And Other Destination Marketing Moves

Surf City Has Soul: In Southern California, Visit Huntington Beach, the tourism bureau for the destination that is officially billed as Surf City USA, has another brand to brandish for both international and domestic marketing: “The Soul of SoCal.” Just announced, the new brand/slogan was developed in conjunction with the San Antonio-based Atkins Group.

“Huntington Beach has long been known as Surf City USA and one of California’s quintessential beach communities,” Kelly Miller, president and CEO of Visit Huntington Beach, said in a news release announcing the “Soul” brand, adding that, in the research that led to the development of the new brand, “We learned that Huntington Beach resonates deeply as a destination that authentically delivers our brand promise: endless summer, flawless waves, laid-back luxury and an unhurried, welcoming future … that represents ‘The Soul of the SoCal’ experience to our visitors domestically and internationally.”

Objections notwithstanding, Visit Huntington Beach is going ahead with a multi-channel campaign this summer using the new branding. Said Susan Thomas, chief marketing officer to Visit Huntington Beach, in an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times, “Our new campaign is focused on storytelling and content engagement around three distinct visitor experiential pillars: laid-back luxury, multi-generational family travel and action sports.”

She added, “Given the dynamic, competitive environment in the travel marketplace in general, and many exciting new products adding to the Huntington Beach experience for visitors, Visit Huntington Beach is following industry best practices by assessing our brand position, including quantitative and qualitative research with leisure and group travelers domestically and internationally.”

Nebraska Has The Good Life: For more than 40 years, the official Nebraska slogan has been “Nebraska. The Good Life. Well, now it’s even better, were one to believe the enthusiastic launch given last week in an official announcement by the state’s governor, Pete Ricketts, who revealed a new brand: “Nebraska. Good Life. Great Opportunity.”

He said the “Good Life. Great Opportunity.” slogan reflects who Nebraskans are and what they feel about themselves. “From Sandhills ranches to Omaha high rises, this brand is inspired by the men and women who grew Nebraska for our first 150 years,” Ricketts said, explaining that it will also be flexible enough that it can be adapted for use by specific state agencies or local governments: i.e., the Nebraska State Patrol will use the tag line: “Good Life. Great Tradition.” The Department of Labor will use “Good Life. Great Connections.” And the Department of Roads will be “Good Life. Great Journey.”

As is the case with any new branding announced by a destination, the new effort produced mixed results. Online comments ranged from “Simple and keeps a very popular phrase with a new twist” to “This looks like a company. Nebraska: The Corporation.”

Left untouched by the announcement is the state’s tourism brand, “Nebraska Nice,” which was introduced in 2014. Amy Struthers, a professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said that “Nice” has not clicked with the public. “The people of Nebraska certainly let it be known in the past that they believe in the Good Life as an accurate slogan,” Struthers told the Omaha World-Herald. “Using this one tag line would help our citizens become the state’s best brand ambassadors.”

NYC Has Shanghai—Largest Cities in USA, China form Tourism Partnership: The Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration (SMTA) and New York City & Company, New York City’s official destination marketing organization, have announced a first-ever city-to-city partnership to boost tourism. The partnership brings together the USA’s largest city (pop. 8.55 million) and China’s largest city (pop. 24.5 million in its administrative district) in a two-year alliance includes a reciprocal outdoor media advertising exchange in Shanghai and New York City, the sharing of best practices in tourism marketing between the two destinations and other initiatives designed to stimulate travel between the two cities during this year’s U.S.-China Tourism Year and beyond.
This marks the first time New York City’s tourism organization has inked a partnership of this kind in China. Outdoor media promoting New York City and its new global “See it for Yourself” campaign will appear throughout Shanghai in four major subway stations through August 11 (People’s Square, Xujiahui, Shanghai Science & Technology Museum and Xintiandi). Additionally, the façade of the Citi Bank Wall in Lujiazui will be lit with imagery promoting New York City.

Reciprocally, Shanghai will be promoted on 164 bus shelters in New York City from September 26 to October 23. Also, Internationally acclaimed pianist and New York City resident Lang Lang will serve as New York City’s first-ever New York City Cultural Tourism Ambassador. Lang Lang, who has a home in Manhattan, and is a United Nations Messenger of Peace, announced his partnership with NYC & Company via a video statement in Shanghai.

A report over the past weekend that the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) is considering caps on the number of visitors to what comprise, arguably, the most popular tour attraction in the United States for overseas travelers is causing concern among tour operators—both international and receptive, as well as U.S. domestic operators—just as delegates from more than 60 nations are preparing to attend IPW in two weeks (June 18-22) in New Orleans. The news also comes in the wake of a record year in the number of visitors to locations operated by NPS, and with the expectation that those numbers will increase both this year and next as viewers worldwide see Brand USA’s giant screen movie, “National Parks Adventure,” which focuses on U.S. national parks, on screens in every major overseas source markets.

According to an AP report, NPS is seriously considering, or is already seeking input from users and other sources in order to determine if a limit on the number of visitors should be implemented at such popular national parks as Denali National Park in Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, Arches and Canyonland National Parks in Utah and Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Some highlights of the problem facing the parks include the following:

—Visits to U.S. national parks and related properties in 2015 reached a record 307 million, surpassing the previous record year set in 2014. And most estimates seem to indicate that 2016 will set another record.

—Last summer at Grand Canyon National Park, park managers increased entrance fees and moved lines along by dedicating an entrance gate to people who already had an annual park pass.

—Nearly 4.1 million people visited Yellowstone National Park in 2015, a 17 percent increase in visitors over 2014  (an additional 580,000 people). There weren’t enough bathrooms or parking spaces in the park. Staff and visitors reported pulses of crowding at popular spots, “partially due to an increasing number of tour buses.”

—In 2015, interpretive rangers gave out 52,036 resource warnings for behaviors such as threatening thermal features, approaching wildlife too closely, hiking in restricted areas and “taking bathroom breaks outside of the restroom.”

—From 2014 to 2015, motor vehicle accidents with injuries were up 167 percent, emergency medical transports to facilities outside the park were up 37 percent, and search and rescue operations were up 61 percent.

—Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah are looking at additional options to address increased visitor numbers, including a timed entry system, building more parking lots and other infrastructure, setting a daily cap on vehicle entrances and adding a private shuttle service.

Top 50 U.S. National Parks, Recreation Areas, National Memorials, Historical Parks, Etc.

2015 Attendance and Share

Pay to Play? There are two key factors that confront NPS. First is the natural tension between the dual mission of the park service to enhance the visitor experience for current users, while taking steps to ensure the visitor experience in the future; and a Congressional mandate imposed on NPS (and on other federal agencies) to seek alternative revenue streams beyond government appropriations.

In a scorching op-ed piece in the New York Times last week, Reed Watson, executive director of the Property and Environment Research Center said that the current problem with the U.S. national park system is a sense of entitlement on the part of Americans. He recommends increased user fees at all facilities: “We Americans want uncrowded, bucolic landscapes and we want them for free — or more precisely, we want them for the taxpayer-subsidized, price of a $30, seven-day car pass. Subsidizing entrance fees into our national parks ensures the parks will stay crowded and poorly maintained. The idea behind the national parks was preservation, not degradation in the name of subsidized access. And preservation is not free.”