in operating an agritourism business are growing; • Current agritourism businesses operators are seeking marketing assistance and tools for understanding risk; and • Organizations and people supporting and encouraging the agritourism industry feel that land use laws and codes are a barrier to successful business development.
Travel Oregon is committed to continuing to provide value by 1) continuing to build a statewide marketing strategy for promoting Oregon’s agri-businesses and growing number of Food Trails; 2) continuing the current technical assistance provided by contractor Erika Polmar to agritourism operators; and 3) convening industry supporters to determine additional ways to collaborate to help businesses emerge and be successful.
INDUSTRY SERVICES Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism The conference sold out the last day of early bird registration, March 31, with several hopeful attendees on a wait list. An email has been sent out to the registered attendees with pre-conference activities along with a note that if they are not able to attend the conference to please cancel their registration sooner than later to allow some on the wait list to attend.
The room block at the headquarter hotel, Riverhouse on the Deschutes, filled up within days of opening in January. Our first overflow hotel, Shilo Inn, is full and we have two other overflow properties with discounted rooms available, Red Lion and Fairfield Inn. The 44 booth spaces in the exhibit hall are sold out! Visit Bend, Riverhouse on the Deschutes, Central Oregon Visitors Association and Mt. Bachelor have been great conference planning partners. Thank you to all of our Sponsor and Exhibitor Partners who continue to support the conference!
Travel Oregon 101 Industry Services presented Travel Oregon 101 trainings to over 70 industry members in March in Grants Pass and Bandon. Travel Southern Oregon also presented in Grants Pass. The next Travel Oregon 101 will be a statewide webinar on May 30. The 101 schedules for the remainder of the year will be announced in May.
Implement industry leading visitor information network
WELCOME CENTERS Ashland (Siskiyou) Welcome Center Update ODOT secured an engineering firm, and construction on the new welcome center and rest area can begin as early as April. Travel Oregon’s stakeholder engagement and outreach will
Pg. 46 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR begin in April and continue throughout the life of the project. Travel Oregon and ODOT are also working together to explore the feasibility of providing free electric vehicle (EV) charging stations as an amenity at the rest area.
Fully realize statewide, strategic integration of OTIS (Oregon Tourism Information System)
OREGON TOURISM INFORMATION SYSTEM (OTIS) The team is continuing to improve the user experience and enhance the platform’s capabilities.
The following updates took place in January and February: • Location management: The new location management feature launched and provided OTIS users with the ability to further specify the location of a listing (beyond just the address) in a map experience. • Refined listing form: Launching the new location feature meant we needed to refine the listing management form. We shifted fields around and grouped them to better support/streamline data entry. We also took the opportunity to revise some instructional content, create a helper video and rename sections to be clearer. • Listing history: OTIS users can now see a history of changes made to a listing, who made the change, when it happened and can revert to a previous version of the listing. • Places to Stay annual update: Lodging listings for 2018/19 were updated on TravelOregon.com. • Visit McMinnville: Launched its website enhancements, including a full listing integration with OTIS. • Monthly trainings: The team continues to host monthly webinar trainings for the industry. In January and February, we hosted a total of 26 attendees (16 external partners and 10 TO staffers).
The following updates are coming soon: • Bulk upload: This highly anticipated feature which will empower partners to upload listings, in bulk, via spreadsheets for a variety of content types, was held for launch due to complexity and timeline. We wanted to ensure the next iteration was more powerful and intuitive than its predecessor. The team is currently testing the feature internally and plans to release a beta to a couple of key partners by mid-April and launch shortly after. • Enhanced permissions: In response to user feedback, the team scoped out how a more robust permission structure could look. We are moving forward with permissions that will allow the owner of a listing to grant permissions to other users, at varying levels (e.g. the right to edit a listing, to edit or delete a listing or to simply view the listing). As a part of this release, users will be able to grant permissions in bulk, using the existing filtering tools on the site. For example, Visit McMinnville
Pg. 47 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
may want to provide editing permissions to another user for all the restaurants in McMinnville. They will be able to do that on their own. The team will make sure that existing permission structures are mapped accordingly, but hopefully the new solution will empower partner collaboration. • System notifications: While users can message one another within the platform, it currently does not notify them of messages via email. We are scoping out the various notification needs (e.g. someone sent you a message, someone updated a listing you own, etc.). The hope is to launch listing update notifications with permissions although we may need to take a phased approach. • Recurring events: The team is also actively developing a recurring events module that will enable partners to create a single instance of an event and indicate a recurrence. The system will then automatically create each occurrence. • Trainings: The team hosted a webinar in March and will host the next one in person at Governor’s Conference.
Deploy tourism programs (e.g. RCTP, Competitive Grants) in a powerful way that fulfills unique opportunities and challenges as defined by the tourism industry
COMPETITIVE GRANTS Oregon Wine Country Plates Matching Grants Program A total of 10 applications are eligible for review with a request of $218,940 for the 2018-2019 Oregon Wine Country Plates Matching Grants Program. Grants will be reviewed in Salem on April 13 with the award announcement made on April 18. Approximately $200,000 is available for award.
Competitive Medium Grants Dates have been finalized for the opening of the 2018-2020 Competitive Medium Grants cycle. Applications will open on April 23, 2018 with a deadline of June 6, 2018. Funding will be awarded on July 23, 2018. Approximately $745,000 will be available for award. In efforts to make sure that RDMOs are aware of all projects that are submitted for consideration for their region, applicants will be required to submit an online project summary to their RDMO. Once the information is submitted to the RDMO, an automated email will provide the potential applicant with a code to access the grant application.
Southern Oregon Grant Writing Workshop Travel Oregon partnered with Travel Southern Oregon to present a grant writing workshop in Medford on April 3, 2018. Experienced grant writer and grant coach Meredith Howell conducted the interactive workshop that focused on developing tourism-related projects and securing funding for that work. Travel Oregon’s Competitive Medium and Small grant opportunities were highlighted with emphasis on how to successfully align projects with Travel Oregon’s work and tips in preparing a successful application. The workshop had 33
Pg. 48 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
attendees and due to both interest and engagement, the 4-hour session went beyond the allotted time. Learnings from this workshop will inform future workshops that will take place in additional regions in upcoming months.
REGIONAL COOPERATIVE TOURISM PROGRAM Regional Cooperative Tourism Program Subcommittees Four Regional Cooperative Tourism Program subcommittees have been established to aid with a more fluid dispersal of information between Travel Oregon and RDMO partners. The Subcommittees mirror Travel Oregon’s departmental areas, and are as follows: GSP/Operations, Marketing/Communications, Destination Development, Global Sales. Subcommittees utilize the Basecamp project management tool to share information. The subcommittee structure will allow Travel Oregon teams and RDMOs a platform to share event details, ideas, resources and foster discussions that will support regional plan related work in all seven regions.
Oregon Tourism Listening Sessions The RCTP team is working with the overall strategy team at Travel Oregon to deliver Oregon Tourism Listening Sessions. Ten Oregon Tourism Listening Sessions are scheduled. Session attendees will have the chance to meet their RDMO representative and Travel Oregon employees, learn about and provide input on current regional plans as well as the statewide 2019-21 strategic plan.
Dates and Locations for the Listening Sessions are as follows:
April 3, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. | WILLAMETTE VALLEY REGION Valley River Inn, 1000 Valley River Way, Eugene, Ore. 97401
April 4, 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. | MT. HOOD/GORGE REGION Marine Park Pavilion, 395 SW Portage Rd., Cascade Locks, Ore. 97014
April 13, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. | PORTLAND REGION Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon Road, Portland, OR 97221
April 17, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. | COAST REGION Tillamook Bay Community College, 4301 3rd St., Tillamook, Ore. 97141
May 9, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. | COAST REGION Coos History Museum, 1210 N Front St., Coos Bay, Ore. 97420
May 10, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. | SOUTHERN REGION Train Mountain Railroad Museum, 36941 S Chiloquin Rd, Chiloquin, Ore. 97624
May 11, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. | SOUTHERN REGION
Pg. 49 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
SOU/RCC Higher Learning Center, 101 S Bartlett St., Medford, Ore. 97501
May 14, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. | EASTERN REGION Geiser Grand Hotel, 1996 Main St., Baker City, Ore. 97814
May 15, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. | EASTERN REGION John Day – TBD
May 16, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. | CENTRAL REGION Five Pine Lodge, 1021 E Desperado Trail, Sisters, Ore. 97759
Pg. 50 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
CHAMPION THE VALUE OF TOURISM
Grow and align strategic partnerships to leverage resources and capacity to address key issues
GLOBAL STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Travel Oregon at the Phoenix Open Phoenix, Arizona has been identified as an important domestic market for visitors to Oregon. To support Travel Oregon and partner’s consumer marketing campaigns in this market, Travel Oregon collaborated with the Central Oregon Visitors Association (COVA) to sponsor an activation at the Waste Management Phoenix Open Golf Tournament. With over 720,000 attendees to the weeklong tournament, the Phoenix Open is a premier event to market Oregon as a destination and highlight its diverse golfing options. To support the activation, Travel Oregon created golf specific collateral featuring Oregon’s best golf courses from the coast to the high desert. VP of Global Strategic Partnerships Teresa O’Neill attended the event.
Oregon Sports Summit Sponsorship The second annual Oregon Sports Summit, organized by Travel Lane County’s Sports Commission, took place in early February 2018 in Eugene. Bringing together sports professionals, DMOs, tour companies, and more, the Summit aimed to strengthen Oregon sports events. Travel Oregon sponsored the event at the Platinum level. Lisa Itel, Director of Strategic Partnership Development, offered opening remarks highlighting Travel Oregon’s recent work in supporting the industry. Grants Manager Michelle Woodard participated on a grants panel with a focus on improving competitive grant applications as well as where to find additional resources. The Summit provided a good opportunity to tie in the importance of tourism to the sports sector, especially as preparation for the 2021 World Track and Field Championships ramps up.
Global Strategic Partnership Development Travel Oregon promoted Lisa Itel to the Global Strategic Partnerships staff as Director of Strategic Partnership Development March 1, 2018. Lisa is currently in the process of meeting with Travel Oregon teams and key industry partners to identify opportunities to optimize alignment across the industry and to build on existing and create new partnerships. Examples of this is are ongoing work with the Oregon Wine Board, the partnership with ORLAEF/Guest Service Gold program, Oregon Sports Authority and finalizing arrangements for the IAGTO event in Central Oregon.
Pg. 51 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Empower and equip Oregon’s tourism industry with power of travel and issue-oriented messages
INDUSTRY COMMUNICATIONS
• The communications team is ramping up for National Travel and Tourism Week (NTTW: May 6-13) by supplying our partners with toolkits to use in order to make it easy for them to share the messaging of the power of tourism. The toolkits will contain U.S. Travel assets that give national data, along with updated Oregon economic impact information. The toolkits will be distributed to all Governor’s Conference attendees via branded flash drives and will also be shared via a listserv with a link to the NTTW toolkit housed on Industry.TravelOregon.com. Additionally, Todd Davidson and Linea Gagliano will also conduct a statewide media tour, engaging with local media and partners throughout the state, highlighting the positive impacts the tourism industry has on local communities throughout the state.
• The Communications team convened a group of state and federal agencies (BLM, USFS, OPRD, Keep Oregon Green) to align wildfire prevention messaging. We will work together to highlight May as National Wildfire Prevention Awareness month, raising awareness among visitors and Oregonians of ways to keep Oregon green during our dry summer season. • The communications team will join Business Oregon, the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services, Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, Oregon Office of Emergency Management, Oregon Employment Department and the Oregon Secretary of State in helping form the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) by working together on Emergency Support Functions (ESF) 18 for business and industry.
• Lastly, the team convened a group of state and federal land managers to explore the possibility of creating one all-in pass that Oregonians or visitors can purchase to access all state and federal public lands. To create a better experience for guests visiting these cherished landscapes, Travel Oregon’s Communications and Destination Development teams will continue to work with these partners (USFS, BLM, OPRD, ODOT, National Parks, Oregon Marine Board, and ODFW) to hopefully find solutions to the many road blocks for this idea.
Pg. 52 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
RUN AN EFFECTIVE BUSINESS
Attract, develop and retain top talent
STAFFING Recruitment Update At the time of our last report we were actively recruiting for three positions, two of which were anticipated in the current year’s Commission adopted budget and one that was approved by the Commission in the budget for the prior biennium. As we’re proud to admit is true throughout the organization, we’ve filled these roles with great hires who will help make Oregon’s Tourism industry even stronger: • Grants Coordinator (Global Strategic Partnerships) o Jessica Otjen started with us in late February. Jessica brings experience that will be invaluable to the administration and monitoring of Travel Oregon’s competitive and matching grants programs. Jessica’s most recent role was at Pringle Elementary School, where she served as Office Manager. Additionally, Jessica owns her own photography business, so you may run into her around Oregon as she’s snapping photos of her favorite places. • Outdoor Recreation Specialist (Destination Development) o Stephen Hatfield started with us on March 1st. Stephen will take leadership of our outdoor recreation programming. Stephen is well known at Travel Oregon having served for the last 18 months as a member of our Oregon Outdoor Recreation Initiative Leadership Team. He’s also no stranger to Oregon’s outdoors, most recently serving six years as the Outdoor Programs & Outreach Manager at REI, where he led their outdoor adventure and philanthropy programs in the greater Portland region. Prior to REI, Stephen worked at the Forest Park Conservancy as the Stewardship Director. • Public Affairs Manager o Sara Morrissey will join our team in early May and brings a wealth of knowledge, skill and practical agency and policy experience that includes working with the Oregon Department of Transportation on the Historic Columbia River Highway project and work most recently on critical Oregon Levy related policy work. This work included strategy development and interacting with policy makers at the local, regional and federal level. We’ll have more information to share about Sara and her role at Travel Oregon in a future report. Meanwhile, we’re excited to welcome her to the team next month.
Global Sales Team Changes • Sales Manager, Americas o With Lisa Itel’s move to Strategic Partnership Development, her former job as Global Sales Manager, Americas, was opened internally. We’re excited to have
Pg. 53 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
former Account Manger Jenna (Markowick) Wheatley promoted into this role. Jenna will oversee all aspects of travel trade in the U.S., as well as focus on travel trade and media in Canada and Mexico. Jenna has shown continued enthusiasm and dedication to all markets for the last two years. She has been successful working with media and travel trade visiting Oregon, and has worked with the sales managers to lead delegations on trade shows and escorted press trips. • Account Manager o Jenna’s promotion led to her former role being opened internally, which resulted in another internal promotion. Elena Vizzini was promoted from Coordinator to Account Manager, effective in early April. Elena has continually demonstrated a positive, high-energy approach to her work and a commitment to excellence in whatever she puts her mind to. • Director o In order to backfill Petra Hackworth’s former Director duties for the Global Sales team, Greg Eckhart (Sales Manager, Asia) was promoted to Director. Greg’s increased responsibilities include oversight of two staff members (Global Sales Account Managers), the addition of Oceana to his sales territory, and working with Petra to lead the team. Greg’s seven years of dedication, focus, and leadership has opened up the Chinese market to all parts of Oregon, and his sincere relationship-building and persistence has created long lasting success and friendships with the Japanese travel trade and press.
Current Recruiting We are currently recruiting externally for the Global Sales Coordinator role vacated by Elena Vizzini’s promotion
Continuously review, improve and document policies and processes/procedures
Affirmative Action Plan The Governor’s office of Equity and Inclusion has directed all State agencies to draft affirmative action plans. Travel Oregon’s HR team met with representative from the Governor’s office and drafted our first affirmative action plan. Last month we met again and obtained approval on our Affirmative Action plan, which covers the remainder of this 2017- 19 biennium. In addition to undertaking an effort to train staff on the plan, we will also provide DEI related programming at the Governor’s Conference for our second time and will publish our plan to the industry website. It has been extremely encouraging that staff have continued to recognize the value and role of diversity in our workplace and in our work itself. We’re excited to formally begin this development process and look forward to sharing updates on our progress in the coming months.
Pg. 54 April Commission Meeting Bend, OR
Measure and drive employee engagement and satisfaction
Employee Engagement & Satisfaction Last December with the help of Coraggio Group, Travel Oregon executed our annual staff survey to identify and quantify the organization’s employee engagement. Our engagement work is based on the Gallup Q-12 survey which is administered globally. In addition to the engagement survey, this year we gathered input on organizational satisfaction across five categories: • Organization and Workplace • Executive Leadership • Culture • Career Development and Learning • Benefits and Compensation
The survey revealed our organization continues to enjoy the benefits of highly engaged staff. The outcomes included indications that the staff overwhelmingly find the mission and vision are clear and that the team is inspired by the work we do on behalf of Oregon’s tourism industry. With the help of Coraggio Group, we have identified three key focus areas the staff would like us to continue focusing on for improvement: 1. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 2. Policies & Procedures 3. Effective Meetings
Each focus area will be addressed by a cross-functional, volunteer team and supported by an executive sponsor. We’ll update you on the changes and progress that result in coming reports and intend to form these cross-functional teams in June.
Pg. 55