Union County Ohio Where pride resides - Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau

Goals & Objectives

Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau

Click here for the 2008 Marketing Plan


Background

The marketplace is full of choices. This creates the imperative for marketing and the need for every Convention and Visitors Bureau to have a marketing foundation. Through our marketing plan we look at: What is Our Strategic Position? What are the industry trends that are impacting us? What is our competition for attracting visitors? Are we gaining or losing our share of corporate and leisure travel market share? Are our services emerging or maturing? Is and how often is our message reaching our potential customers?

The Convention and Visitors Bureau is a non-profit corporation, which is a division of the Union County Chamber of Commerce. The fiscal year runs from January 1 to December 31st.

Mission

  1. Promote Union County as a destination
  2. To educate Union County residents about restaurants, shopping and attractions in our own community.
  3. Position our community to attract conventions, sporting events and other conferences

Situation

  1. The current hotels and motels attract corporate travelers however they need support in attracting leisure travelers to Union County.
  2. Some sectors of our community have seen a decline in business while some new businesses have broken sales records. We have a larger selection of restaurants and stores.
  3. With today’s issue of airport security and the increased hassles of traveling abroad, more and more individuals are taking vacations and weekend trips where they can drive – usually under four hours.
  4. Individuals who live in the city are seeking relaxing vacations to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
  5. With an increase in opportunities for dining, shopping and attractions, Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau needs to educate the community about these opportunities so that they do not travel elsewhere for these services.
  6. Few residents know that the Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau exist and what services they can provide.

Objectives

  1. To increase corporate travel by 5% by December 2007.
  2. To increase leisure travel by 10% by December 2007.
  3. To increase number of day trippers by 10% by December 2007.
  4. To increase the number of residents dining, shopping and utilizing entertainment
  5. Create opportunities to make the Convention and Visitors Bureau more visible to the community
  6. To increase number of conferences held in Union County
  7. Develop baselines of various statistic areas so we can provide more measurements of objectives to community

Audience

  1. Companies/Business Travelers: Several major company headquarters are located in Union County. These companies have contracts with hotels in Dublin to host their out of town employees or contractors. At this time, the building and contractor business accounts for a large part of the business travel.
  2. Leisure Traveler: The leisure traveler supports area businesses and contributes to the hotel lodging tax. Currently, we are heavily event related driven for hotel stays on the weekends.
  3. Group Tours: Group tours mostly consist of day trippers that visit area attractions especially the older crowd who have retired and have expendable income. In 2006, we experienced an increase interest from the handicap tour groups.
  4. Meetings and Conferences: Planners have arranged customized small meetings and tournaments in recent years. This can be expanded upon by developing relationships with the Fairgrounds, athletic directors, YMCA and health department.
  5. Class Reunions: This market is currently untapped. Class Reunions are held at Benny’s and Little Tonys arbitrarily.

Strategies

  1. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will continue the 2006 new concept for the Visitors Guide called Passport to Union County which will be updated, reprinted and distributed to other Convention and Visitors Bureaus, ODOT visitor centers, requests through advertisements and information booths at events.
  2. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will update and reprint the following publications to attract visitors and educate residents; About Town: Calendar of Events, Covered Bridge Tour Guide, Agri-Tourism and Sports & Recreation and Packaged Tour Planner
  3. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will continue to update, revise and promote the website. In 2007, the calendar section will be expanded to include fundraising events and business events such as seminars, ribbon cuttings and customer appreciation days.
  4. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will continue to promote the website as the place to go for information. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will continue to add links to other websites (event specific, hotels, golf, restaurants, etc.
  5. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will continue to write a Directors Column for the Chamber Newsletter to update residents and companies on happenings in the bureau.
  6. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will continue to submit a grant to Ohio Department of Travel and Tourism to help support the advertising budget. Advertisements will be placed with appropriate newspapers, magazines, billboards, radio stations and cable TV stations.
  7. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will continue to submit events for public relation listings in appropriate media.
  8. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will work with restaurants, store owners and attraction operators to encourage Cooperative Advertising and Cross Promotion.
  9. The Union County Convention and Visitor Bureau will set up display booths at appropriate events including but not limited to Union County Fair, Richwood Independent Fair, Business After Business, etc.
  10. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will offer giveaways and door prizes at events to assist in the promotion of the county and our website.
  11. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will offer souvenirs to promote the county. Souvenirs included but are not limited to Covered Bridge Post Cards, Covered Bridge Afghan, Marysville Historical Walking Tour Guide
  12. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will work with current events and attractions to offer ideas and suggestions on improvement such as the Farmer’s Market.
  13. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will work with all cities including Richwood, Plain City and Milford Center to assist in branding and promotion of their individual communities.
  14. The Union County Convention and Visitors Bureau will work in promoting the county to corporations to encourage their corporate travel to stay in Union County.
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