TOURISM TODAY An Industry Newsletter for Snohomish County-based Tourism Businesses September 2016 www.Snohomish.org TOURISM TODAY September 2016 Page 2 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: News You Can Use 3 Travel, Tourism & Hospitality 5 News from VIC Services 7 The Sports Pages 9 Around Snohomish County 11 Get Out & About 11 www.Snohomish.org TOURISM TODAY September 2016 Page 3 News You Can Use 7 Free Promotional Opportunities to Reach Visitors When business and leisure travelers visit Snohomish County, they want to play, explore, shop, dine, and sleep at places that fit their interests and budgets. They look for ideas on Snohomish.org, connect with us on social media, stop in one of our visitor information centers, or read about Snohomish County from articles or online postings written by travel writers we’ve assisted. They are looking for businesses like yours! The Snohomish County Tourism Bureau offers seven free promotional opportunities you can use to reach visitors. #1 Free Event Calendar Listing on Snohomish.org #5 Join in Our Industry Education Program Organizing an event in Snohomish County? List it for This program aims to educate Snohomish County hos- free on our event calendar at Snohomish.org. Our staff pitality staff about the tourism assets in our area, so will post it after review. We choose much of our con- that they can more effectively cross-promote to their tent for our newsletters, social media postings, and visitors by sharing their first-hand knowledge. You can sales outreach efforts from this events calendar. Go participate by offering discounted or free products, to www.snohomish.org/events-calendar to enter your tickets, services and more from your business for events information or email [email protected] if them to experience what you have to offer. To partici- you need help. pate, email [email protected]. #2 Free Business/Attraction Listing on Snohomish.org #6 Introduce Your Business to Our VIC Volunteers Any visitor-related service or attraction in Snohomish The Snohomish County Tourism Bureau operates County is eligible for a free listing on Snohomish.org. three visitor information centers that are staffed by Visit www.snohomish.org/explore to see our primary volunteers. Several times a year our volunteers go on categories, and if you feel your business would be a familiarization tours to various businesses so they can good fit, email [email protected]. see for themselves what our county has to offer, and in turn better promote these places to our visitors. For #3 Send Us Your Media Releases more information on making your business a stop on a Add [email protected] to your media distribution familiarization tour, email [email protected]. lists so we can stay informed and your publicize news and events accordingly. #7 Free Ad on Snohomish.org Buy advertising space in our bi-annual visitor guide #4 Connect with Us on Social Networks and get a free ad on our website. The guides are print- Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and ed and distributed Instagram; we’ll follow back and do our best to repost through our visitor infor- and retweet any relevant content. mation centers, mailed out in response to • www.facebook.com/SnoCoTourism requests from individu- • www.twitter.com/SnoCoTourism als, handed out at trade • www.instagram.com/SnohomishCountyTourism shows and local events, and made available at • www.facebook.com/SnoCoSports other locations display- • www.twitter.com/SnoCoSports ing tourism brochures within the region. Cur- rent and back copies are available for download on Snohomish.org as well. For more information, con- tact [email protected]. www.Snohomish.org TOURISM TODAY September 2016 Page 4 Last Chance to Register: American Indian 2016 WTA Tourism Summit, October 14 Tourism Conference, Sept. 12-14 Work is underway for the sixth annual Washington Tourism Alliance Summit. The summit features key- The 18th annual American Indian Tourism Conference note speaker Roger Dow, president and CEO of the is quickly approaching. This is your last chance to U.S. Travel Association. Panel speakers will provide an register for this important conference at the Tulalip update from the Legislative Workgroup and overview Resort Casino. of the WTA grassroots efforts, including how you can be more involved and next steps for all of us. The annual tourism conference provides educational forums that share knowledge and best practices from Mark your calendar for Friday, Oct. 14, from 8 a.m. tourism programs around the U.S. with tribes and to 5 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Seattle Airport (17338 tribal businesses. Expert speakers will share their ex- International Blvd.) across from SeaTac Airport. periences and provide resources and training to help tribes with their travel and tourism initiatives. More information including agenda, registration dates and hotel accommodations will be posted at “Cultural tourism can contribute to economic devel- www.watourismalliance.com. opment of tribal communities while allowing tribes to keep their culture alive and tell their story in their own WTA Legislative Workgroup Discussion way,” said Rowena Yeahquo, AIANTA Pacific Region board member and Northwest Technical Assistance Update Program director, in a press release. In the most recent Washington Tourism Alliance e-newsletter dated June/July 2016, Becky Bogard Attendees will learn more about tour packaging, and Kathryn Hedrick provided an update on work to attracting tour operators, creating itineraries, position- support state tourism promotion through the state’s ing their tribes for the international tourism market, legislature. They are lobbyists and legislative counsel tourism assessment and inventory development, new for the WTA. technologies and strategies for marketing and media, “A core group of legislators from tourism dependent protecting intellectual and cultural property, working districts and/or who serve in key committee positions with state and federal agencies, and more. in the state legislature came together with industry representatives in May to have the first of what will be Go to www.aitc2016.com for registration and more several informal meetings aimed at developing a long information. term, stable mechanism that will fund a statewide tourism marketing program. “Participating legislators included: Senators Sha- ron Brown (R., Kennewick) Kevin Ranker (D., Orcas Island), Christine Rolfes (D., Bainbridge Island) and Dean Takko (D., Longview); Representatives Cindy Ryu (R., Shoreline) Cary Condotta (R., Chelan), and Gael Tarleton (D., Seattle). Other legislators who have agreed to join the group include Reps. Drew MacEwen (R., Union), Andrew Barkis (R., Olympia), and Hans Zeiger (R., Puyallup). “Participants were briefed on how, and the level at which, other states fund local and statewide tourism Image courtesy of the AIANTA Pacific Region efforts. A substantial amount of time was dedicated to briefing and discussing the use of lodging taxes in Washington State given the particularly complicated laws which govern and the regional options which www.Snohomish.org TOURISM TODAY September 2016 Page 5 [WTA Legislative Workgroup Discussion Update cont.] have been instituted. Finally, the three major legisla- “The group will meet again in late July and most tive proposals from the past two years were described likely will have another meeting soon thereafter. It is and discussed. our goal to have the solid framework of a proposal in place to share and receive feedback on at the October “While the goal of this first meeting was to simply Tourism Summit. bring key legislators to the same table with industry and ensure we are all working from the same set of “We look forward to a fruitful discussion and believe facts/foundation, the end result was encouraging with this process will lead to a modified legislative proposal all legislators clearly understanding the impact tour- for the 2017 session.” ism has, sympathetic to the historic context which has brought us to where we are, and determined to find Go to www.watourismalliance.com for more informa- a solution that balances the industry needs and what tion including membership and marketing opportuni- they view as the state’s responsibility to contribute ties. some level of financial support. Discussions were pro- ductive and quite candid. The impact of the McCleary education decision on the budget is clearly a concern given the implication it has for the availability of state general funds. Additionally, the need to balance the state’s budget on a four year basis might also impact fund availability. Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Tourism Partners Promote County’s Venues at WSAE Executive Director Amy Spain and Group Sales Man- ager Brad Zorich attended the annual Washington So- ciety of Association Executives (WSAE) Conference in Spokane, June 12-14. This event brings together the leadership of Washington State’s association directors and staff along with tourism partners. The association meeting market is one of the most important business sectors for Snohomish County’s hotel and meetings venue partners. Representatives from Embassy Suites Lynnwood, Lyn- nwood Convention Center, and Tulalip Resort Casino joined Spain and Zorich to market the county’s array of meeting options and to network with key meeting planner decision makers. Over 120 WSAE members attended this event. The Snohomish County tourism partners established nu- merous new relationships and renewed past connec- Representatives from the Tulalip Resort Casino and other tions. venues participated in the WSAE Conference. www.Snohomish.org TOURISM TODAY September 2016 Page 6 WTA Announces Stanton-Masten Departure as Executive Director In the Washington Tourism Alliance’s June/July e-newsletter, the organization thanked Louise Stanton-Masten for her leadership as the organization’s executive director. “The Washington Tourism Alliance would like to thank Louise Stanton-Masten for over three years of valuable leadership as Executive Director of our organization. Under her stewardship, the WTA helped pass a bill that provided $1 million of bridge funding to the organization over the 2014-2015 biennium.