Bad economy or not, Mark Brodeur is convinced Rhode Island is in a “sweet spot” – when it comes to tourism, that is. The director of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation’s tourism division, Brodeur likes to point out that there are 50 million people within a 300-mile radius around Rhode Island, and it is strategically located between two internationally known hubs, Boston and New York. While other destinations, such as Las Vegas, are hurting, he’s hoping to take advantage of some people’s desire to stay closer to home this summer.
PBN: How is the sputtering economy affecting your marketing plans for the upcoming tourism season?
BRODEUR: Our marketing plan and spring promotion work on value packaging this year, because we know we’ll be marketing in the “drive market,” we know people will be looking for shorter stays. They are looking for value. We’re coordinating each of the [state’s regional tourism boards], who are going to the industry and creating packages. They’ll load the packages on their Web sites. All of our messaging – our spring campaign is mostly online. Our PR efforts are all based on driving people to this package page where they can find value within the “drive market.”
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PBN: So-called “staycations” were supposedly the big thing last year when the economy started on its downward slide. You don’t see that changing this season?
BRODEUR: People are going to be staying closer to home. The tourism division never really does advertising within the state, but for the first time we have begun a project with Rhode Island Monthly. There will be a 32-page insert that will be included in the June issue. It has a whole litany of things to do in Rhode Island, free things. … We’re calling it Rhode Trips.
PBN: It’s different from your annual travel guide? PBN: Why do you have to be surgical? PBN: What have you learned from Google Analystics? Have there been any surprises? PBN: Let’s go back to your in-state promotional effort. What are some of your plans? PBN: Newport has had a fair amount of foreign tourists each year, but there are reports that the number of those visits to the United States will be shrinking as the global recession spreads and the currency exchange rate evens out. How do you respond?
BRODEUR: It is different. The travel guide is produced as our fulfillment piece for consumers who come into our Web site, and it is also placed in the rooms of most of the major hotels within the state. It’s used in our trade shows. But we’re doing something different this year, realizing that people are going to stay home. … I’ve actually gone into our Web site, which has had 200,000 visitors since Feb. 1, and got the top 25 cities and towns [where those Web visitors are located] in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. We’re mailing the travel guide out to doctor offices, dentist offices and hair salons. This is a place where consumers are sitting; they have time to look through the magazines that are there; and we’re making Rhode Island top of mind. We have to be surgical in our advertising and make sure we’re going to places where consumers are still working.
BRODEUR: In each state, the economy isn’t the same throughout the state. … I wanted some way to figure out who is still going to have interest in travel and how we can get to those people. We have Google Analytics [a service that tracks Web site activity] that we use. We can figure out from the IP address where the actual household is. With 200,000 people coming into our site, we now know which cities and towns seem to continue to have travel interest, and those are the ZIP codes we’re mailing this out to.
BRODEUR: Not really. We do see a shift. [Web visitors] are closer to home. We see a huge increase in the amount of Rhode Islanders coming into our Web site. And where New York had always been one of the most important markets, Boston is actually increasing in its relevance. This closer-to-home thing, we’re not just talking about it; it’s what we see happening.
With 200,000 people motivated to come into the site, spending an average of five minutes, you’re getting a pretty good survey of just what cities and towns are interested. In Connecticut, the southwest corner – it’s high-end – is very important. We see West Hartford, which again is a high-end neighborhood, scores very high. Meriden, Conn., and Cheshire, Conn., have the highest percentage of people coming into our site.
BRODEUR: [The magazine insert called Rhode Trips] will have a 20,000-piece overprint that we will distribute to welcome centers locally. There will be an online version and at least 10 radio spots in the local market and in the Connecticut and Massachusetts market each week featuring a different contest. We’ll be cobranding Rhode Island tourism and whatever product will be part of the contest all summer long. What we’re also going to do is encourage people to stay overnight in their own state.
We really didn’t promote the “staycations” last year. We actually saw a fairly nice economy into August.
BRODEUR: We know that the international market has been huge for us. In August last year, 20 percent of the traffic that went into the Gateway Center in Newport was international. Do we feel there is going to be change in the world [economy]? Yes, but we’re still in a sweet spot in that we’re between Logan [International Airport] and the New York airports as well. … I do think we’ll see a decline in that type of travel, but we’re looking to make that up with this local market. •
