Editorial
Front Page - Friday, July 24, 2009
Convention and Visitors Bureau ensures thriving local tourism
Samara Litvack
Residents of Chattanooga and the surrounding areas know exactly what sorts of amazing things the Scenic City has to offer. From free weekend concerts downtown to historic landmarks and family-friendly attractions, residents and visitors to the area have an endless assortment of entertainment at their disposal.
But what about people who don’t live here? Is it fair to keep the gem that is Chattanooga hidden from the rest of the unknowing world? One local nonprofit says no, it is not.
The Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau was established solely to attract people from outside the city to Chattanooga. In a three-pronged approach, the company works to build on the city’s already great reputation, and get the message out to the rest of the world.
The first part of the approach is the convention side. A staff of six people works tirelessly to bring meetings, conventions and conferences to Chattanooga. The second part is the sporting side, or the Greater Chattanooga Sports and Events Committee. One great accomplishment of this committee was bringing the NCAA National Championship football tournament to Chattanooga, and retaining it.
“The sole purpose of what we do is to bring people to town,” says Doak. “The convention side of our business is really more of a direct selling kind of business, contact with meeting planners. The sporting side is very similar to that.”
The third component of the Visitors Bureau is a little different, dealing with consumer marketing, advertising and the branding of Chattanooga’s message.
“On the consumer side, we try to brand the community as a great place,” says Doak. “We’re using a mixture of various media to accomplish that, from television to radio to print to magazines to newspapers to Internet.”
Stephen Genovesi, the bureau’s vice president of sales and marketing, says the main point of contact between Chattanooga and the outside world is the company’s Web site, www.chattanoogafun.com.
“Ninety percent of people looking for a tourism destination are going online now,” he says. “Five, six years ago, we were 90, 95 percent weighted on television, and that’s still a great means for us to get the word out about Chattanooga.”
Most of the marketing for the Scenic City is done within 300 miles of Chattanooga, because people from Nashville, Atlanta, Knoxville, Birmingham and Huntsville make up a large percentage of the vacationers that come here.
But don’t be surprised if someone in South Florida or the Rocky Mountains says they saw a commercial advertising Chattanooga as a destination city – the Visitors Bureau works in conjunction with the state bureau on a program called National Cable Television, by which national commercial spots advertise the state and the city. Specifically, Chattanooga is branded as a “Great City by Nature,” and viewers are directed to the Web site for more information.
“It’s kind of like the mountains meeting Main Street,” says Doak. “You get the heart of the downtown that has a lot of amenities of a very large city without the problems, and in just a matter of minutes (you can) be immersed in an incredible outdoor adventure and activity. What a neat combination that is.”
Doak explains how that message is distributed, regionally and nationally, through a concept called “distressed inventory.” In this process, a set amount of money is spent and commercials continue to run until Chattanooga receives enough “dings.”
“A ‘ding’ is picking up a telephone and requesting a visitors’ guide or logging on to our Web site and requesting a visitors’ guide,” he says. “In some of these national cable buys, we can be all over the country.”
Genovesi adds, “We believe, as a tourism agency, that there’s not only a great economic impact of people that come into the city and stay overnight in the hotel, but we also believe a lot of these people have never seen Chattanooga and that a lot of positive things can come as a result.”
And obviously, visitors who enjoy their stay in Chattanooga will most likely tell their friends and family about the city. Some may decide to move here; some will bring businesses when they do.
“We also realize that the use of public relations is a vital method to get our message across,” says Doak. “Someone else saying Chattanooga’s great has a lot more value than us saying it.”
For this reason, the bureau accesses social networking sites, from Facebook to Twitter to Trip Advisor.
“Word of mouth is huge, too,” says Doak. “There’s so much buzz about Chattanooga right now, as it relates to the incredible business activity.”
The steady influx of business into the area will continue to drive that buzz, he adds, and it will become increasingly important for the Visitors Bureau to keep Chattanooga’s message and name in the forefront.
“We are also fortunate that we have a lot of different niches that help our tourism thrive in Chattanooga,” says Genovesi. “Certainly everybody knows the big attractions that still drive so much of that, but there’s some new niches that drive some of that, like the culinary area.”
He references, specifically, Chattanooga’s “explosion of restaurants” over the past few years. Through its research, the Visitors Bureau has found that dining is a driving force for local tourism, and the organization has been marketing accordingly.
“We’re inviting culinary writers here for the first time,” he says. “There is a restaurant here that’s been nominated for a James Beard award, St. John’s, that has gotten some national attention.”
He also mentions 212 Market, Tennessee’s first certified green restaurant, among others.
“We just had a big article in USA Today about our barbecue (establishments),” says Genovesi. “We have the really cool family destinations but then we also have the fine dining.”
The bureau is also promoting Chattanooga as a year-round destination. While summer is always strong for tourism, local events in the fall and winter are also driving tourists to the area.
Statistically speaking, Chattanooga has not seen the downturn in tourism as some of the major, surrounding cities.
“We have weathered the storm a whole lot better than other communities have,” says Doak, and he credits that to Chattanooga being an economical, family-friendly, safe destination.
Genovesi adds that, while the Visitors Bureau is pleased with its current endeavors, it is always seeking to bring meetings or conferences of all industries to Chattanooga. Even as the company approaches businesses on its own, requests from people inside each industry to be a little more influential.
Anyone interested in bringing a meeting, conference or event to Chattanooga can visit www.bringmymeeting.com or contact Genovesi directly at 423-424-4423.
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