2019 Annual Destination Marketing & Management Report

“Tourism is like fire. Out of control, it can burn your house down. But if you harness that energy, you can cook your food with it.” Costas Christ, Natl. Geographic’s Legacy Award Chairman for Sustainable Tourism

Tourism, when managed responsibly, is a key economic development strategy for small, rural towns and counties, as well as big cities and countries. Since 2003, our mission has been “To enhance the economic prosperity of San Juan County by promoting the San Juan Islands as a preferred, year-round travel destination, while respecting and sustaining the Islands’ unique and diverse ecosystems, environments, lifestyles and cultures.”

Tourism is a top economic driver for San Juan County. The latest research by Dean Runyan Associates, released each spring, reveals that visitors spent over $251,000,000 in our county in 2018. Visitors “import” new dollars into our economy, which benefit small businesses and residents as these dollars circulate, and trickle down, throughout our Island communities. Tourism creates business opportunities and jobs. Tourism off-sets Islanders’ tax burdens when visitors pay local sales tax. Tourism helps improve residents’ quality of life by “subsidizing” a variety of restaurants and retailers. And tourism helps support and sustain many community assets which residents often take for granted such as parks, farmers markets, museums, community theatres, artist co-ops, wineries, festivals and events, and so much more.

Destination marketing and management are essential to our Islands’ successful tourism economy. Tourism is big business for most towns, cities, counties, states and countries around the world, again, when managed responsibly. All compete for visitors and their hard-earned dollars. One magazine article, online or print ad, social media post, or wedding show display can result in couples visiting for relaxing or romantic weekends, families staying for an entire week, or brides and grooms inviting 100+ guests to spend a couple of nights and thousands of dollars locally. Below you’ll find our 2019 destination marketing and management highlights. 2019 Numbers at a Glance 299 business and non-profit members/partners 12% increase in County lodging tax and 10% increase in sales tax 0.69% decrease in Friday Harbor lodging tax and 8% increase in sales tax 23,000,000+ paid advertising impressions in print, online, radio & TV in the Seattle market Conservative 246,000,000 media reach via 422+ print & online tracked travel articles Media advertising equivalency value of $2,300,000+ 44 journalists & photographers hosted on 35 press trips 63 requests fulfilled for photos & b-roll video 1,124,997 web sessions (down 3.9%) and 4,271,179 pageviews (down 0.57%) 20,542 Facebook followers and 5,015 Twitter followers 18,207 E-newsletter subscribers and 7,000 Instagram followers Approx. 940 calls, 917 emails, 1,901 website, and 257 ad requests for individual visitor info/brochures Approx. 88,000 travel brochures printed/distributed; approximately 300 wedding brochures distributed

About Us – The Business Association of San Juan County, dba San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau (SJIVB), was formed in 1999. We are a non-profit, 501(c)6 economic development agency responsible for competitively marketing the Islands as a premier, year- round travel destination. The SJIVB has served as San Juan County’s and the Town of Friday Harbor’s contracted, locally-staffed destination marketing organization (DMO) since 2003. In the last few years, we, like many DMOs from around the world, have evolved into a destination marketing and management organization as we continue to focus more keenly on responsible, stewardship-minded tourism which balances the quality of our economy with the quality of residents’ lives, the environment, and visitor experiences.

Our Mission – See first paragraph.

Our Goals – 1) To help strengthen San Juan County’s year-round economy; 2) To foster an appreciation of San Juan County’s maritime and rural ways of life, as well as its history, arts and culture; 3) To communicate San Juan County’s environmental stewardship messages to visitors; and, 4) To enhance visitors’ travel experiences countywide.

Membership – We gained 26 new members for a total of 299 on all four, ferry-served Islands and the mainland. We held our Annual Spring Membership Luncheon on Orcas Island May 10, and our Annual Fall Membership Luncheon on San Juan Island Nov. 6. We also held three “Brown Bag” lunches – May 2 and November 21 on Lopez Island, and Nov. 19 on Orcas Island, in partnership with the Chambers. We coordinated “Social Media Tips & Tricks” workshops in April on Lopez and Orcas Islands featuring information on social platforms (including the new TripAdvisor update), Google listings, and content creation. Our Marketing Content & Outreach Coordinator made it a priority to travel to Orcas and Lopez Islands to visit with members and potential members, and to attend Chamber of Commerce meetings. Her goal was to spend a day on Orcas Island approximately twice a month, and on Lopez Island once a month, except during the busy summer season; she made 19 visits to the two Islands, and met with 36 members and 6 non-members.

We emailed our members two separate e-newsletters -- our Marketing News & Opportunities e-news (approximately twice a month) and our INFOcus member e-news. Three of the latter were emailed out in 2019 -- in early spring, early summer and fall. Its purpose is to keep members informed about what’s new in our local the tourism industry.

Board of Directors – Our Board represented community leaders on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Islands and included: President - Meaghan Felso (formerly McCormick), Friday Harbor House, San Juan Island; Treasurer - Anna Maria de Freitas, Harrison House/Tucker House/Coho Restaurant, SJI; Secretary - Lydia Miller, Pebble Cove Farm, Orcas Island; Lopez Chamber Rep - Christa Campbell; Orcas Chamber Rep - Lance Evans; San Juan Chamber Rep - Becki Day; County LTAC Rep - Laura Saccio, Earthbox Inn & Spa/Bird Rock Hotel, SJI; Anthony Rovente, The Edenwild Boutique Inn, Lopez Island; Holly Southern, Kingfish Inn/Restaurant, Orcas Island; SJC Economic Development Council Rep - Victoria Compton; and Appointed Outdoor Activities Rep - Sally Thomsen, San Juan Kayak Expeditions, SJI.

Staff, Consultants & Professional Development – Marketing staff included Deborah Hoskinson (formerly Hopkins), Executive/Marketing Director; Barbara Marrett, Communications/Film Liaison/Stewardship Manager; Carole Sue Conran, Visitor/Membership Services Manager retired and was replaced by Kimberly Albert in October; Amy Nesler, Communications/Stewardship Coordinator, and Erin Wygant, Marketing Content/Outreach Coordinator. We contracted with Meaghan Rader of Rader Bookkeeping for approximately 7 hours per week. We continued to work with consultants The Communications Group and No. 10 Web Company/Cellar Door Media, both in the Seattle/Puget Sound area.

In order to continue to be innovative and nimble in the ever-changing world of travel and destination marketing, staff attended the annual DMA West (Destination Marketing Assn. of the West) Tourism Tech Summit and Education Summit, as well as educational seminars presented by Public Relations Society of America Travel & Tourism Section Conference, Travel & Words Travel Writers Conference, and North American Travel Journalists Association Conference.

DESTINATION MARKETING & MANAGEMENT HIGHLIGHTS

We implemented the following destination marketing and management strategies to create awareness of the San Juan Islands brand, primarily targeting the growing Seattle area in order to put “heads in beds” and “feet on streets.”

Brand Positioning Statement – “The SJIVB helps people imagine and plan a getaway for themselves, and their family and/or friends, that will reconnect them to a quality of life where there’s breathtaking beauty, rich activities, and wonder and discovery encased in a soothing, rural, small-town atmosphere, where life feels a little slower paced and a little safer.”

Destination Management & Visitor Education – Our quality of life and economy depend on our beautiful environment. We are mindful of balancing vibrant economic development with island/community culture, stewardship ethics and visitor education.  We submitted a 2020 County LTAC grant application requesting funds so the County can hire a tourism management consultant to begin on a Tourism Management Master Plan process in 2020. We are still waiting to hear the outcome.  We produced a stewardship video as part of our “Voices of the Islands” series, encouraging visitors to experience the Islands gently, to help protect and preserve them, www.visitsanjuans.com/responsible-travel-tips/stewardship-san-juan-islands.  We filmed a three-part Leave No Trace video series using local kids to spread cute, humorous messages about properly handling garbage, fire and respecting wildlife, www.visitsanjuans.com/island-kids-explain. (More coming in 2020.)  We created a San Juan Islands pledge (www.visitsanjuans.com/responsible-travel-tips/san-juan-islands-pledge), asking visitors to commit to being mindful while they’re in the Islands. Incorporating the pledge into campaigns and other promotions is in progress.  We’ve been posting the seven local principles of Leave No Trace on our website and in our travel brochure for several years, linking to www.VisitSanJuans.com/leave-no-trace.  We posted a new Responsible Travel Tips landing page (www.visitsanjuans.com/responsible-travel-tips) promoting stewardship messaging with links to our webpages encouraging responsible wildlife watching, ways to travel green, Leave No Trace, Be Whale Wise, voluntourism, etc.  We carefully monitor the wording of articles mentioning wildlife viewing and interaction, and make suggestions or corrections before (when possible) or after an article is published.  We encourage visiting media to incorporate stewardship messaging into their articles, and host media guests for stewardship events such as the annual Friends of Moran Cleanup in April which resulted in an article.  We continued to assist the SJC Environmental Resources Dept. in the distribution of their LTAC-funded San Juan Islands Stewardship Guide to lodging properties for their guests.  We created “Top 40 Reasons the San Juan Islands are 4EverGreen” and a press release to commemorate the 40th anniversary of three local stewardship organizations and 37 other organizations involved in Islands stewardship.

“Take only memories, leave only footprints.” – Chief Seattle

Website – All of our marketing strategies drive consumers to our website, www.VisitSanJuans.com, our #1 marketing tool. We continued to contract with No. 10 Web Company/Cellar Door Media to upgrade our website with new trends and technology, and we continuously updated it in-house with new content – new information, experiences, photos, etc. We added 9 new blogs, along with a stewardship landing page with multiple links to stewardship-focused content. New stewardship content includes a pledge, “Island Kids Explain” video series (which won the “Best Idea” award at the DMA West Education Summit), and a “What Does Stewardship Mean to You?” page with our new two-minute stewardship video. 2019 also saw the successful implementation of the Book>Direct lodging availability and pricing calendar. Since the widget was installed in August, Book>Direct generated 46,375 referrals to member properties, resulting in approximately 1,278 bookings for an estimated total booking revenue of $497,814.47. Book>Direct generates monthly, quarterly and year-end reports that help us track our progress and better serve our members, so we can better compete with websites like Booking.com, etc.

 According to Google Analytics, our 2019 web ‘sessions’ were down -3.9% (1,124,997 vs. 1,170,670) year-over-year. In general, DMO website traffic growth has slowed due to the myriad of travel websites in the marketplace including Google Trips, TripAdvisor, Airbnb, VRBO, etc., however, according to recent national research conducted, DMO websites are still relevant travel and education tools.  Age groups who viewed our website were as follows: 18-24 = 6%, 25-34 = 29%, 35-44 = 22%, 45-54 = 17%, 55-64 = 15%, and 65+ = 11%.  72% of our users were new and 28% were returning users. Females accounted for 58%, males for 42%.  Technology used to view our website: desktop 42% (-3% YOY), mobile 49% (+3% YOY), and tablet 9% (-1% YOY).  Viewers were from the following locations: U.S. 92% (WA 39%, CA 10%, OR 6%, NY 5%), Canada 2% (BC 69%, ON 14%)

Social Media – We continued to focus the majority of our social media efforts on the major three platforms – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Over the past year, we’ve seen our number of followers and levels of engagement dramatically increase, thanks to an increased use of video content and strategic tagging. Our new “Green Business” video series on social media highlights eco-friendly businesses in the San Juans and helped expand our social presence. These three videos have reached an estimated 8,400 people on Facebook, and on Instagram generated 21,000 impressions, 62 saves, and 161 directs to our profile. See www.facebook.com/VisitSanJuans, https://twitter.com/visitSJIslands, and www.instagram.com/visitsanjuans/.

20,542 followers 5,015 followers 7,000 followers Up 23.6% YOY Up 4.6% YOY Up 121% YOY @visitsanjuans @visitsjislands @visitsanjuans

E-Newsletters – This year we sent 13 e-newsletters, including a special wedding edition in February. We increased our subscribers to 18,207, up +26.3% over last year, with a consistent open rate of about 28%. We also updated our member e- newsletter, adding social media and green tips, along with a member spotlight section.

Travel Brochure – We continued to partner with the three Chambers of Commerce to produce a “family” of 2019 brochures which look similar in branding. We published 88,000 updated copies, which included the seven principles of Leave No Trace and our two State Scenic Byways. Brochures were sent out as fulfillment for visitor information requests via phone, email, website, and advertising leads; in media kits; at wedding and foodie shows; and were distributed by Certified Folder Display Services in approximately 550 locations in NW Washington, on all Washington State Ferries, and at the Anacortes and Sidney B.C. terminals.

Regional Travel Guides – We placed ads in key, regional, ‘portal’ travel guides, and their corresponding websites: (1) Seattle Visitors Guide (350,000 readership each, winter/spring and summer/fall) and www.VisitSeattle.org, and (2) Washington State Visitors Guide (937,500 readership) and www.ExperienceWA.com. We also placed a scenic byway ad and listing in the Scenic Washington State 365 Scenic Drives & Road Trips Guide (400,000 circulation).

Seasonal Advertising Campaigns – Thanks to a lodging tax grant from the Town of Friday Harbor, which supplements our County contract, we continued to retain The Communications Group to create and manage seasonal advertising campaigns targeted to the Seattle area, highlighting Winter Romance, Spring/Spring Break, Fall ‘Savor the San Juans,” Holidays, and Meetings & Retreats, in addition to our “Voices of the Islands” campaign, in it’s second year. These mixed media campaigns were placed in print, online, social media, radio and TV, garnering approximately 23,000,000+ ad impressions. We also advertised in the very last issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine, after 35 years of publication, in Dec. 2019/Jan. 2020, a “keeper” issue with the cover story “Best of the World – 25 Trips to Take in 2020,” and have received 257 leads to date requesting our brochure. A picture is worth a thousand words – below are samples of our 2019 ads. Our TV ads and “Voices of the Islands” videos can be found on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/visitSJIslands under the “Home” and “Videos” tabs. (Detailed seasonal campaign reports are available.)

Winter Romance Campaign General Ad Spring Campaign

Friday Harbor-SJI Ad/Video Lopez Island Ad/Video Orcas Island Ad/Video

Wellness “Voices of the Islands” Ad/Video Stewardship “Voices” Ad/Video History “Voices” Ad/Video

Fall/’Savor the San Juans’ Campaign Artist “Voices” Ad/Video Holidays Campaign

Photo Shoots – We coordinated spring photo shoots on Orcas and San Juan Islands with two social media influencers/photographers, to capture photos for media relations, social media and our website.

Videos – Short videos are a top trend in destination marketing. As a result, we continued to work with The Communications Group and Rock Island Media (formerly of Orcas Island) to produce a new stewardship video, as well as wellness and history/heritage videos as part of our “Voices of the Islands” series, which are promoted in our ad campaigns, www.VisitSanJuans.com/Voices. We also filmed a three-part Leave No Trace video series using local kids to spread cute, humorous messages about properly handling garbage, fire and respecting wildlife, www.visitsanjuans.com/island-kids-explain. This series won a “Best Idea” award at the DMA West Education Summit. Three “Green Business” videos, produced in-house and shared on social media, highlighted stewardship efforts of local business. We also funded individual island videos for Lopez and San Juan, in partnership with the Chambers of Commerce, found here: www.visitsanjuans.com/about-the-islands/lopez- island and www.visitsanjuans.com/about-the-islands/san-juan-island. (The Orcas Chamber had previously produced a video with Rock Island Media several years ago, www.visitsanjuans.com/about-the-islands/orcas-island.)

Destination Weddings – Destination weddings, honeymoons and anniversaries are big business for the Islands – one bride and groom can invite hundreds of guests here who book lodgings, eat in restaurants, shop, kayak, golf, spa, etc.  We distributed approximately 300 of our six-page destination wedding brochures, plus travel brochures, at the annual Seattle and Portland Wedding Shows January 12-13, and to brides-to-be who called our office. In addition, we partnered with The Journal, Sounder and Weekly to distribute a 24-page wedding resource guide at both shows. As a follow up to the shows, we emailed a special edition e-newsletter in February to brides who provided their emails.  We placed a full-page advertorial in Seattle’s top wedding guidebook, the B&E Wedding Guide.

Agritourism & Culinary Tourism – We’ve been partnering with the Ag community since 2008 when we created “Savor the San Juans” as the focus of our fall marketing campaign, and we also partner with them on some spring marketing.  We exhibited at “Taste Washington” in March (which included 235 WA wineries and bites from over 65 local restaurants) to promote Island Grown and Island Made products, Savor the San Juans, and our growing “gourmet archipelago.”  We exhibited at “Red, White & Brew” in July, where we poured samples from San Juan Vineyard, Orcas Island Winery, Doe Bay Wine Company, and Lopez Island Vineyards. Products for local breweries, cideries and distilleries were also on display.  We continued to help fund a full-page map/advertisement in the 2019 Tilth Alliance Farm Guide state-wide directory, titled “Discover Heritage Tastes, Savor the San Juans,” which featured the San Juan County Product Guide and the Farm to Market Guide. 100,000 copies were published in April and distributed to approximately 275,000 readers throughout Puget Sound in over 700 locations. See page 28 at https://farm-guide.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/FarmGuide2019.pdf.  We contributed resources to help make Ursa Minor’s first annual (BE)WILDER PNW chef event happen in September.

Heritage Tourism – For the eighth year, we partnered with the Town of Friday Harbor; the Orcas, Lopez and San Juan Historical Museums; and the San Juan Island National Historical Park to help promote National Historic Preservation Month in May as “History Lives Here: Heritage Month in the San Juan Islands.” It was publicized via a press release to regional media, social media and on our website’s home page and history page, www.visitsanjuans.com/history-lives-here.

NW Washington Partnership Marketing  The New York Times Travel Show – We attended, for the first time, The New York Times Travel Show, January 25-27, since it conveniently took place following the International Media Marketplace we attended. We shared a booth with Whidbey- Camano Islands and Olympia DMOs to keep costs down. We held a press conference at the show promoting visitation to the Islands. The three destinations were the only representatives from the State of Washington.  Sea-Tac Spotlight Program – DMOs from around the state were again invited to apply for highly-reduced advertising space at Sea-Tac via a lottery system. We were chosen for one of 24 spots available January-March. This enabled us to secure Alaska Airlines Concourse C with a 62”w x 43”h diorama. This is their largest terminal, serving 25% of Sea-Tac’s passengers, approximately 773,000 domestic and 12,000 intl. visitors. (We were also chosen for January-March 2020.)  Research shows that international visitors stay longer and spend more money. As a result, we take advantage of many low- cost marketing opportunities offered by our partners at Visit Seattle, the Port of Seattle and the Washington Tourism Alliance (WTA) to diversify our investments in potential visitors. In June, our information was included on a WA State thumbdrive given during appointments at U.S. Travel Association’s annual IPW Marketplace; in July we hosted a Singapore Airlines “familiarization” tour; in August we joined a partnership with Visit Seattle and top tour operator Knecht Reisen of German-speaking markets in a WA/OR brochure; and in September we hosted a “fam” tour for Little America of The Netherlands, and met individually with more than a dozen intl. travel trade, while they were in Seattle on “fam” tours.

Scenic Byways – We continued to promote the two SJIs Scenic Byways by denoting them on the maps in our annually printed brochure, on our website, on WSDOT’s scenic byways web page, on its own Facebook page, and in the 100-page Scenic Washington State 365 Scenic Drives & Road Trips Guide. Local shopkeepers on Orcas and San Juan Islands continued to promote it via popular merchandise including posters, wooden signs, mugs, coasters, etc.

Meetings & Retreats – We ran winter, spring and fall meetings/retreats ad campaigns online and in print in several Pacific Northwest meeting guides and magazines, including Visit Seattle’s Meeting Planners Guide. Our webpages can be found at these links: www.visitsanjuans.com/meetings, www.visitsanjuans.com/meetings-venues-summary and www.visitsanjuans.com/meetings-venues. Our new team building webpage can be found at: www.visitsanjuans.com/team- building. We also updated featured photos on our website, taking care to include diverse groups of people participating in a myriad of activities on each Island.

Media Relations – The San Juan Islands are one of the few destinations in the state that has a dedicated media relations staff, an important reason why the Islands consistently enjoy excellent media coverage. Media Blitzes (when we travel to meet with top travel editors), media marketplaces, press releases, comprehensive media pages on our website, and hosting journalists on press trips are a few of the ways we proactively engage media in order to “earn” media coverage.

Press Trips – In our continuing efforts to court top publications and influential journalists, we hosted or assisted 44 journalists, influencers and photographers on 35 press trips. Among the publications represented were Japan Airlines magazine, Asiana Air magazine, Jetsetter.com, UK’s The Sunday Times, Australia’s The TravellerNewsletter.com, YourTango.com, Washington Tourism Guide, Reishonger.com (Dutch travel site), The London Times, Monocle magazine, Lufthansa’s Exclusive magazine, NW Travel & Life magazine, Edible Seattle magazine, UK’s Telegraph, WashingtonBeerBlog.com, and Fortune magazine. We received approximately $16,500 worth of in-kind support from member businesses that hosted lodging, meals and activities for visiting media, while our budget paid approximately $10,000 towards hosting media.

Media Marketplaces, Conferences & Sales Missions – Funded by our Friday Harbor lodging tax grant, as well as our County and membership budgets, we attended four, key, media marketplaces/conferences to meet with travel media/editors, and learn media relations tips and trends. These included International Media Marketplace (IMM), Travel & Words NW Travel & Lifestyle Writers Conference, North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) annual meeting, and PRSA Travel & Tourism Section annual meeting. We pitched story ideas to approximately 80 writers, editors and television producers at these conferences. Publications represented included Northwest Travel & Life, GRAY magazine, Men’s Journal, The New York Times, AAA’s Westways magazine, Midwest Living, Travel + Leisure, Sunset, and National Geographic Traveler.

Media Coverage – We tracked coverage of the Islands in over 422 print and online articles. The outlets producing the highest reach and ad value for a feature article were TheWashingtonPost.com (58m), Saveur magazine in print and online (39m), TheAtlantic.com (22m), Thrilllist.com ((12m), MSN.com (6m), The Seattle Times x 4 (2.9m each), TheBostonGlobe.com (2.7m), OregonLive.com (1.7m), NewYorkTimes.com x 2 (1m each), YourTango.com (1.6m), and Sydney Morning Herald’s Traveller supplement (.5m). Many of these articles also appeared in print editions, however, our media tracking service (Meltwater) only tracks online articles, and we may not always see the print edition. According to Meltwater, online reach for July–December was 91,000,000, adding up to a total of 246,000,000 reach for 2019. Ad equivalency value for July–December was $800,000, adding up to a total of approximately $2,300,000 in advertising value for 2019.

Sailing the San Juans Japan Airlines – San Juan Islands Three Island Distilleries San Juan Island

Best Camp Sites – Doe Bay Local Luxury – Doe Bay Largest Ferry System in U.S. Island Hopping in WA

Media Leads – We responded to and/or shared 64 significant media leads with our members, generated from our marketing efforts, as well as efforts by the Washington Tourism Alliance, Visit Seattle and the Port of Seattle. This is an important tool to stay top of mind, without the expense of hosting media.

Inclusion in “best” or “top” lists is often the result of our responding to a time-sensitive media query through a third-party service called HARO (Help A Reporter Out). We are particularly proud that Orcas Island was included in the New York Times list of “52 Places to Visit in 2019.” Stories in July–December included these high-reach “best” lists (ranked by reach):

“The Country’s Eight Most Beautiful Campgrounds,” The Washington Post “The 10 Most Beautiful Towns in Washington,” The Culture Trip “The 50 Counties Where People Live the Longest,” MSN.com “10 Quintessential Ways to Enjoy Summer in the Pacific Northwest,” TravelMSN.com “5 of the Most Beautiful Island Escapes for American Business Travelers,” CEOWorldMagazine.com “The Best Well-Being Destinations in the World,” Russal Gear “5 Best Boating Destinations You Need to Visit,” Travel Daily News “The 10 Most Haunted Places on the West Coast,” The Travel.com “25 Best Washington Day Trips,” VacationIdea.com “Best Places to Spend Spring Break in the U.S.,” TravelWeekly.com “20 Fall Hikes You Can Do Right Now,” Backpacker.com “25 Best Small Town Main Streets in America to Visit ASAP,” MSN.com (Eastsound) “The Prettiest Beach Town in Every State,” CoastalLiving.com (Friday Harbor)

For top stories, see www.visitsanjuans.com/san-juan-islands-news. We continue to enjoy significant coverage as an emerging foodie destination. Coverage of whale and wildlife viewing, glamping (“glamorous” camping), kayaking, hiking, biking and the Islands as a girlfriend’s getaway, and a romantic and family travel destination continues. Islands’ 4th of July celebrations and island beers received strong media attention this year as well.

International Media – Our privileged partnerships with Visit Seattle and the Port of Seattle give us access to an outstanding international media market. We worked with Visit Seattle to bring four media reps from Japan, two from Korea, and one from Australia this spring. Later in the year, we hosted journalists writing for the UK’s Telegraph newspaper, Lufthansa’s Exclusive magazine, and Britain’s Monocle magazine. Our partnership with the Port of Seattle also resulted in hosting a British journalist writing for The London Times.

Meltwater Insight Report – We contract with this media tracking service to create semi-annual and annual reports utilizing data from travel articles and social media tracked throughout the year. The reports help measure the effectiveness of our communications strategies and see which topics received the most traction, when and where.

Television, Radio, Film Industry & Video Production – We are the State’s official film liaison for San Juan County, and work closely with Washington Film Works to respond to leads through its office, as well as our own leads. Film, radio, TV show productions and catalog shoots included: Eddie Bauer Kids catalog shoot, Croc’s footwear shoot, and a scout trip by LL Bean for possible 2020 catalog shoot. King5’s ‘New Day Northwest’ and ‘Evening Magazine’ each created a program on Orcas Island. King5 ‘Evening Magazine’ also produced a story on Stuart Island, and another ‘Evening Magazine’ feature segment highlighted Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan Island. ABC’s Rock the Park TV show filmed in spring and aired in fall on many affiliate stations across the country. NBC’s Today Show filmed and aired an episode about Orcas Island and Girl Meets Dirt which aired throughout the country. HGTV did an episode of Island Hunters featuring a home in Friday Harbor. We were a guest on San Francisco’s “On the Go with John Hamilton” travel program on KGO to promote quiet season visitation. The San Juans were featured on episode one of Britain’s ITV Islands of America series which aired this year, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5Jt40gIefs&t=597s. Also airing this year, BBC’s Great Railroad Journeys featured the San Juan Island National Historical Park. Dog’s Life TV and Brian Leath Productions, filming for the BBC, were also here this fall for filming. The Visitors Bureau does not pay for these priceless promotions. Film crews lodged in the Islands and spent money at local businesses without hosting from the Visitors Bureau.

New Niche Info for Media – We continue to create “one-sheets” to make it easy for media to cover our top tourism niches. The latest is “Top Reasons for Art Lovers to Visit the San Juan Islands,” http://bit.ly/2Z7kPNf. It is found on the media page of our website along with many other media resources, www.visitsanjuans.com/media.

Photos & B-roll Video – We are often asked to provide photos for upcoming books, articles, and promotional materials, as well as b-roll (video clips) for films and television, all of which bring new business to the Islands. We fulfilled 63 requests for photos and b-roll, and hired two photographers to add more photos to our image bank.

Government/Port/WA State Ferries Relations  Barbara is a Port of Friday Harbor Commissioner; she helps collaborate with the Port on advertising, media relations, events and shared tourism issues.  Deborah continued to represent tourism and the Scenic Byways on the 7-person SJC Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC).

Community/Islands Relations  Tourism impacts many Islands’ organizations’ missions, and as a result, various staff are members of several committees including the Stewardship Network of SJC, Salish Sea Association of Marine Naturalists, Leave No Trace Committee, and we participate with the Ag community on various projects. We also partnered with the Terrestrial Managers and their consultants by providing our membership/business contacts for their late spring tourism impact surveys.  For the second year, we offered $1,000 scholarships to all three Islands’ public high schools, to seniors pursuing degrees in tourism/hospitality or a related business/marketing degree. We awarded the scholarships at their graduation ceremonies.  Since many Islanders do not know what the Visitors Bureau does or how we differ from the local Chambers of Commerce, Barbara gave three PowerPoint presentations on San Juan Island explaining our mission to balance the promotion of tourism with the protection of the Islands through visitor education. Talks were given to the Lions Club, Rotary Club and the League of Women Voters. (More presentations on San Juan, Orcas and Lopez Islands are planned for 2020.)  We created a new page on our website “How Tourism Benefits the San Juan Islands.” This FAQ format helps explain what we do and why we do it: https://www.visitsanjuans.com/how-tourism-benefits-san-juan-islands.  We collaborated with the Pacific Whale Watch Association to produce a press release about their new voluntary stewardship actions to help protect Southern Resident orcas. A travel writer who received it printed it in full on her website, https://travelswithtam.com/whale-watching-tour/ .  We wrote a protest letter to BLM regarding the San Juan Islands National Monument Management Plan, requesting no dispersed camping nor the discharge of firearms on monument property.

Crisis Communications – We continued to update our Crisis Communications Plan and forge stronger relationships with local first responders, communications managers, and the SJC Department of Emergency Management (DEM). We participated in the DEM’s “Disaster Preparedness for Small Businesses” course this spring.

VISITOR SERVICES HIGHLIGHTS

SJIVB Visitor Services – We answered approximately 940 phone calls and 917 emails requesting visitor information and/or a travel brochure, and received 1,901 requests for brochures via our website. We sent out 7,611 brochures to individuals, DMOs, Chambers, AAAs, businesses, etc. A majority of our inquiries came from the following states: #1 California, #2 Washington, #3 Oregon, #4 Colorado, #5 Texas, #6/#7/#8 Arizona/Illinois/Michigan tied, #9 Florida, and #10 Wisconsin.

Chambers of Commerce & Visitor Information Services – We continued our partnerships with the three Chambers of Commerce/Visitor Information Centers. Each Chamber Director has a voting seat on our Board of Directors. SJIVB staff attend as many San Juan, Orcas and Lopez Chamber meetings/luncheons as possible throughout the year. Our phone system refers callers to each of the three Chamber offices for Island-specific visitor information.

2019 BUDGET

Our budget includes the following revenue sources and investments/expenses. The County Auditor received monthly, detailed invoices, and the Friday Harbor Treasurer received seasonal campaign/project invoices.

Revenue Sources: County lodging tax contract $ 476,491.00 (58%) Friday Harbor lodging tax grant $ 180,538.00 (22%) Membership dues, website ads, additional listings $ 169,976.00 (20%) Total $ 827,005.00

Investments/Expenses: Seasonal & meetings/retreats ad campaigns (media buys & mgmt.) $ 243,120.00 (29.4%) Media relations (media marketplaces, press trips, tracking, etc.) $ 40,854.00 (5%) Website (Drupal 8 upgrades, hosting, maintenance, new technology, etc.) $ 61,395.00 (7.4%) Other mktg. & mgmt. (brochures, travel trade, research, stewardship, etc.) $ 76,825.00 (9.2%) Visitor services (phones & postage) $ 6,795.00 (0.8%) Marketing personnel (5 FTE) (payroll, taxes, benefits, prof. dev.) $ 348,932.00 (42.2%) Administration (rent, internet, insurance, bookkeeping, etc.) $ 49,084.00 (6%) Total $ 827,005.00

TOURISM INDICATORS FOR TRACKING & MEASURING YEAR-END RESULTS

TOURISM INDICATORS 2016 2017 2018 2019 % Change 2018 to 2019 County Lodging Tax – “Special 2%” $703,318 $739,265 $785,959 $880,403 +12% County Sales Tax $4,040,043 $4,394,330 $4,550,397 $5,018,226 +10.28% Friday Harbor Lodging Tax – “Special 2%”* $227,547* $233,104* $243,647* $241,942* -0.69%* Friday Harbor Sales Tax $1,151,827 $1,225,103 $1,298,904 $1,404,699 +8% Lopez Island Lodging Tax $60,745 $58,838 $48,177 $50,310 +4.42% Orcas Island Lodging Tax $353,379 $374,461 $407,785 $446,419 +9.47% San Juan Island Lodging Tax* $289,316* $305,850* $328,364* $383,678* +16.8%* WSF Anacortes to San Juans Total Riders 2,009,438 2,018,494 2,046,940 2,025,923 -1.0% WSF Anacortes to Lopez Island Total Riders 318,390 323,960 323,532 317,329 -1.9% WSF Anacortes to Orcas Island Total Riders 668,957 672,272 676,969 677,400 +0.1% WSF Anacortes to FH/SJI Total Riders 889,217 886,383 904,886 896,384 -0.9% * Friday Harbor lodging tax is collected separately from San Juan Island lodging tax

IN CONCLUSION

According to the tourism indicators above, tourism appeared to be pretty healthy during 2019. Based on the differences between Town of Friday Harbor and individual Island’s rates of lodging tax growth, we’re presuming that more, or new, VRBOs and Airbnbs from around the County are collecting and reporting lodging tax. Washington State Ferries reported that more than a third of their year-over-year decline came in February when several snowstorms hit the region; our February lodging tax collections throughout the County and Town were very varied and likely didn’t affect our overall ferry numbers much.

We look forward to the continued, positive economic impact that our destination marketing and management strategies— paired with the three Chambers’ visitor information services programs, and our members’ individual marketing efforts—will bring to our Islands and our stewardship-minded tourism industry in the future.

We will continue to be mindful of the delicate balance between our environment, residents’ quality of life, and our economy as we move forward with responsible tourism marketing and management strategies, determined in partnership with our members, Chambers of Commerce, and stakeholders on each Island. We will also continue to encourage the County to produce a Tourism Management Master Plan, with the help of a tourism consultant, in 2020.

We thank the San Juan County Council, Friday Harbor Town Council, County and Town Administrators, County and Town LTAC members, and our Board of Directors and members for their support and investment in destination marketing and management.

For further information or questions, please contact Deborah Hoskinson, Executive/Marketing Director, 378-3277 ext. 5, [email protected], or Meaghan Felso, Board President, Innkeeper, Friday Harbor House, [email protected].

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