Why should people visit Emery County? Part I

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

The recently held Castle Valley Economic Summit presented valuable information for those in business.
Roger Brooks was the breakfast speaker at the event. He said he is working with four counties in Utah on rural tourism. Emery, Box Elder, Kane and Daggett. He has instructed them to find out what sets them apart. He said in marketing not to focus on things you can view, but on activities visitors can participate in.
In advertising, make digital your top marketing priority. More people are turning to the internet than ever before for trip planning. Put 45 percent into website, search engines, advertising apps, etc. 20 percent in advertising and 20 percent into public relations. Only put 10 percent into printed materials and 5 percent for trade shows. In the travel industry, you must watch your peer reviews. Trip advisor is the most visited. Trip advisor has millions of views and is incredibly important.
Travelers are more influenced by peer reviews than by your advertising. Keep your site updated.
Educate your local businesses to use Trip Advisor. It’s free to add content to Trip Advisor. You can add photos, content and video. Trip Advisor is loaded with information and most of it is free to access and free to provide.
“Make sure your local attractions are listed on Trip Advisor. When I started working with the four counties, there’s not much about them on Trip Advisor. Promote your activities. Each of the bike trails including the Good Water Rim trail should be listed, be specific. Only 19 percent of travelers use local websites.
“You can pay for sponsoring your page on the Trip Advisor website. It’s $500 a month to be a page sponsor. It’s worth it because this is where people go.
On social media, it’s not about you. It’s about friends. Brooks told of his family trip to Disneyland. His daughter posted pictures on Facebook showing what they were doing and how his granddaughter had a princess package where they had breakfast with the princesses and pictures taken and before you knew it 85 of her friends were planning trips and purchasing the princess package.
All that without a dime spend by Disneyland on advertising. Everywhere at Disneyland is free wi-fi so pictures of kids and Disney characters can be broadcast immediately.
Brooks told how important it is if one family comes here to Castle Country and has a great time and posts pictures of themselves on Facebook of their trip. He said it’s important to have Gateway signs that people can take their picture with. Get exposure for your area in this way. But up a Best Bouldering in the World sign. People will take their pictures with that sign and post it and you will have worldwide exposure for your bouldering. There’s only the cost of the signs involved. Work with mapping sites to make sure your area is searchable. Get yourselves on the digital maps. Twenty-five percent of cars now have navigation systems, plus all the smart phones out there. Make sure people can find you. Get your roads on the maps. That’s a good place for an area to start, making sure you can be found.
Use signage, show people what you have that they might not know you have.
Brooks told of an area in Washington, one hour south of Seattle that banded together and advertised their 11 museums; each purchased a panel and called it South Sound Heritage panels. Their attendance tripled and their budgets were cut by 2/3rds. There is power in partnering for marketing. One loud voice is worth more than several small voices. The further people come to get here, the longer they will stay.
Create sample itineraries and promote private businesses. Best Breakfast, Best Lunch, Best place to get coffee, Be specific.
Another great way to advertise is to get your area in car magazines; BMW, Drive magazine. Write stories and send them to all magazines about your area. Every month these clubs do drives, bring them to your area. Send them a sample itinerary and give them activities to do while visiting your area. You can do all that for free. All the clubs have newsletters and you can send sample itineraries to be included in newsletters. Get the kids involved and people are more likely to stay. Have activities for kids.
Bike magazines are looking for places to send their readers to ride. Moab is the world’s mountain biking capital and we can send those visitors out to the San Rafael Swell.
Find niche magazines and send them stories and pictures about your area. Quilting, bird watching, anything. Every magazine has contact information. Send them your story.
Collect the best of information at community gatherings. Develop a best of list to send out to promote your area. Where’s the best dessert? where do you buy picnic items? where do you get local gifts? What’s the one thing you have to experience while in your area?
Most people will have no idea about what to see and do when they visit your area. Where do they stay? Where should they eat that isn’t fast/generic food?
We developed a Seattle on foot one day walking tour with specific itinerary items. It was put in a video and more than 4,000 people downloaded it and 1,000 people actually did it.
Promote your anchor tenants. What will make a trip to your area special. Do you have a local chef?
Brooks showed an eating place on the slide show that looked pretty run down. He asked if anyone would eat there. Two people raised their hand. He then went on to explain that this BBQ is run by a church choir and it’s ranked number three in the world of places to fly into just to eat. It’s a landmark in their area. They serve big plates of BBQ and some gospel songs on the side. It’s an experience for the patrons to eat there. They are that area’s anchor tenant. Busloads of people come by to have lunch.
Where should we eat is the question travelers ask most.
Get brochures out on your activities. Eighty-two percent of the time, people will carry a brochure of an area they are visiting.
Get businesses to stay open later. Seventy percent of all consumer spending takes place after 6 p.m. Visitors play during the day and come back later and need to eat.
Market your top three restaurants, retail shops, activities and attractions. Don’t let local politics kill your projects.
Recruit outside events. We visited a little town in California having the First Annual Wheels and Windmills car show. They were there holding the carshow in that town, because the local chamber had invited them by sending out a letter. They closed off two blocks on Main Street and put up welcome signs. The car club did everything else. They promoted the event and 10,000 people came the first year. The car club is doing all the marketing and planning of the car show event for the next 10 years. That community has events on 45 weekends of the year. Solvang, Calif.
Go to the local libraries and non-profit organizations. Invite organizations to host an event in your area. Send them a letter in the mail.
Brooks then showed photos in advertising materials. The photo must be about an experience highlighted with people, not scenery. He showed a photo of a girl holding a fish to promote Flaming Gorge. The largest words were Size Matters and then the photo and below the photo the information about visiting Flaming Gorge to fish and recreate. You must stand out; people read headlines. Narrow your focus. Evoke emotion and people will remember it. Repetition is the key to people remembering your area, tell them once, twice and then tell them again why they need to visit you. Hit them over and over again in the same publication. Tell them why before where.
Some businesses will ask what’s being done for them, but what are you doing to pull people into your businesses. Take these ideas and start doing them tomorrow. Get started. “Today is the day you can start a new history for your community. Bring people in. Utah has diversity. The Mighty Five national parks campaign was brilliant, follow in their footsteps. What you have here is amazing. Others are copying what Utah is doing,” said Brooks.