| Weekly e-newsletter for VisitNC partners | April 26, 2017 |
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| IN THIS ISSUE:
* Annual New York Media Mission sees strongest attendance ever * TRAC coming to Marion/McDowell County region tomorrow
* French journalists explore North Carolina on Visit NC tour
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 Annual New York Media Mission sees strongest attendance ever, with overwhelming, positive response
More than 26 partners mingled with representatives from top national media outlets last week during Visit North Carolina's annual New York Media Mission. The 71 media guests included staffers from Glamour, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Saveur, Parade, Edible Manhattan, Fodor's Travel and Travelzoo, plus contributors to top brands such as Outside, USA Today, The Daily Meal, US News & World Report, The Huffington Post and Associated Press. The event featured hidden gems of North Carolina showcased in the Visit NC 543 blog. Guests talked travel and sampled fare including food from James Beard Award-nominated Chef Cheetie Kumar of Garland; beer from Fullsteam, NoDa and Wicked Weed; wine from McRitchie Vineyards and Biltmore, as well as innovative cocktails featuring Mystic Bourbon. Partners included Asheville CVB, Biltmore, Brevard Music Center, NC's Brunswick Islands, Cabarrus County CVB, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, Crystal Coast TDA, Durham CVB, Fearrington Village, Greater Raleigh CVB, Greensboro Area CVB, Greenville-Pitt County CVB, Halifax County CVB, Haywood County TDA, Johnston County VB, NC Craft Brewers Guild, Washington TDA, New Bern-Craven County C&VC, Outer Banks VB, Pinehurst Resort, Replacements, Ltd., Rutherford County TDA, Transylvania County TDA, Tryon International Equestrian Center, Visit Winston-Salem, Wilkesboro TDA, and Wilmington and Beaches CVB. |
|  | A previous TRAC in Swan Quarter | |
TRAC coming to Marion/McDowell County region tomorrow, Granville County region May 18
Tomorrow (Thursday), tourism-related businesses in the Marion/McDowell County regional area - including the surrounding counties - will have an opportunity to work with Visit North Carolina staff to learn about its research, development and marketing services, and discuss best practices in reaching travelers, the media and increasing tourism visitation and spending. Visit North Carolina's Tourism Resource Assistance Center (TRAC), a community-based training program designed to help small tourism-related businesses, will be held 10 am - 2 pm at the McDowell House, 136 US Hwy. 70, in Marion.
There is no charge to attend, no reservation is required, and there are no PowerPoint presentations. This is a come-when-you-can/stay-as-long-as-you'd-like event opportunity for all tourism-related businesses to meet one-on-one with program managers to discuss better ways to promote their property or event. TRAC brings Visit North Carolina's program managers to local communities to discuss the nuts and bolts of working with the organization. This invaluable program is designed to help tourism-related businesses engage more fully with programs offered by Visit North Carolina and its partners.
The next TRAC will be in the Granville County region on May 18.
Representatives from the EDPNC's BLNC, N.C. Dept. of Commerce, N.C. Dept. of Natural & Cultural Resources and NC GreenTravel will also be on hand to discuss services they can provide businesses, including strategic planning, assisting with identifying funding sources and serving as liaisons with other local, state and federal agencies. For additional information on this session or to learn more about scheduling a TRAC visit to your community, contact Andre Nabors at (919) 447-7771. |
| | The group at the
USS North Carolina | |
French journalists explore North Carolina on Visit NC tour With Delta's new daily flight from Paris to Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Visit NC's public relations team led a media tour with four French journalists to explore art, nature and culinary appeal in Raleigh, Durham and Wilmington. Three CVBs - Greater Raleigh, Durham, and Wilmington & Beaches - arranged visits to the NC Museum of Art and its art park, Bennett Place, Duke Gardens, the Nasher Museum of Art, and the USS Battleship NC. The experience included overnight stays in the Sheraton Downtown Raleigh, the Durham Hotel and Blockade Runner in Wrightsville Beach, plus entertainment spotlighting innovative and traditional Southern specialties including barbeque, and local beer and music. The RDU flight is the only year-round, daily, non-stop flight to North Carolina; American Airlines offers a seasonal flight from Paris to Charlotte. In 2014, North Carolina welcomed 30,090 visitors from France (up 14 percent compared to 2013), who spent $9.6 million. To find out more about Visit NC's public relations program, contact Eleanor Talley at (919) 447-7783. |
Lodging indicators for North Carolina strong through first quarter First quarter lodging data for North Carolina shows continued growth and record levels for all indicators. According to the recent data from Smith Travel Research, all statewide lodging indicators tracked posted increases from the first quarter of 2016. Room demand, which represents the number of room nights sold in lodging properties, grew more than 3 percent from the first quarter of 2016, and has grown more than 18 percent in the last five years. Q1 2017 represents the eighth consecutive first quarter with room demand growth in North Carolina. Demand at the national level grew nearly 3 percent during Q1 2017. As shown in the graph below, North Carolina first quarter demand is at a record high of more than 7.9 million room nights sold during the three-month period. |
First quarter lodging data for North Carolina shows continued growth and record levels for all indicators. According to the recent data from Smith Travel Research, all statewide lodging indicators tracked posted increases from the first quarter of 2016. Room revenues are also at an all-time high in North Carolina. First quarter revenues were more than $752 million, an increase of 6 percent from Q1 2016. Room revenues at the US level and in the South Atlantic Region were up 5 percent during the first quarter.During the last two years, North Carolina revenue growth has slightly outpaced national and regional growth (see graph below) for the first quarter.
Statewide occupancy grew only 1.3 percent from the first quarter of 2016.It should be noted, however, that room supply was up 2.1 percent (as compared to +1.6 percent in Q1 2016 and -0.1 percent in 2015), and that the relatively large growth in rooms available for sale stunted occupancy growth during this period. While there were more rooms sold (demand), there were also more rooms available to sell (supply). Room rates continue to grow at a steady rate (+2.4 percent YTD 2017). Regionally, the NC lodging industry also continues to post positive numbers throughout the state. Quarterly room demand is up in six of the eight prosperity zones, with the Sandhills Region posting double-digit demand growth from Q1 2016 to Q1 2017. Room revenues are up in each of the eight regions, particularly the Sandhills (+14.1 percent), North Central (+7.5 percent) and Piedmont Triad (+6.8 percent) regions. |
| | | A dancing scene from the
new movie |
NC-filmed Dirty Dancing releases first trailer
The NC-filmed Dirty Dancing has released its first trailer, which can be viewed here. ABC is set to air the "three-hour musical event" on May 24. The TV movie filmed last spring primarily in Jackson County, where the High Hampton Inn & Country Club in Cashiers was turned into Kellerman's Resort. |
Surveys, Industry, Marketing & Travel Trends
Marathon tourism can have notable economic impact for cities - Thirty-thousand athletes from 94 countries will participate in this month's 121st running of [the Boston Marathon], and organizers say they'll pump $192 million into the local economy, reports Skift. That's the equivalent of $311 for every man, woman and child living in the city of Boston. [Runners are] an affluent bunch: Running USA's 2015 national survey found that more than seven in 10 marathon runners earn more than $75,000 a year, and most are college graduates. Many in the field for the Boston Marathon will bring their families along. An article about marathon tourism, by the Detroit Free Press article from 2007, told of one man who ran marathons. In Ashton, Idaho, he ran the Mesa Falls Marathon through snow-capped mountains. In Dallas, he found time to race and visit a Kennedy-assassination historic site. In Wyoming, he stayed extra days to visit Jackson Hole and Yellowstone National Park. If not for running, "I doubt if I would have ever gone to Idaho," he said. "But now I just want to go back." Marathon tourism is on the rise, coinciding with a huge increase in the number of runners - 29.2 million in 2005, up from 20.6 million in 1995, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Runners put dollar signs in the eyes of tourism officials. Large marathons such as Boston, New York, Chicago and Honolulu can pull $100 million or more into a city's economy in a single weekend. The Los Angeles Marathon on March 4 sold out nearly every hotel room in town. Even small marathons can create millions in business for local hotels and restaurants. What restaurants can learn from hotels - Restaurants and hotels have at least two traits in common, reports Modern Restaurant Management. Both industries are faced with selling a perishable product in a consumer-informed world that is rife with competition. For more than two decades, hotels have improved their ability to identify their guests and engage them in a way that delivers a direct, positive impact to the business with loyalty programs. In fact, in a recent survey conducted by Hospitality Technology, hotels identified traditional loyalty programs as the single best interactive marketing tool to engage customers while delivering a high impact to the business. Restaurants can learn at least three key things from hotels - Implementing a loyalty program should be treated as a strategic business decision; engaging a critical mass of customers with a loyalty program will drive more business; and adding value to the brand with a loyalty program will boost franchisee sales. Report helps defining conventions as urban innovation and economic accelerators - The meetings and conventions industry is evolving into a global innovation distribution channel, reports Skift. During the last decade, convention bureaus have been collaborating more strategically with their local and state governments, economic development agencies, academic and scientific institutions, and local business improvement districts to better leverage the value of conventions in their cities, especially those aligned with their regions' high-priority growth sectors. The collective goal among those private and public organizations is to attract more conventions in advanced and creative industries to help position their cities as economic and innovation accelerators, in an effort to attract outside corporate investment and talent more effectively in those industries. The challenge is mapping and measuring those long-term impacts. Presently, most cities highlight the economic benefits of conventions based on the short-term hospitality and tourism spend during conventions, which are then extrapolated to show the overall impact on jobs and taxes in the region on an annual basis. However, in addition to that, there are many important long-term economic benefits, or "legacy impacts," that conventions deliver to a city that are typically not included in traditional impact reports. Skift offers a free report which can be downloaded here. How extended stay hotels are pivoting towards a new generation of travelers - Extended stay hotels are a particularly bright spot in an otherwise steady hotel industry, especially in the U.S., reports Skift. These properties, often distinguished by having a kitchenette in each room and taking reservations, instead of requiring a lease, saw room night demand go up 5.4 percent in 2016 compared to 2015, according to a U.S. Extended Stay Lodging Market 2017 report from The Highland Group. That same report found occupancy for extended stay hotels remains steady at just over 75 percent. To date, there are about 40,000 extended stay properties in the U.S. alone and that number will continue to grow: rooms under construction for this category are up 16 percent compared to 2015, a record high. The ways in which customers are using extended stay hotels are also expanding. What was traditionally thought of as something specifically geared toward business travelers working on long projects or perhaps relocating has now become a lodging option for people staying four days or less. Hotels' updates for hotel robes prove popular with guests - As hotel chains look for new ways to attract younger travelers, bathrobes have become one more way to add pizazz to an otherwise predictable stay, reports The Washington Post. Gone are the one-size-fits-all robes of earlier decades. In their place: Seersucker, houndstooth and periwinkle blue, all perfectly suited for sharing on social media. To that end, executives at Four Seasons Hotels spent three years fine-tuning the chain's newest offerings, which are more tailored and less bulky than their predecessors. They also have slimmer sleeves to make it easier for women to style their hair in their robes. Marriott, meanwhile, has replaced many of its white robes with charcoal gray versions that are shorter and have wider sleeves. And at Hilton - where 18 percent of guests say that "lounging around in hotel robes all day" is their favorite part of being on vacation - lighter-weight resort robes have taken the place of plush terry. Perhaps the boldest bathrobes can be found in Kimpton Hotel' 65 properties - in North Carolina and Georgia, guests are greeted with seersucker robes. Putting the front desk in the hotel guest's pocket - While apps are not new in the hotel industry, the use of them and other tech tools has grown exponentially in the last five years as hoteliers seek new ways to meet the needs of guests, gain repeat customers, differentiate their brands and, ultimately, increase revenue, reports The New York Times. And since the hotel tools are available at all hours, hotel experts say they may go a long way toward keeping guests happy and avoiding negative reviews on social media and websites like TripAdvisor. In the last five years alone, communication with Marriott International from mobile devices has quadrupled, said a Marriott representative. In addition, 75 percent of all Marriott guests used a smartphone, tablet or laptop during their most recent stay. And that is indicative of what is happening in the hotel industry. Big Mac makeover helps McDonald's overcome restaurant slump - A revamp of McDonald's iconic Big Mac burger and more aggressive drink promotions are helping the restaurant giant overcome a broader slump in the fast-food industry, reports Bloomberg. "US sales showed a nice acceleration in the quarter," said an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. "They've made a lot of positive changes over the last two years, and all of these positive changes are starting to add up." As part of its Big Mac promotion, McDonald's rolled out different sizes of the Big Mac and offered $1 and $2 drink deals, a bid to attract customers in a cutthroat U.S. restaurant environment. All while raising menu prices about 2 percent higher than last year. The Big Mac strategy represents a case of getting playful with a well-known product and not irking customers in the process. |
Donating discarded hotel soaps saves lives
Hotels, B&Bs, vacation rentals and other lodging facilities can help save lives by donating their partially-used soaps and bottled amenities to Clean the World Foundation. Thousands of children die worldwide, each day, due to diseases that could easily be prevented through proper hand washing. Clean the World Foundation has partnered with UPS to ship those discarded soaps to a processing facility at which they are sterilized and reprocessed into new bars of soap to be distributed to regions where soap is needed for disease prevention. Learn more about how your business can join the effort to help clean the world by visiting the Clean the World website and see their videos about the great work they are doing. For information about reducing waste and protecting our environment, contact ECU Center for Sustainability Partnership Coordinator Kamara Jones at (252) 737-4312, or NC GreenTravel Initiative Manager Tom Rhodes at (919) 707-8140. |
| | On North Carolina Weekend for the week of April 27, discover the Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) in Mill Spring. Tour the "Designed for Drama' exhibit at Biltmore in Asheville. Explore the shop Mary's Gone Wild in Supply. Enjoy the Eyes on Main Street Wilson Outdoor Photo Festival in Wilson. And learn about "North Carolina and World War I" at an exhibit at the NC Museum of History in Raleigh. (Please note: listings are subject to change.) North Carolina Weekend is underwritten by Visit North Carolina. In addition, UNC-TV has made recent editions of North Carolina Weekendavailable online. | Average daily room rates (ADR) in North Carolina hit new record levels in 2016 at nearly $100. This was up 3.6 percent from 2015. Average room rates have increased 22 percent during the last five years. For more North Carolina lodging information, visit the Lodging Reports, or contact Tourism Research Director Marlise Taylor at (919) 447-7748.
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Upcoming Industry Meetings & Events
April 27 - Visit NC TRAC, Marion May 3-4 - Blue Ridge Parkway Assn. Annual Meeting, Gatlinburg, Tenn. May 9 - Visit NC T&T Board Meeting, Raleigh May 10-11 - MPI-CC Annual Meeting, New Bern May 18 - Visit NC TRAC, Granville County June 2 - NC Sports Assn. Meeting, Wilmington June 3-7 - US Travel Assn.'s IPW, Washington, DC June 6 - HSMAI-NC Meeting, Charlotte/Raleigh June 15 - NC Coast Host Annual Meeting, Kenansville |
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