New words for your tourism dictionary

Here are some terms and definitions to add to your discussions about the marketing of tourism.

• DMO (noun) – an investment account for communities
• Tourist (noun) – temporary taxpayer
• Passion of tourism marketers (noun, compound) – revenue generator

These definitions come not from a college textbook, but from an article that explains the value of destination marketing organizations on a layman's level.

The writer, Victoria Isley, the chief operating officer of Destination Marketing Association International, knows of what she speaks. Her article is one you can use to educate certain audiences about how tourism is marketed and how it benefits communities.

Tourism businesses applaud state spending that saved summer

Owners of tourism businesses in the Wisconsin Dells are praising a state tourism department advertising blitz that helped rescue a summer season that got off to a soggy start.

WISC-TV cited a $1 million boost in state tourism spending and the prospects of an additional $3.5 million over the next two years.

"The Dells had a stronger year this year because the state had a higher presence in the market," said Tom Diehl of the Tommy Bartlett Shows.

"What's interesting," said Southeast Tourism Society President and CEO Bill Hardman, "is that people often correlate increased tourism activity with increased marketing, yet they don't seem to see that picture in reverse."

Just how much is a logo worth?

If the logo in question is the state of New York's iconic "I (Heart) NY," the answer is a couple of million dollars a year.

The logo – available from Manhattan to London to Tokyo – is on everything from key chains and notebooks to pricey T-shirts and perfume.

"We are huge in Japan. That's our second-largest market," said Samira Ali of CMG Worldwide, the state's licensing agent, in The New York Daily News.

The state first licensed the logo in 1994. It collected more than $1.83 million in fees in fiscal 2011.

Do as Mom said: Go wash your hands

Did you ever wonder what becomes of those little bars of soap or the half-used bottles of shampoo when you check out of a hotel?

Most of it, millions of pounds of hotel soap and shampoo a day, goes into landfills – but not all of it. Some gets saved by an outfit called Clean the World, which sanitizes it and ships it around the world.

Who needs it, you ask? Millions of impoverished people who suffer from acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease because they have no soap.

Each year, more than five million people die from these diseases. Most are children less than five years old. Studies have shown that simple hand washing substantially reduces the spread of these diseases.

You can find out whether your next hotel works with Clean the World by checking its state-by-state list of participating properties.

(For the record, the Hotel Monteleone, site of the next STS meeting, supports Clean the World.)

Page doesn't look right in your e-mail browser? Visit:
southeasttourism.org/newsletters/ttt/2011/september/

September 2011

Perhaps King Solomon can rule on this tax question

If an online travel agency (think Expedia, Hotels.com, Travelocity) acquires a hotel room at wholesale for $100 and sells it to you for $120, on what amount does it pay the local municipality's room tax?

A Texas court says the tax basis is the retail price of $120, but a California court says it's the wholesale rate of $100.

Across the U.S., this squabble is the subject of 50 lawsuits, according to a report in Hotel News Now.

In Columbus, Ga., a ruling to go by the retail rate prompted some online travel agencies to stop listing hotels there. Instead, it steers them across the state line to Phenix City, Ala.

Today's geography quiz

Q: What Southeastern city did readers of Outside Magazine vote as their ultimate dream town? Remember that Outside's readers are into rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking and other cool stuff.

Editors were amazed that it beat out perennial "most livable," "coolest" and "Bro, you gotta try this seasonal IPA" meccas such as Boulder, Colo., Burlington, Vt., and Portland, Ore.

A: Click here.

Veteran adman to pitch U.S. to the world

"What better job is there out there than – as a marketing guy – being able to represent the country that I was born in and love? It's about the most pure expression of what I do that I can imagine." – Chris Perkins, America's new chief marketing officer.

Perkins, whose advertising credentials include such All-American brands as McDonald's, Jeep and Barnum & Bailey, starts work this week with the Corporation for Travel Promotion.

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STS Fall Meeting
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Nov. 8-10; New Orleans, La.
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