State officials say tourism activity is on the rise in Rhode Island, touting year-over-year growth in hotel and website activity, which they attribute in part to the state’s new marketing strategy to draw more visitors here.
Looking at hotel and website activity alone, however, may not be enough to justify celebrating the success of what has otherwise been a controversial, $5 million tourism marketing campaign.
“If you want to measure a marketing strategy … you have to go out and question individuals about what brought them to Rhode Island,” said Edward M. Mazze, distinguished university professor of business administration at the University of Rhode Island. “It’s really the only way … because there are way too many external variables involved.”
R.I. Commerce Corp., which heads the state’s tourism efforts, was heavily criticized earlier this year after campaign rollout missteps.
Despite that, the state argues some of its new initiatives do work.
“Through our efforts at the Commerce Corp. in conjunction with our colleagues in the tourism regions, we are welcoming a growing number of visitors to our great state,” said Lara Salamano, chief marketing officer at Commerce RI, in a statement.
Salamano could not be immediately reached for further comment. But, as Mazze points out, this augmented number of visitors could be because of such macroeconomic trends as low unemployment, a strengthening economy and relatively cheap gasoline prices. And it is not clear, either, that there are more visitors.
“Looking at the Rhode Island performance metrics through July of this year mirrors the performance for the U.S. overall,” said Jan Freitag, senior vice president at STR Inc., a data and analytics specialist.
Hotel room occupancy for 2016 through July fell 0.7 percent in Rhode Island, according to STR research. That compares with a decline in New England of 1 percent and a national decline of 0.1 percent for the first seven months of the year.
RevPAR – the revenue per available room – increased 4.4 percent in Rhode Island through July, compared with a 1.8 percent increase in New England and a 3 percent increase across the nation.
The state is boasting a 35.5 percent increase in website activity for July compared with the previous month. But Mazze says Commerce RI will need to expand the number of indicators it’s measuring if it truly wants to understand the outcomes of its marketing effort.
Rachel J. Roginsky, owner of Pinnacle Advisory Group, a Boston-based hospitality consulting firm, also points out that not everyone who stays in a hotel room is a tourist.
“These metrics are definitely a good source to tourism, but keep in mind that hotel occupancy and hotel room rates are also comprised of business travelers [and] convention visitors,” she wrote in an email. •
