Historic Centralia Attracting More Tourists
One of the aspects of the Wilson Hotel rehabilitation that we have recently been developing through our business plan model in order to secure infrastructure financing, is the element of the project that addresses the future value of Centralia being a “tourist destination.” We have been collecting data to support that end, primarily in the area of heritage tourism and the draw that historic districts bring to the traveling public at large.
Through the process of building our data bank of research for our project, we sometimes stumble across interesting information that is related to the greater picture of historic Centralia. One recent resource we discovered was the Shop America Alliance web site.
The Shop America Alliance represents hundreds of the nations premier shopping & dining destinations, which offer tourism programs specifically designed for travelers from both domestic and international ports of origin. This organization partners to offer a wide variety of entertainment options for travelers of all ages from coast to coast.
The SAA founded a study called, “Tourism 101: Basic Information for Selling to Tourists.” We have included several noteworthy discoveries documented in this study in our business Performa for the Wilson Hotel project. We wanted to take the opportunity to share a few highlights here on the blog since we found this information helpful in understanding the importance of the retail sales community in tourist destinations both historic and modern day.
$703 billion is spent annually in both domestic and international markets on tourism
$1.3 TRILLION in direct, indirect and induced travel expenditures, including international travelers’ spending in the United States alone
This spending accounts for $105 billion in tax revenue for local, state and federal governments
Direct spending averages $1.8 billion per day in the United States; $75 million per hour; $1.2 million per minute; and $21,000 per second
Shopping & dining are the top two travel activities in the United States
Cultural and heritage tourism is # 3 !!! *wow*
Travelers who engage in shopping and cultural or heritage tourism spend more, stay longer and have better travel experiences overall Who is the demographic of the Cultural & Heritage Tourism Traveler?
Baby Boomers born 1946-1964 -
Trips are longer, allowing for in-depth exploration at a leisurely pace
Trips are often themed or educational
As grandparents, boomers are now the force behind multi-generational travel experiences
Boomers spend an average of $2,995 on 4.2 trips each year
Tourists are defined as visitors traveling over 100 miles and staying overnight. These visitors are different from your local visitors. Marketing to both segments is critical. Development of a strategic marketing plan that addresses these elements is currently under way within the Centralia Downtown Association. The CDA is following the Main Street Program approach through this process.
Interestingly a good number of tourists stay with family or friends and go where they are taken or directed by their hosts. That is why it is so important to market on a local scale and also to the greater tourist population outside the 100 mile radius. This concept specifically relates to the relationship between the attitude and perception that the local community has about the downtown historic district in Centralia. Improving the image of downtown in the eyes of the immediate community is critical to the revitalization of downtown. In a localized market hosts typically take their guests to the venues that they feel best represent their community. If there are particular places of interest, landmark sites, historic sites of entertainment, or a “best of” location, that is where local hosts will take their guest to “show it off.” Tourists that stay in hotels are also most interested in visiting “local favorites” or “local hot spots.”
46% of retailers surveyed in this study indicated that more than half of their retail sales come from tourists. 75% said that 25% or more of their sales come from tourists. It is clear that a promotion of tourism enhances retails sales in a historic downtown setting.
Three questions are useful in increasing the awareness of proper marketing techniques that will reach the identified target audience of tourists.
Who is your tourism customer?
How can you identify and track tourists?
What motivates tourists to shop and spend more?
We will look more into those questions in the next blog posting. The SAA report is pretty extensive and breaking it up into “blog spots” is a great way to share the highlights with you.
