Selling the South
Your Good to Go Girl is writing to you from Shreveport, Louisiana. Sister and I are attending a travel conference, Travel South, which twelve southern states come together to meet with folks in the tour business to promote hotels, restaurants, and attractions. Like speed dating, we each met with 80 suppliers who have seven minutes to “sell” us on what their area has to offer visitors. Honestly, this is an overload of information that leaves one mentally exhausted. It’s a bit like gold digging, one has to shift through a lot of sand to come up with an occasional nugget. But these nuggets are the things that get this traveler excited and willing to put together a tour that hopefully with delight other travelers with this special find. This is tourism.
Being in this crazy business for over 20 years, I’ve shifted a lot of sand. Since we live in an area that is dependent on tourism for revenue and tax dollars, I find myself “selling” Grand Lake and Oklahoma to fellow tour operators at these conferences. I like to think that I can give them a nugget in less than seven minutes that will at least stir a bit of interest to consider traveling to our state.
Many states recognize the value of tourism as the billion dollar industry it is and reinvest heavily to bring visitors in to stay and play and drop dollars and then go home. This particular conference, the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana gave a passionate speech, he loved his state and understood all the treasures it had to offer. Every berg has rooms with beds. There are restaurants with food around every corner. Museums? Historical sights? Stuff to do? What makes one stand out as a nugget? Could you “sell” the Grand Lake area?
I’ll admit one of the reasons these conferences are both exhausting and exhilarating is being surrounded by Type A personalities. You know, smiley, overconfident, love to talk, people. You can feel the electricity in the room. I love it. I love hearing how small towns (like ours) pull together to offer something unique and special in hopes of bringing in visitors. I love how creative some places can get to create an attraction when there isn’t one for them to promote. I love how business unite, even selling the competition knowing that they may not get the dollar this time, but they are stronger together.
I was asked to be a key-note speaker at the Travel South Conference last year. I understand both sides of the table; selling a place and being sold on a place. I was asked to travel to other areas to give the same presentation to communities that were trying to get their businesses to come together. This industry changes quickly. Marketing and advertising that worked last year, may be so…well, “last year” now. It’s a challenge to compete and yet cooperate with similar buisnesses.
We live in a touristy area. Let’s welcome these that will visit and leave their money with us and then go home. Let’s all be salesmen.
