To better develop a plan to solidify the Historic Triangle as a must-visit destination for tourists, the Williamsburg Area Destination Marketing Committee is hoping to collect more data on all visitors — including those who stay with family.
Though WADMC has kept track of the number of overnight visitors staying in hotels and timeshares since its founding in 2004, the organization hopes more robust data on visitation will create a destination “vision that sets a tone for growth,” said Carl Lum, WADMC chairman and the Busch Gardens Park President.
The group does not have a solid plan for how to collect the data, but it will likely come from a combination of research data gathered by Strategic Marketing and Research Inc. — hired earlier this month — and tax information from the localities.
WADMC contracted the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance to transition and develop future marketing plans. The transition includes hiring SMARI to conduct market research, and the Alliance is taking on a marketing staff member to replace the Marketing Research Task Force.
Lum announced WADMC’s intention to gather more detailed data on overnight visitors at the group’s meeting Monday.
“The research will provide important information regarding travel patterns, travel planning and other important information about visitors to our destination. The research will also reach out to those who considered visiting our destination but did not actually visit as well as those who just don’t plan to visit to determine the reasons for not travelling to the area,” said Bob Harris, vice president of tourism at the Alliance.
Ron Kirkland, executive director of the Williamsburg Hotel & Motel Association, said he thought a stronger emphasis should be put on collecting data about people who stay in hotels because of the wording in the state legislation that created WADMC and the $2 room night tax that helps funds the group.
“We try to balance [our data collecting] somewhat close to the percentage of rooms we have available … they’re all important to us,” Harris explained about gathering information on visitors.
The number of available nights in timeshares for non-owners has been increasing since 2000. In a chart showing hotel and timeshare visitor information from Smith Travel Research and the Alliance between 2000 and 2012, hotel inventory decreased from 9,538 rooms to 8,622 rooms while timeshare inventory increased from 4,534 rooms to 6,354 rooms. Hotel occupancy decreased from 51.6 percent to 43.2 percent in that time.
WADMC discussed the new extended television commercial campaign which took the place of search and keyword placements and acts as a driver to the www.VisitWilliamsburg.com website.
For early signs of whether the new campaign is working, WADMC is referring to its website traffic and booking report. Page views and bookings through February were lower than the same time last year, most likely a result of a 21 percent decrease in dollars spent on search and keyword placements.
Page views showed a 15 percent increase for the week of March 11 through 17 compared to the same week last year. Also for the week of March 11 through 17, the website had 39 percent more transactions conducted and 28 percent more room nights reserved than last year. The total amount from the room night bookings is 49 percent higher and ticket sales were 72 percent higher.
Using research conducted by a marketing group, the Historic Triangle can be more effectively marketed to potential visitors. Whether the marketing efforts work is exhibited through website and booking engine traffic and, ultimately, in visitation numbers.
