TOURISM TODAY
September/October 2002
In this issue:
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Fall campaign features sampler, print ads, radio and online banners
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2002 Fall/Winter Event & Recreation Guide Debuts at State Fair
Build
Wisconsin tours the state
Secretary Speros joined Governor McCallum and Lt. Governor Farrow to present the Governor's Build Wisconsin initiative to local business owners, government officials and tourism leaders in Platteville, La Crosse, Hudson and Osceola.
Lt. Governor Farrow presented a Joint Effort Marketing (JEM) check to Osceola and St. Croix Falls communities for their September Riverfest. In La Crosse, the Governor toured the La Crosse Wisconsin Travel Information Center and presented a commendation to tourism employee Paul Dyer, who aided a kidnapped woman seeking help in the center. Also in La Crosse, Lt. Governor Farrow joined Sec. Speros at Riverfront, the sheltered workshop that handles the Department's publication fulfillment.
Throughout the stops, the Governor and Lt. Governor spoke about the Build Wisconsin initiative and the role tourism plays in the state's economy.
"Tourism plays an important role in the Build Wisconsin initiative," Governor McCallum said to local tourism officials. "Besides being a large contributor to the economy, tourism also offers a higher quality of life that attracts businesses and workers to the state."
The Build Wisconsin initiative is a vision for future economic development and growth, and provides a roadmap on how to achieve the strategic objectives. The Build Wisconsin program seeks to raise per capita income by increasing education, changing tax policies, and improving the business climate by using industrial "clusters" - geographic concentrations of businesses or institutions from a particular field such as biotechnology or manufacturing.
Visit www.buildwi.org for more information on the Governor's Build Wisconsin initiative.
Increasing Tourism's Visibility at the next Economic Summit
The Governor's Council on Tourism recently met with state and university economic development leaders to discuss the tourism industry's role in the next Wisconsin Economic Summit and other state economic development initiatives.
The last two Economic Summits drew over 1,000 leaders of business, government and education to examine Wisconsin's economy and develop an economic strategy. The Economic Summit III is scheduled for October 14-16 at the Midwest Express Center in Milwaukee.
UW Economic Development Consultant Richard Wegner asked council members, "What does the tourism industry want their role to be at Economic Summit III and how can the UW system help tourism?"
"The tourism industry wants to participate in the summit as a leader in the economy," Wisconsin Department of Tourism Secretary Moose Speros answered. "We would like to see the UW system and the Economic Summit get the word out that tourism is a revenue-generating industry and an important factor in Wisconsin's economic success."
Council members formed an action committee that is creating summit activities focusing on tourism, including:
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Hosting a workshop at the summit and developing a white paper that highlights tourism's importance to Wisconsin's economy.
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Recommending to summit organizers possible keynote speakers that address tourism's role in economic development.
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Creating a video that touts Wisconsin as a great place to live, work and play.
To register or to learn more about the upcoming Economic Summit, visit http://www.wisconsin.edu/summit/.
Fall campaign features sampler, print ads, radio and online banners
The Department's fall marketing campaign expects to distribute over three million copies of the 2002 Fall Sampler directly in the hands of potential travelers.
Full-page, four-color ads in regional issues of Better Homes & Gardens, Ladies Home Journal and Midwest Living Magazine have a sampler attached, giving readers the materials they need to begin planning their getaways. Fall samplers will also appear in magazines in the key markets of Chicago, Chicago's Western suburbs, Madison, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Rockford.
From late August through mid-September, newspapers are scheduled to carry page-dominating ads, most in four-color, while :10 traffic radio announcements highlight specific fall activities and direct listeners to travelwisconsin.com. Colorful online banners that echo the print messages will appear on Channel4000.com, Chicagotribune.com, JSOnline.com, Startribune.com, TheMilwaukeeChannel.com and TravelInformation.com.
2002
Fall/Winter Event & Recreation Guide Debuts at State Fair
The Department distributed over 55,000 publications at the State Fair, including the popular Fall/Winter Recreation Guide. This newest edition of the guide includes a wealth of charted information about downhill skiing and snowboarding, tubing, cross-country skiing, sleighrides, gambling and snowmobiling. It also promotes more than 650 events scheduled September through March and the season's wonderful performing arts. A new page charts 16 locations that now offer rope tows for snow tubing enthusiasts. Click here to order a copy of the guide.
2002-03 Consumer Show Schedule
The Department is scheduled to attend the following consumer shows:
|
Show |
Date |
| Chicago Ski and Snowboard Show | November 7-10 |
| Chicago Boat and RV Show | January 1-5 |
| Rockford Camping and Travel Show | January 10-12 |
| Chicago Sport Show | January 15-19 |
| Des Moines Sport Show | February 12-16 |
| Chicago Golf Show* | February 14-16 |
| Indianapolis Sport Show | February 14-23 |
| Minneapolis Golf Show* | February 23-25 |
| Minneapolis Sport Show | March 4-9 |
| Milwaukee Golf Show* | March 7-9 |
| Milwaukee Sport Show | March 14-23 |
| Rochester Sport, RV and Outdoor Show |
January 31-February 2 |
*Partnering with Golf Course Owners of Wisconsin
For more information on the Department's participation in consumer shows, contact David Spiegelberg at 262/279-6856.
TRAVEL TRACKER
Travel Tracker appears as a featured excerpt in Tourism Today and Marketour, and as a monthly electronic newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of mouth marketing is one of the most powerful forces in the marketplace, and taking control of this important marketing channel is critical. Word of mouth is more credible than your most sincere salesperson - it reaches more people, faster, than advertising, direct mail or even the Internet. It's this credibility that gives word of mouth some of its power. It also explains why word of mouth can be negative and marketers perceive that it is out of their control.
Department Research
The Department of Tourism has conducted regular studies on advertising awareness in our core markets of Chicago and the Twin Cities. Among other things, survey respondents were queried on the sources of information they used in planning their Wisconsin vacations. Word of mouth recommendations were mentioned more frequently than any other source. Forty-seven percent of those who traveled to Wisconsin mentioned they relied on word of mouth recommendations, followed by the state's Internet site (20%) and brochures and booklets (19%).
In a series of studies conducted by the Department between 2000 and 2001, more than 4,300 visitors at various events around the state, stated that they relied on recommendations from family and friends as their source of travel information. Forty-seven percent of these visitors mentioned word of mouth as their information source followed by Wisconsin Tourism Guides (44%) and the Internet (38%).
National Research
The Department's findings are reinforced in recently conducted national travel research. In the Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown and Yankelovich Partners' National Leisure Travel Monitor (April 2002), we learn that recommendations from family and friends rank third in criteria in hotel and resort selection decision factors. In the hierarchy of factors in the decision process, brand name ranks on the lower end of the spectrum. Consumers place more emphasis on the specific reputation of a property or destination than its brand name. The report also confirms that without brand awareness and reputation or previous experience with the hotel, consumers are likely to seek recommendations from friends or business associates.
Word of mouth is the informal communication between people who are independent of the company providing the service-a fact that makes a decision maker feel they are getting the whole, undistorted truth. The National Leisure Travel Monitor findings indicate that recommendations of friends and family are at the top of the list of confidence when compared with other information sources. In 2002, 84% of the people surveyed indicated that recommendations from friends or family members drove their confidence level, ranking this form of marketing as the most important when considering a travel destination.For the word of mouth marketing implications, see the complete Travel Tracker, available online or by contacting Sue Hamilton at 608/266-6792.
Summer advertising awareness research now available
The sixth and final report of the Department's Wisconsin advertising and awareness research is now available to the industry. This is the final wave of the 6-part series.
The study tracks the awareness level of Wisconsin's and competing states' advertising campaigns among consumers in the core, out-of-state markets of Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul. The survey was conducted by measuring the impact of the Wisconsin Stay Just a Little Bit Longer summer campaign that ended in July. To obtain a copy of the Advertising Awareness and Competitive Analysis - Wave VI study, contact Dave Scheler at 608/261-8187.
Happenings in the WTICs
Jill Makovec, Wisconsin's 2002 Fairest of the Fair, visited the Chicago, Beloit, La Crosse and Grant County Wisconsin Travel Information Centers (WTICs) this summer to promote the Wisconsin State Fair. Travelers were treated to drawings for Fair Fun Packs, which included tickets, parking passes, and coupons for the giant slide and cream puffs. This year's State Fair drew nearly 900,000 visitors and sold an estimated 360,000 cream puffs, generating $885,000 in sales of the treat.
Eve Lassee of Catawba, Wisconsin was one of the happy winners in the Pedal Wisconsin Sweepstakes. As the winner from the Beloit WTIC, she took home a Trek Mountain 820, Elroy-Sparta lodging package and state trail passes. Congratulations to all of the Pedal Wisconsin winners.
Budget Reform Bill Update
Governor McCallum signed the Budget Reform Bill (Act 109) into law on July 26. Act 109 directly affects the Department of Tourism by eliminating the Heritage Tourism Program and the coordinator position and cutting another $379,000 from the Department's budget. The total budget reduction in fiscal year 2003 is approximately $1.3 million.
2002 JEM Grants generate estimated $25 million
Governor McCallum recently announced the Department of Tourism's Joint Effort Marketing (JEM) program allocated nearly $1.3 million to 79 Wisconsin tourism organizations to promote their destinations, special events and sales promotions during the state's 2002 fiscal year (July 1, 2001-June 30, 2002). Overall, the JEM projects are expected to generate more than $25 million for their communities.
"Without question, our state and local economies have seen, and will continue to see, the benefits of growth in the tourism industry," Governor McCallum said.
For more information on the JEM grant program, contact Abbie Hill at 608/261-6272.
The
latest on CWD
The Department is collaborating with the DNR to develop a four-color, tri-fold Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) brochure that will be distributed at DNR service centers, the 12 Wisconsin Travel Information Centers (WTICs) and potentially mailed to deer hunters that have not yet registered for the fall hunt in Wisconsin. For the most recent and comprehensive information, research, press releases, maps, and facts about CWD, visit the DNR's Web site at www.dnr.state.wi.us.
