Chamber unveils the city’s 2021 marketing budget | Free News

Marketing a tourist destination is essential to sustaining people’s livelihoods and helping the economy to thrive.

The city of Branson is no different.

At the virtual Council of Aldermen meeting on February 9, the Branson/Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce and CVB Marketing Director Rachel Wood presented the 2021 Marketing Plan for the City of Branson. The overall goal for 2021, according to the presentation, is to rebuild Branson’s visit.

The House’s overall budget this year is $1.5 million.

Wood presented the following strategies, objectives and tactics:

–Priority of market segmentation

–Provide relevant/motivating messages to the consumer

–Develop Branson’s position as a multi-season vacation destination based on the greatest potential per season

–Continue increasing the digital presence; via website, custom content, messaging program, content, digital media (display/SEM/social)

“I really appreciate hearing from you about the shoulder season because it’s something we’ve been fighting for 20 years,” Alderman Bill Skains said. “The dedication to this is greatly appreciated because (there are) a lot of things that are open in January, February, March and part of April, and people need to know that the city is open.”

According to the public relations presentation, the objectives are to:

–Generate $15 million in advertising equivalent, as assessed by national media monitoring services

–Recruit more professional travel writers and outdoor press conferences

–Generate positive coverage in print, radio and television nationally and regionally

– Capitalize on media interest by promoting “what’s new” in Branson

Hobby group sales that were highlighted in the presentation include:

–Organize a Travel Buyer FAM in April 2021

–Branson Ice Cream Social sponsorship at American Bus Association (ABA) and Student Youth Travel Association (SYTA)

–Continue to re-engage community partners by hosting virtual sales meetings

– Attend in-person trade shows for sales meetings with the National Travel Association (NTA), Travel South and Connect/IPW

–Participate in virtual sales meetings with travel buyers with ABA, Travel South, Travel Alliance Partners (TAP), Going On Faith and Boomers in Travel

Meetings and conventions that have been highlighted include:

–To increase the number of reserved meetings and conventions

–Influencing and engaging meeting planners through sponsorships at leading industry trade shows and conferences

–Continue to increase digital and social media campaigns

–Increased focus on faith-based and regional associations due to pandemic

–Continue to develop new digital content

Finally, with regard to the marketing and development of the sport, the following elements were highlighted in the presentation:

–Attract sporting events and conventions that best fit Branson/Lakes area facilities

–Continue to work with sites in the region to identify dark dates and strategically place events to provide broader economic impact

–Increase additional trips to sporting events

–Work with the BCVB Sports Committee on the long-term strategic plan to add to Branson’s sports facility infrastructure

–Continue defining and implementing a long-term strategic plan for golf tourism

After a question from Skains regarding what the chamber will do differently this year, Woods said:

“First of all, we’re focusing much, much more on people who are travel-ready,” Wood said. “No. 2 we’ve really gone back to a more regional drive as opposed to the past. I’m going to go ahead and tell you this will be the first year in a while that we haven’t had a national television campaign , and this was voted unanimously by our Marketing Oversight Committee. There is a certain level of awareness that comes with a national campaign, but if our budget is cut as badly as it has been, looking forward, it’s just too spread out, it just doesn’t make sense to focus on national spending for this campaign when you’re really only getting those regional pockets.

“Finally, we’re spending 60% of our budget this year on digital and 40% on TV, where it was the opposite of that in 2019, and for anyone paying attention, that’s how it goes. We had lots and lots of research and reports that we showed to the Marketing Oversight Board (which ultimately came to this conclusion).

Visit bransonmo.gov under the “Government” tab for the complete presentation of the 2021 marketing plan.

A resolution to approve the marketing budget for January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021 was also presented at the meeting.

According to a staff report for this article, the city previously approved the contract with the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and CVB on December 8, 2020.

However, the contract required the chamber to submit a draft budget to the council for approval. This was presented at the board meeting of February 9, 2021.

The chamber’s overall marketing budget for 2021 is $1.5 million, compared to the budget of $2,707,440 that was approved for 2020, according to the detailed budget submitted by the chamber (titled “Resolution Exhibit 1 – Budget marketing 2021”).

The detailed budget showed that $2,324,462 of the 2020 budget was provided by the tourism tax, which must be re-approved by Branson voters in the April 4 ballot.

According to Branson Tri-Lakes News records, if passed by voters again in April, the Tourism Levy will continue to be collected and continue to provide the funds the City of Branson needs to market the tourism economy. of Branson and improve critical public infrastructure.

The visitor’s tax helps ensure that visitors to Branson help share the burden of the cost of major infrastructure improvements and marketing in the city. Without these funds, future major infrastructure improvements and marketing in the City of Branson will not be possible due to the lack of funding for the projects.

The city’s visitor’s tax should not be confused with the tourist community improvement district’s sales tax which also raises money to market the area.

The budget was adopted unanimously by the aldermen on February 9.

Discover the article of November 13, 2020 “Tourist tax to see the April ballot” on bransontrilakesnews.com.