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Full of Surprises
After false starts and missteps, state tourism campaign gains traction
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Business New Haven
8/20/2001
By: Susan Cornell
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“You can have a wonderful vacation in Connecticut - even if you only have a few days.” That's the message Connecticut's official tourism ambassador, Patricia L. Rowland, and her husband, Gov. John G. Rowland, deliver in a television advertising campaign aimed squarely at the New York market beginning May 31. What in-staters hear, however, is, “When friends and family come to visit, show them more of what Connecticut has to offer.”
This is known as strategic positioning.
In March, hundreds of tourism-industry pros from around the state powwowed with the Connecticut Tourism Council, state's Office of Tourism and some 60 sponsors at Connecticut's eighth annual Governor's Conference on Tourism at the Water's Edge Resort in Westbrook. A new marketing initiative was developed following an extensive strategic marketing program that included a brand-review initiative incorporating input from statewide industry partners and in-market perception-tracking research. This year's Governor's Conference theme, “Building on Experience,” recognized opportunities to draw on past successes as tourism continues to develop into a competitive economic contributor to the state's economy.
Connecticut has focused on tourism for a decade now. And the dividends appear to be paying off. Rowland has identified tourism as one of the emerging industry “clusters” driving job growth and economic development. The state's Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD) reports that tourism employs nearly 90,000 Connecticut statewide and generates one of the highest regional purchase coefficients (82 percent) that supports local business.
Regional purchase coefficients, explains Nicky McHugh, director of public relations for McLaughlin, DelVecchio & Casey in New Haven, one of the three key agencies involved in implementing the strategic initiatives, “represent the percentage of either labor and or products that an industry or business purchases locally. It's sort of like a 'good-neighbor' indicator, because an industry with a high RPC means that those industry members buy alot locally, contributing to local economies in a positive way.”
Says Ed Dombroskas, executive director of the state's Office of Tourism, “For every dollar spent by state and local government to support travel and tourism, $10 in personal income is generated.” Add up all of those dollars statewide, he adds, and '”We're in the money.”
A recent study completed by the University of Connecticut's Center for Economic Analysis measured the impacts of lodging-based tourism. It estimated that the state's tourism and travel industry currently contributes roughly $5 billion in gross revenue to Connecticut's economy.
Of course, it's not merely a marketing campaign that has delivered a major economic driver in terms of revenue, employment, state and local tax monies, and one of the highest purchase coefficients. Connecticut's scenic beauty, exciting attractions and world-class arts venues draw visitors from around the world, making tourism the state's third-largest industry. We've got a great product, a great place and increasingly promotion.
Says DECD Commissioner James Abromaitis of the increase: “This clearly demonstrates that Connecticut's marketing efforts are paying huge economic dividends. The tourism industry is thriving and our efforts to attract visitors to our state are succeeding.” And, at the governor's conference, successes of the marketing campaign promoting Connecticut as a travel destination were quantified: Awareness of Connecticut as a vacation destination has tripled; Connecticut's market share among New York area travelers has increased almost 50 percent; and, total leisure trips to Connecticut have swelled to almost eight million a year.
“Many people in Connecticut don't realize the impact,” notes McHugh. Tourism has been identified as a major industry, employing 4.3 percent of the workforce statewide and contributing $521 million to state and local tax coffers. Tourism is one of the emerging industries driving economic development and job growth in the next century.
Who is behind this marketing blitz? The state's Office of Tourism, under the aegis of DECD, has been working in partnership with the Connecticut Tourism Council and the business community, which has offered a broad range of tourism development programs, including business marketing assistance and marketing research.
Other players include three firms that have formed an agency model covering the needed areas of expertise. The Hartford advertising and public relations firm of O'Neal & Prelle crafts the overall strategy for the team. In New Haven, McLaughlin, DelVecchio & Casey administers funds and makes advertising buys. Stanton Crenshaw takes charge of public relations from New York and Stamford locations, making an effective base from which to target the New York metro audience.
The $3 million 2001 campaign includes television and radio spots, newspaper and magazine advertising, direct mail and PR initiatives; $1,835,000 of this total is earmarked for media expenditures. This summer you've probably noticed the sharpened focus on tourism marketing for several reasons. These include fending off growing competition from states such as Massachusetts and potentially attracting visitors who wish to stay closer to home (in most cases, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) in the face of obstacles such as a slowdown in the economy and unstable gasoline prices.
“Core strategies” unveiled at the conference include continuing to focus on metropolitan New Yorkers, the state's No. 1 source of visitors, as well as on emphasizing multi-day getaways. The new strategies include focusing on baby-boomer women as the primary target audience.
“We want to own the market on getaway vacations for the New York market,” says Donna Simpson, vice president of McLaughlin, DelVecchio & Casey. Simpson says the campaign focuses on specific activities visitors can do in state. Tourists can get ideas, even itineraries, for their trips.
The themes are in and the governor and his First Lady are actively campaigning - tourism campaigning, that is. Says Patricia Rowland: “We are promoting a sampling of themed getaway ideas to truly demonstrate the variety of vacation options available to families and couples in Connecticut. We make it easy for visitors to plan a short Connecticut getaway by showing them places to visit and detailing a number of exciting activities they can participate in en route.”
Specifically, the state is promoting 52 two-and three-day sample getaways covering a range of activities. The themed tours, ranging from romantic to cultural and historic to adventurous, are designed to appeal to residents and visitors alike. The getaways will be updated throughout the year and are key elements in the new marketing efforts.
One potential challenge to marketing tourism - the economic slowdown - may present its own opportunities as well. Connecticut's forte has always been on attracting visitors for short trips and weekend stays. In March, Dombroskas foretold that the slowing economy would help to draw more visitors with quick breaks in mind as longer trips become less affordable. Arthur Frommer, in a conference lecture on travel trends nationally and globally, said that, “Connecticut is a classic short-term vacation state. The economic slowdown seems to be resulting in people traveling closer to home.
“The cost of travel is going up much faster than the cost of living,” added the travel authority, providing vacationers with yet one more reason to stay close to home.
Industry officials and business owners have, for the most part, found that Connecticut tourism has faired pretty well. At the other end of runway, airline profits are hurting tremendously (down roughly 35 percent over a year ago) because the soft economy has cut into travel - even attendance at Disney World has dropped seven percent from last year. Tourism at one of the neighboring competitors, Cape Cod, is off as much as 30 percent this year over last.
There are, however, ups and downs in the state. While attendance at some attractions such as Bridgeport's Beardsley Zoo is up 15 percent over last year, folks at some of the state's larger attractions have attendance concerns; total attendance of six of the largest draws tracked, including Mystic Aquarium and Mystic Seaport, dropped nearly 20 percent in the first four months of 2001. Naturally, Mother Nature's own rainy behavior this spring played a role. And, as McHugh points out, ”Our marketing campaign, especially TV and radio, really only started toward the end of May.” The Mystic attractions are seeking ways to tap into the casino-going crowd, which numbers 70,000 tourists a day.
Other challenges to achieving growth include several potential obstacles: The state has no new major attractions, Massachusetts is a competitor with an advertising blitz, and we face strained or inadequate services in terms of traffic, signage and seasonal capacity issues.
While the state's strategic marketing plan is grounded in several of the core strategies of the plans of 1993, 1996, and 1999-2000, the Connecticut Tourism Council's plan for 2001-02 introduces new core strategies. One newbie is “segmenting the market by age and generational values rather than couples vs. families.” The second focuses on baby-boomer females as a primary target audience. Why 35- to 54-year-olds? The marketers have multiple reasons to fancy this group: Boomers represent the largest pool of leisure travelers; they live in the most affluent households in the country; they love short getaways; and, boomers feel that they are entitled to leisure travel as a reward for their stressful lives and hard work.
Plus, boomer women, research has revealed, are the decision makers for leisure travel. Says Dombroskas, “Our research shows us that baby-boomers, specifically baby-boomer women, are setting today's trends in leisure travel.”
The message to boomers has been delivered clearly and frequently this summer to the New York, Connecticut and New Jersey audiences. The New York metro area continues to be the campaign's primary target geographic market, as the New York DMA (New York City plus Long Island and northern New Jersey) provides Connecticut with the mother lode of leisure travelers - some 60 million trips each year. Connecticut residents are considered a secondary audience.
Nonetheless, the Office of Tourism works to stimulate in-state trips by residents and to motivate residents to become better tour guides for visiting friends and family. The tertiary market includes the Northeast corridor from Baltimore to Boston.
“One of the best ways to reach that audience [boomer women] is through radio,” Dombroskas says. “Radio is the No. 1 medium for baby-boomer women and provides the greatest message high frequency of any medium at all. It will therefore play a primary role in our media mix this year. And with the help of industry partners who are joining us in a cooperative radio program [in New York], we can increase our purchasing power by approximately 25 percent to achieve high and unlimited potential reach in our target audience at the most critical decision making time: June through August.”
The second medium used to reinforce radio advertising is newspaper ads. Dombroskas says: “Our tourism ambassadors, the governor and the First Lady, will continue to provide television spots for the campaign. TV is medium of choice to reach Connecticut residents.” Advertising in travel and women's magazines will reach decision-makers in a key decision making period, adds Dombroskas.
The directive is tailored to the consumers according to geography. The message to the New York market is, You can have a wonderful vacation and experience in Connecticut even if you only have a couple of days. The message to Connecticut residents is, If your friends and family come to visit, show them all of the great things there are to offer in our very own state.
Connecticut's new core strategies also include appealing to travel styles compatible with what the state has to offer. The lion's share of boomers, marketing researchers observe, come in two flavors: “escapists” and “explorers.” “Escapists” seek to flee the pressures of daily life and view quick-break vacations as a reward. Their top activities include shopping, dining out and sightseeing. “Escapists” travel with or without children. “Explorers,” on the other hand, are those who are looking for a change of pace and are particularly interested in history and culture. They are typically empty nesters.
Nationally, the public relations gurus strive to reach the boomers with an online connection, as nearly two-thirds of adults between 35 and 54 subscribe to an online service. Further, one in four online boomers use the Internet to gather travel information.
The fourth of the five new strategies entails “simplifying the decision-making process for consumers,” a connect-the-dots approach for spontaneous travelers who may not have had a clear picture of our state.
The final new core strategy involves “developing a brand-identity strategy that positions Connecticut as a unique getaway vacation destination.”
The strategic marketing plan also announces new tactical initiatives including the redesign of the tourism Web site to make it more useful to consumers, expanding cooperative programs with the industry, and using radio as the primary medium in the New York DMA.
And, of course, building on experience. The “old” core strategies have delivered commendable results and will retain their prominence this year and next. “We're Full of Surprises” has served as a well-integrated, award-winning campaign. The “keepers” of the plan include focusing on New Yorkers, emphasizing multi-day getaways, increasing the economic impact of friends-and-family visitors, focusing primarily on the summer travel season, promoting cooperative initiatives and communicating the importance of tourism as an economic development driver.
How successful have these players and strategies been? Market research indicates that visitors are “satisfied” with their Connecticut experience; 88 percent says they are likely to revisit within the next two years. Additionally, the research points out that couples are finding Connecticut particularly attractive, while just over one-third came with children.
Inquiries to the state's 1-800-CT BOUND phone line increased by 24 percent between 1999 and 2000. There's more good news when spending is analyzed: First, the $2.7 million campaign for 2000 generated approximately $94.6 million in direct tourism spending from the New York target area, a $35 return for every marketing dollar spent.
Tracking studies likewise indicate that the state has a three-fold increase in “top-of-mind” awareness as a likely getaway vacation destination by New York-area travelers since the campaign's 1993 start. And, gross lodging industry sales were an estimated $573 million for fiscal 2000, a ten-percent increase over 1999. Lodging-based travel and tourism has experienced an eight-percent annual growth rate since the campaign's inception. The lodging industry alone generated roughly $69 million in tax revenues.
McHugh revels at the findings of the “season status” report that summarizes trends as of August 3. “What seems so interesting to me is that the Web site visits have increased quite dramatically over 2000, and in our campaign we really emphasized the Web, encouraging viewers and listeners to log on. [The] key to our campaign this year was radio, and the radio commercial jingle - a catchy 'ctbound.org' - appears to be paying dividends, as we broke all records for Web visits in July.”
There was a 46-percent increase in visitors to the www.ctbound.org Web site last month over July 2000. There were over 4,400 visitors logged on to the Office of Tourism Web site every day in July, and a total of more than 641,000 year-to-date visitors.
Explains McHugh: “Our TV commercials were targeted to two different audiences. To the New York market, we wanted them to know that Connecticut is close by, that it doesn't take long to get here, and that New Yorkers can have a wonderful vacation in Connecticut. To the Connecticut audience, our goal was to showcase the attractions and events around the state and to tell Connecticut residents that when their friends and family come to visit, there's plenty to do in Connecticut. Well, the Mark Twain house is seeing Connecticut visitors coming in with out-of-town visitors, and Lake Compounce is seeing an increase in visitors from New York and lower Fairfield County.”
Indeed, attendance to the Mark Twain House is up seven percent over last year; the Westbrook Factory Outlets are seeing almost double-digit increases; and the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks has had the busiest July since 1990, with attendance up nine percent over the same period a year ago. Finally, inquiries fulfilled through the Office of Tourism from January through June 2001 posted a 12-percent increase over the same period last year.
The true test for the state's tourism industry will be best evaluated after Labor Day, as many destinations rake in as much as three-quarters of their annual revenue between July 1 and Labor Day. Thus far, though, we have a few clues: The operator of shuttles from Hartford to the casinos and the shoreline, Coach USA, reports that business is “consistent and growing,” and shoreline vacation rentals are nearly booked.
Moreover, McHugh reports that most in the industry indicate that attendance on the leisure side for July seemed to be “picking up, especially among the smaller attractions, but also among the larger ones.” On the flip side, business travel, as measured by corporate lodging and car rentals, is down. McHugh attributes this to corporate cost-cutting.
“Connecticut: Full of Surprises” is the state's tourism slogan (pared slightly from “Connecticut: We're Full of Surprises.” The consultants who reviewed the marketing plan suggested the change because it was punchier.) The experts are hammering home the message that Connecticut, as a getaway vacation, offers tremendous choices “just up the road.”
The theme? “Few other places on earth have as many great things to see and do in such a small area. All you need is two or three days to have a great vacation experience in Connecticut - with or without kids. It's a unique getaway vacation.” BNH
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