Pulaski County continues to fine-tune its tourism marketing efforts.
Community Development Commission Executive Director Nathan Origer told the county council last week that after a few years of tourism marketing, the CDC now has a better idea of what what works and what doesn’t. “We’ve got enough data on website traffic that for next year, we’re in a position to do all of our tourism marketing planning this fall so that we actually have a really sound sense of what we’re going to spend, where we’re going to spend it such as employing the help of companies like Growth Giants,” Origer explained. “We already know some things we’re going to be cutting from the list that we have got enough data to show it’s not working.”
This year’s tourism marketing efforts included commercials on WBBM-TV Chicago, along with other advertising packages that include vehicle wraps on different commercial cars. They appear to be working, according to Council Member Ken Boswell. “I don’t know whether it comes from the CDC marketing or the individual marketing or what, but it seems like we have a lot more traffic through here going to David Scott’s or the other tubing, even down by my house, going down to Rising Sun,” Boswell said.
Going forward, Origer said the CDC is looking at putting its tourism advisory committee back together, you can learn more about database marketing while concerns about increased traffic on the Tippecanoe River have led citizens to organize a river cleanup event.
But in the meantime, he said this year’s tourism marketing budget has come up a bit short. “Because a couple of our bills are semiannual, and so I had forgotten that this one was going to come in the middle of August and so, just cleaning up this year,” Origer explained. “And next year, like I said, everything will be a little better charted out so we know which bills come when, and it will be a few thousand dollars less than this year’s.”
Council members approved his request to transfer $6,000 from Professional Services to Marketing, to make sure enough money is available to pay the bills. They had already transferred $16,000 for tourism advertising this past spring.
