As we face these crazy quarantine times, we’re all wondering…what does the future of travel look like? I spoke to 5 U.S. Destination Tourism Boards to find out how their cities are coping through this unprecedented time, what steps they’re taking to promote and reopen their cities, and how they see destination marketing changing.

FIRST THINGS FIRST…HOW ARE YOU DOING? HOW IS YOUR DESTINATION COPING WITH THIS PANDEMIC? 

Greater Lansing CVB:

Greater Lansing, MI has been hit hard, primarily in the meetings/conventions and sports tourism side of our business. The GLCVB has had to furlough 80% of our staff. MSU has moved all spring and summer classes online, cancelled in-person graduation and are debating whether to start the fall semester as online classes. So until the stay at home order is lifted and large gatherings are allowed – we’re going to be struggling. 

Visit Portland:

For Maine, it’s been a bit crushing. On March 15 - The Governor signed a proclamation of civil emergency, by March 16 businesses were closing.  We were still in the peak of our winter season and all ski resorts closed officially kicking off the start of our economic downturn.  

The Governor shared  a three-phase plan to restart Maine’s economy – it started in late May and we continue to slowly open things up.  But the interest in travel is relatively low and we are feeling the effects of cancellations and low bookings.  For tourism businesses, it’s more fear about what it will do to their business without a summer tourism season.  Maine’s #1 industry is tourism!

Destination Madison:

We are doing well, given the situation. Destination Madison worked quickly to shift programs and personnel to address the Coronavirus pandemic and its effect on tourism. Our community has been highly aggressive and proactive in its approach to public health and to the safety of visitors and people who live here.

Tempe Tourism:

The Tempe Tourism Office team has had to pivot a lot over the last two months, stopping our scheduled advertising and creating content with a completely different message than we normally would have in the spring. Our funding is getting cut slightly next year, but we haven’t had any layoffs or furloughs. 

In Tempe in April, hotels were down 74% in occupancy compared to last year. Rooms sold decreased by 78%. In May, occupancy was down 57%. Rooms sold decreased by 62%.

2. WHAT ARE SOME WAYS YOUR DESTINATION HAS SUPPORTED LOCAL BUSINESSES THROUGH THIS CRAZY TIME? 

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge:

Visit VBR immediately launched a COVID-19 Response page on our website VisitVBR.com to highlight which of our 1500+ partners were open in Virginia’s Blue Ridge and how they were serving their customers due to covid-19 regulations. We continued to be a consistent marketing voice for them. We also focused on collecting links to regional and federal resources that could support our local tourism partners who needed any type of resources and funding that they could find. All of this information was easily organized, continuously updated, and linked on one webpage.

Greater Lansing CVB:

We are a membership organization, so we’ve put out resources to our hospitality members on COVID-19. Financial resources (links to grants/loan applications, webinars, industry fundraisers, etc.) We’ve created videos on marketing tips and compiled blogs on Virtual Vacations and as restrictions have been lifted, we’ve posted info on: Open Restaurants, Golf, and Retailers offering curbside service, etc.

Visit Portland:

It’s mostly keeping them informed during all of this – providing them resources – and hopefully assisting them with their needs and concerns. 

Some of them started a program to help local food banks – they raised money and the local restaurants pitched in with cooking and supplying meals to those in need. 

We also launched a program with the Chamber of Commerce and several other businesses to encourage people to purchase from local businesses.  Use now, gift it to a friend, or use later. 

Destination Madison:

Destination Madison has remained a source of information for our local Partners throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, providing resources for businesses and jobs, health and safety, and available relief funds. We launched a campaign called “Stay Home. Love Madison.” which encourages locals and visitors to enjoy our destination while staying safe at home. Our team curated a number of collections featuring ways to support the greater Madison area from afar, through shopping local, attending virtual events and experiences, ordering take out from restaurants, and even having some fun with Madison-inspired coloring pages and Zoom backgrounds.

Tempe Tourism:

We created blogs to promote local businesses to our residents. The most popular blog was about restaurants that were open for takeout and delivery. We also created a blog about ways to support local artists and merchants, outdoor activities (featuring some of our vendors that were still open like boat rentals on Tempe Town Lake) and a virtual tours blog, showcasing the online content created by our attractions and ASU. 

Our pay per click advertising dollars were shifted to social media so we were able to still generate traffic to our website and these blog posts through social. 

We also partnered with a local company called Hownd that provided an easy way for businesses to sell support vouchers (e-gift cards) to provide a bit of extra revenue. The City of Tempe was the impetus behind this partnership and it was promoted by our team, the Tempe Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Tempe Authority.

3. HAVE YOU CREATED ANY SPECIFIC CAMPAIGNS TO LET PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT YOUR DESTINATION DURING THIS TIME OR ARE YOU JUST WAITING OUT THE STORM?

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge:

On March 17th Visit VBR launched a “Worth the Wait” video and landing page. The 1 minute video shares a message of optimism and hope encouraging local residents and future visitors to get inspired and dream about making new memories in Virginia’s Blue Ridge. The landing page is a collection of entertainment and things for people to enjoy “While they Wait,” like virtual events, online tours, coloring sheets, restaurant takeout maps, and VBR trivia and bingo.

Our VBR Social Distancing Guide has been very well received! The landing page also includes opportunities to support local businesses, campaigns & fundraisers. Everything was done entirely in house due to our budget freeze.

Greater Lansing CVB:

Not campaigns per se, but lots of content about members doing good things -  “#tourismstrong” type messaging. Once people start moving around again we will start back up with some limited advertising. It’s hard to know what will be safe to promote at this time. We’re assuming outdoor activities.

Visit Portland:

We have only been doing organic social media – trying to keep the destination on the minds of followers.  Soon we will be releasing some destination videos that we produced before all of this happened.  As far as other marketing, to be quite honest, I’m not sure what that will look like in the future.  Our CVB is not funded through tax revenues, we are 100% membership funded and our members have been hit really hard – it’s affecting us significantly. 

Destination Madison:

In addition to the ongoing “Stay Home. Love Madison.” campaign, we are excited to be working on a leisure campaign celebrating Madison’s urban outdoors. We anticipate that leisure travelers within our drive market may be the first to return to our destination. This campaign will focus on our area’s outdoor assets and how that differentiates us from other destinations. We will create content to allow people to build their own urban adventures through exploring our parks, paths and lakes while enjoying the many amenities available in our city. A timeline for the launch will be based on when safer at home orders are lifted.

Tempe Tourism:

We continued to pump out content on our website and social, but with more of an inspirational message, or a way to help local businesses. We are starting a statewide staycation campaign in mid-June.

4. DO YOU HAVE ANY WORD ON WHEN THINGS WILL BEGIN REOPENING IN YOUR DESTINATION?

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge:

Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam issued a Phase One reopen plan, effective May 15, 2020, which slowly allows some businesses and places of interest to slowly adjust their services under strict social distancing. There will be three phases total in Governor Northam’s Forward Virginia Plan, each phase is expected to last at least a few weeks. More information here.

Greater Lansing CVB:

Our “Safer at home” order has just been extended until the end of May.

Visit Portland:

We are happy that things have begun to open and the businesses are ready to welcome visitors to Maine. Precautions have been put into place to keep residents and visitors safe. People visiting Maine are encouraged to get a negative test result in their home state prior to arrival – or they can get one here in Maine. But, it’s better to “Know before you go”. This step makes it an incredibly safe destination to visit knowing that everyone around you have also taken precautions. Come and visit with a peace of mind!

Destination Madison:

From Day 1, we’ve committed to following the lead of our state and local public officials and health leaders. They’re the experts on the pandemic and when our community can safely begin to take actions for social and economic recovery. Right now, our Safer at Home order is scheduled to lift on May 26. Destination Madison will adjust if that shifts forward or backward.

Tempe Tourism:

Our stay at home order ended on May 15th. Some restaurants have started to open with limited capacity. Others are waiting to open their dining rooms. Most attractions have not opened, but we expect to see more of them open in June.

5. AS THINGS REOPEN, ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT TRAVELERS FROM OTHER AREAS INFECTING YOUR CITIES? WHAT PRECAUTIONS SHOULD PEOPLE BE TAKING TO VISIT YOUR DESTINATION?

Greater Lansing CVB:

I think people should take the same precautions no matter where they are traveling.

Visit Portland:

All indicators tell us that destination’s drive markets will be the first to recover. Maine’s drive markets are NH, VT, RI, MA, NY, and NJ. As you can imagine with NYC and Boston being hot spots people are worried. The 14-day quarantine is the precaution at this time. The testing requirement I mentioned earlier helps to eliminate worry.

Destination Madison:

Public health officials have been consistent with their messaging: wash hands; wear masks in public; maintain social distancing, etc. We’ll remind visitors and people who live here they need to follow those public health practices.

Tempe Tourism:

I know some places are still under travel restrictions. We would expect people to take the same precautions that the CDC recommends: social distancing, wearing a mask, using hand sanitizer and not traveling or going out when they’re feeling sick.

6. HOW DO YOU SEE THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY CHANGING POST-PANDEMIC AND HOW DOES YOUR DESTINATION PLAN TO ADAPT?

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge:

We know that people will still travel, but they will go where it is perceived to be safe. Possibly, take mini-vacations in the form of day-trips or one, two, or three-night getaways to the mountains. They will travel to close-by drivable markets with large open spaces. Virginia’s Blue Ridge is the ideal destination visitors will be looking to experience

Greater Lansing CVB:

Yes I think the industry will change. Our team has been working with other hospitality organizations and local leaders about how businesses can re-open safely. They have paid particular attention to what that will look like for the conventions and meetings clients and sports tournament events. Please see the Businesses Reopen Safely info here.

Visit Portland:

Post-pandemic is a long way away! So, it’s hard to tell at this time. But, we know in the short run that we have lost 96% of our airline travel, 100% of our cruise ship travel, as well as Destination Weddings, Sporting Events, International Travelers, Meetings/Conferences, and all large group gatherings like concerts. The recovery will be long and it will affect our destination marketing plans for quite some time. 

Destination Madison:

Focus on leisure travel within regional drive market  and staycations

Tempe Tourism:

It’s going to be interesting to watch this unfold. I think trips within your own state will be the first, followed by road trips to destinations within 10 hours or so. I’m curious to see what happens with air travel. That’s where the majority of our visitors come from now. Knowing how our statewide campaign performs, we may have to shift from some of our cold weather target cities (like Seattle and Chicago) to cities are closer to us.

7. HAS THIS CHANGED YOUR MARKETING PLANS MOVING FORWARD AND HOW?

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge:

Tourism is a resilient industry and we’re hopeful for the future under close direction of our Governor and state tourism office. We look forward to welcoming visitors when the right time comes and supporting our region as businesses begin to reopen.

Greater Lansing CVB:

Definitely. The minute things started to shut down back in early March we started to pull back paid advertising. Now that our budget has been hit so hard, we aren’t paying for any placements. We hope to be able to begin again in late summer. Right now all messaging is done through our digital platforms/social media.

Visit Portland:

Yes, right away we know that we won’t travel for tradeshows, sales missions, conduct FAM tours, or any group marketing.  Things will flip heavily to the digital side which will cause a lot of issues with competition and noise within that sector.

Destination Madison:

Madison is blessed to have a great combination of urban amenities and outdoor activities. Our messaging had been urban as a gateway to the outdoors. We’ve adjusted our messaging to focus on the Madison region’s amazing outdoor activities – biking, hiking, boating, camping, fishing, etc. – and are emphasizing visitors will still be able to enjoy our great urban amenities as part of an outdoor-focused visit, once we’re able to host visitors in appropriate numbers

Tempe Tourism:

We have tentative marketing plans for FY 20/21, which starts on July 1. But, we’re in a holding pattern until we see how the summer campaign performs. We still plan to go to conferences in the late fall/early 2021 and hope to be able to host meeting planners, sports event planners and bloggers/influencers but we’re not sure when we can start.

8. DO YOU STILL PLAN TO WORK WITH INFLUENCERS, BLOGGERS, AND VLOGGERS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS? HOW DO YOU SEE THOSE RELATIONSHIPS CHANGING?

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge:

Marketing and public relations will be leading our destination’s recovery efforts and influencers and travel writers are key drivers for generating brand awareness and visibility. It’s hard to know what the landscape looks like and when future media visits will pick back up again – with regard to media feeling safe traveling again but also the hoteliers, restaurants and attractions being able to host media. Visit VBR is going to do whatever we can to adjust appropriately with the resources and funding we have in order to continue to help generate editorial support for our region.

There are still many ways to show off a destination even though people cannot travel right now. Maybe creative virtual media tours are ways for DMOs to showcase a destination to influencers and journalists while they’re unable to experience a destination in person!

Greater Lansing CVB:

Yes. But it will all be dependent on our budget. 

Visit Portland:

We will, but it will probably be more one-on-one versus hosting people in groups.  With all of our limited budgets now we will find it even more difficult to pay for these folks to come to our destination.  We had a hard time doing that before!  

Destination Madison:

We’d eventually like to work with content creators in the future, but it all comes down to budget. Given many destinations, including Destination Madison, are funded by room tax and this pandemic has seen hotel bookings drop like never before, it will be some time before we’re able to fully ramp up our content creator program again. When we do, we will focus on drive-market/regional influencers/bloggers/vloggers first, before returning to flight markets.

Tempe Tourism:

I hope so! That is a big part of how we promote Tempe to more people. I think our first step will be some virtual opportunities to keep in touch with bloggers and influencers and possibly working with local content creators this summer. Next, I would imagine we will put dollars behind promoting posts and content from bloggers/influencers who visited us recently. Next, we would host people again in our community.

I’m also wondering about the comfort level that creators will have moving forward. Typically, Rachel and I drive people around town and spend lots of time with them. That might not be possible (or considered safe) post-COVID.

9. WHAT IS ONE THING YOU’D LIKE TRAVELERS TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR DESTINATION?

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge:

Virginia’s Blue Ridge is full of naturally socially distant experiences like scenic drives on the Blue Ridge Parkway, wide open spaces to camp, hike, mountain bike, paddle and fish. Our mountains are just a trip away when it’s time to explore again.

Greater Lansing CVB:

Easy drive-to destination for folks in Midwest. Safe, affordable, small town charm with wide open spaces to explore. 

Visit Portland:

We are devastated, and I’m not talking about our economics.  Maine has been a vacation destination since the 1800’s and labeled “vacationland” officially in 1936.  It’s in our nature to want to host visitors and share with them our beautiful state.  With the restrictions currently in place businesses in the tourism industry are heartbroken that they may not see visitors this season. 

We want our new visitors, and the ones who come year after year, to know that our love for tourism in this state runs deep and we are happy and proud to share the beautiful state of Maine and we can’t wait to have them back! 

Destination Madison:

Madison really does have a perfect combo of urban outdoors. We have five lakes and our downtown is built on an isthmus, so it’s located between two of the lakes. You can jump on a bike trail downtown and within minutes be in bucolic settings. You can rent a kayak and paddle to a restaurant with kayak parking. Fourteen state parks within an hour and four James Beard nominees within our downtown area. Pretty great combo.

Tempe Tourism:

The sunshine is here waiting for everyone! One thing that I have been reminded about is just how resilient our community is. Organizations like ours and the city staff and our businesses have worked together during these past three months to overcome our circumstances. There’s a renewed sense of community pride that I hope will continue once we’re on the other side of this.

10. WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP PROMOTE YOUR DESTINATIONS RIGHT NOW?

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge:

Reach out to me! I would love to talk through partnership opportunities that are possible right now and as we move into 2021

Greater Lansing CVB:

Remind potential travelers about all of the great things to see and do – and hopefully inspire them to want to visit once it is safe to do so. Highlight the outdoor recreation offerings that visitors want. For Greater Lansing that’s the wide open spaces of our parks, River Trail, kayaking, golf, campgrounds, Rotary Park urban beach, gardens at MSU, etc. 

Visit Portland:

Sharing past information on your experiences is helpful – knowing that in many states there are restrictions but it helps to keep destinations on the top of people’s mind – helps them to dream about when they can travel!

Destination Madison:

Let people know how awesome Madison is! Share how easy it is to enjoy the outdoors and still have that great urban experience. Madison has been mentioned in several publications as one of the cities best-poised to make a quick rebound after the pandemic subsides. When we do start that recovery, we want people near and far to enjoy our city once again.

Tempe Tourism:

Good question. I think providing travel inspiration is really important now as we much into the summer. Maybe people aren’t ready to travel yet, but we hope that when they are, they will look to their favorite bloggers/influencers to see where they should go. And, if you see a post from us that you really like, we’d love it if you’d share it with your audience. Keeping open lines of communication and finding creative ways to work together will be important moving forward. And, we want to build upon the relationships that we’ve made over the past few years so those content creators can be advocates for us.

Check out more incredible destinations on YouTube at Monica Goes. And special thank you to Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge, Greater Lansing CVB, Visit Portland, Destination Madison, and Tempe Tourism.