In a Feb. 5 Providence Business News article, Farouk Rajab, general manager of the Providence Marriott Downtown and chairman of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, painted a dire picture for his hotel and the entirety of the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I agree that persuading people to travel will be a challenge that may take mass vaccination before people will feel safe, that corporate travel may never return to previous levels, and that major events may be on the distant horizon. I also agree that we do need a clear plan at the ready – including a way to help improve Rhode Island’s economy.
As we emerge from the pandemic, there will be a major pent-up demand for leisure travel that may help offset some of the corporate travel loss. And though there will be fewer major events, travelers will still be looking for getaway experiences for which Rhode Island’s accommodation and hospitality industry is very well-suited.
And as far as a clear plan for a “Herculean effort” that Rajab says is needed for the local hospitality industry to recover, allow me to propose a plan of action to serve as a partial solution.
I suggest we further capitalize on the state’s strengths within the tourism and hospitality industry to develop a statewide, unified amenity campaign. This campaign, with the internal working title of “Discover RI First,” would be designed to attract more year-round overnight guests and motivate these guests to enjoy state-based products and services, with a special emphasis on Main Street and mom-and-pop businesses.
The plan is to rally our business community around a promotion campaign to enhance our existing tourism accommodation packages by combining them with added-value amenity offers. These amenity offers can be distributed by accommodation hosts (and other promotional methods) and be presented through familiar mediums such as a website, value card or mobile app.
The methodology is to form a “dispersed responsibility” alliance of mutually beneficial strategic partners who present a unified promotional front. The amenity-offer details can be publicized and accessed through existing private- and public-sector websites.
The main idea is to shift our focus to the areas where we rank first in U.S. travel and hospitality rankings (our strengths), as well as our claim to fame, “Rhode Island Firsts” in U.S. history.
The campaign centers around this core component: The first documented case of people taking a two-week vacation in what is now the U.S. happened in Narragansett Bay (as Giovanni da Verrazzano recounted in a letter to King Francis I of France in 1524). The entire campaign’s hospitality story can unfold from this point telling why we are uniquely positioned to host “your next vacation.”
The intent is to add enough over-the-top value to our existing overnight packages to the point of making them “irresistible.” This will help attract more local, regional and national leisure travelers to choose Rhode Island for their vacation or stay-cation, and motivate them to enjoy our local flavor. (As this campaign builds from this primary demographic, other demographic targets such as day-trippers and daily consumers can be simultaneously developed.)
Working to increase overnight guests, and warmly inviting them to experience Rhode Island’s hospitality, creates an immediate, directly positive benefit to the state’s local economy by generating greater revenue, profit and taxes. According to a 2012 Global Insight Study, each overnight visitor in Rhode Island generates $435 in expenditures and adds $257 in gross state product. (These premium offers can be subsidized as a form of media woven into existing marketing budgets. This campaign also helps develop a more business-friendly Rhode Island culture by demonstrating a concentrated focus on state-based businesses.)
On a statewide level, the campaign could enhance existing value packaging during the annual “Hotel Week RI.” On a regional district level, it could enhance value packaging at area hotels, motels, bed-and-breakfasts, and Airbnb locations during our lowest occupancy months. And it should coincide with local media promotions with retail and food venues throughout the year.
These enhanced, experiential packages engage visitors and tell our state’s unique story through direct-to-consumer sampling. They can be offered immediately by bundling existing amenities and incentives and continue to grow more elaborate.
I am proposing that our private sector, with public-sector cooperation, adopt and incorporate this campaign as part of our state’s marketing strategy. My colleagues and I are in the process of test marketing aspects of this campaign and building a database of strategic partners who want to see this, or a similar plan, come to fruition. Consider joining us? Email me at stevemaciel@cox.net and call me at (401) 368-1325.
Stephen M. Maciel is a former chairman of the Southern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and a former publisher of the Ocean State Beach Guide.
