Marketing Plan 2022

2022 SALES & MARKETING PLAN

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Introduction Industry Travel and Tourism Enviroment Campaigns and Programming Comparisons The Visitor Economy (Local & State) Overview Operating Budget Leisure Travel Travel Trade Sports Tourism Media Relations Visitor & Partnership Services The Team

INTRODUCTION The Florence-Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) endured a successive period of negative returns in Fiscal Year 2020 (FY2020) and never in the history of the tour and travel industry experienced such unprecedented conditions.

The return of travel was doubtful for a period and for certain the way people traveled would be under review and scrutinized.

Reimagining, Recreating and Recovering were the globe. Our destination pressed forward to every opportunity afforded to drive visitation ing year, the industry united to press on with ended with a rate of growth of -23%.

three key motivators for DMO’s across manage the crises and capitalized on and spending. After a long and gruelthe hope of a brighter future. FY2020

Beginning in April 2021, exactly one year after the lowest month on record, we began a successive period of record-breaking revenue months in lodging tax collection. The need for travel and pent-up demand began to emerge on the travel scene with industry highpoints and the slow return of the meetings and group markets.

Coupled with this, the Florence-Lauderdale CVB launched an aggressive digital ad campaign with Epsilon, the global leader in outcome-based marketing which saw a $20:1 return on ad spend.

The combination of these factors along with a recession and pandemic-proof sport tourism market, 2021 was a record year!

Although convention and group travel still lag, industry partners are now more dependent on DMO’s to both market and manage the destination offerings and elevate the customer experience more intentionally.

International air travel along with land borders to Canada and Mexico opened on November 8, 2021. The return of international travel has only strengthened our arrivals and helped to bring the visitor economy back to conventional levels.

We are headed into 2022 with great optimism. While other global supply chain and food shortages emerge, we are cautiously, yet proactively, advancing our programming to meet visitor demands and build upon a strong 2021.

Rob Carnegie

Chief Executive Officer

INDUSTRY TRAVEL AND TOURISM ENVIRONMENT Understanding consumer behavior and travel trends has never been more imperative to grasp what visitors are thinking as it relates to travel and travelling safely. No doubt, all sources available are indicating that consumers are now traveling but continue to use caution and follow pandemic protocols. We have stepped over the threshold of caution to cautiously confident as federal, state, and local government health officials have learned more about the virus and advise on travel.

According to the Arrivalist Daily Travel Index, road trip activity was up 5.7% in October 2021 over October 2019. A whopping 21% up over 2020. These stats are important to The Shoals area as most of our arrivals are by means of road trip.

With travel behaviors very difficult to predict, the dichotomy in consumer psyche is measured by independent research through Destination Analysts on the severity of the pandemic and the love for travel.

The findings from the week of January 17, 2022 show that Americans concerned with contracting the virus rose 7 points over the last 2 weeks to 65.4%. In fact, 71.9% report that at least one person in their personal circle has contracted COVID just in the last month alone, Source; Destination Analysts, Jan.2022 With that being said, over 80% of Americans still have trips planned in 2022 which have also expressed an “excitement for travel”. The average number of anticipated leisure trips Americans plan to take over the next 12 months has hit its highest peak during the pandemic era at 3.1 – Destination Analysts Destination Analysts provided their 2022 Outlook which polled Americans on their sentiment towards travel. When asked to describe the travel environment, reactions and responses such as “hopeful”, “excited” and “fun” were all part of their vocabulary in describing their anticipation towards their upcoming holidays.

In fact, 33.2% of American travelers say they will take more leisure trips in the next year. Beaches, rural towns and national/state parks destinations will still be where a majority of American traveler’s head, with more than 70% reporting plans for these types of destinations. (Source: Destination Analysts) One of our key advantages are the outdoor opportunities including hiking, biking, kayaking, golf, and plenty of green space to enjoy nature. Americans have continued to take advantage of their own backyard. Road trips, staycations, RVing and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) are all aspects of confident travel where The Shoals is well positioned to capitalize on these markets.

CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMMING MUSCLE SHOALS BACKSTAGE PASS The Muscle Shoals Backstage Pass, a visitor-value program, is aimed at driving more business to our music studios and music attractions. Patrons of the program receive a free, large-size VIP concert type badge and lanyard from any 3 locations in The Shoals.

Visiting any 3 of the venues, patrons will receive a free Muscle Shoals Backstage Pass t-shirt from the Florence-Lauderdale CVB, and if they visited all 6, will have the opportunity to enter and win the grand prize drawn at the end of the year. From the beginning of the program, launched on July 15, 2020, we have driven over 1000 patrons to the 6 venues which has resulted in over $10,700 of incremental business to these partners. Over two-thirds of that number resulted in 2021.

Nashville’s Big Backyard (NBBY), 13 communities in the Tennessee natural watershed region, including The Shoals is a “back to the land” movement which offers big city dwellers a slower lifestyle with modern city amenities.

After one year of building the NBBY brand, 968 Associated Press outlets were reached including CSPAN, Fox News, CBS News Radio, CNBC.com. Articles were produced in Forbes, Travel + Leisure, Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Fodor’s Travel, AAA, National Geographic, CBS News and many more. Since June 2020, the Nashville Big backyard awareness campaign has reached an audience of over 121 million.

The Florence-Lauderdale Convention + Visitors Bureau contracted with Epsilon, the global leader in outcome-based marketing for a digital ad campaign in 2021. Destinations can use the power of machine learning to drive financial outcomes for their communities. Economic impact begins with inviting high value visitors through highly targeted digital media, seeing those people arrive, and then measuring the actual money they spend in destination. We can see where visitors spend, how much tax revenue the marketing campaigns directly create, and understand the characteristics of high-yielding visitors.

We can also help message local markets to keep the destination product visitor ready by encouraging restaurant retail, attraction visitation. The six-month campaign produced great results for our destination and resulted in a $21:1 return on ad spend. The overall performance of the 2021 campaign was a tremendous success! We generated over 5.5 million impressions with 2,533 messaged visits and a click-through-rate of 0.15%. In 2022, we will launch another campaign over a longer period.

CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMMING

TALKING TOURISM To bolster our public relation efforts, we created Talking Tourism which was designed to inform media, elected officials, industry partners and community leaders on how the Florence-Lauderdale CVB is working within our industry to drive more visitation and visitor spending. Segments are constructed to be 3-4 minutes in length and presented by our CEO, Rob Carnegie.

WEBSITE/NEWSLETTER A state-of-the-art website was constructed by Tempest to provide the best responsive website design and relevant content on The Shoals area in a format that is best suited for today’s traveler. Due to a very comprehensive CMS platform, we can make feature/design changes to the site quickly and add more content in a wide range of sections. We now have a more diverse and broader footprint because of the new content and how this content will align with travel behaviors today to motivate and engage a visitor.

CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMMING

TOURNAMENTS The scenic Tennessee River flowing throughout Florence and the Shoals is divided by a series of dams into three different lakes: Pickwick, Wilson and Wheeler.

These lakes offer some of the best sport fishing in the country and in their blue waters can be found trophy Small and Largemouth Bass, Catfish, Crappie, Salt Water Stripe, Sauger and Bream. With as many as 15 tournaments per year, the Florence-Lauderdale CVB is committed to this strong segment of our visitor economy and ensuring that every fishing association is treated with professionalism and care.

Expect to see a strong line up of tournaments in 2022 including the High School World Championships and BassNation.

PARTNERSHIP SERVICES Further to our sales and marketing efforts, there are several ways that tourism stakeholders can ensure guaranteed maximum exposure. Whether it’s an enhanced listing on our website or learning from industry professionals in a workshop, we are looking to provide the tools our partners need to be successful in this competitive landscape. Watch for some new enhancements in 2022 to our Partnership Program which include video, graphic design and more.

NATIVES Mobilizing our community to be more visitor-aware is part of making everyone a brand influencer for Visit the Shoals. In 2022, we will launch the Natives which will be an active and engaged group of individuals who are passionate about The Shoals and how we can expand our reach to support our visitors. Whether that’s providing information for a festival, photography, event support or being part of the visitor experience in our visitor center, the Natives team will take on a creative aspect of how we shape our brand and use the talents of locals to become a significant part of our greater CVB team.

SINGER/SONGWRITER SHOWCASE The music scene is at the core of who we are as a destination. It’s in our DNA. Building upon the great history of music in our community is essential. Our first Shoals Singer/Songwriter Showcase at the WC Handy Music Festival was a huge success with standing-room crowds. Expect to see this showcase again in the Summer of ’22 and more showcases throughout the year.

SHOALSFEST Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit has brought Shoalsfest to the Shoals! This two-day festival has created new demand in the community and during a time of the year when it’s well needed. Hotels sold out across The Shoals with an enormous amount of media to boot. The Florence-Lauderdale CVB was proud to be the official main stage naming sponsor.

LAUDERDALE COUNTY OCCUPANCY 66.00% 64.00% 62.00% 60.00% 58.00% 56.00% 54.00% 52.00% 50.00% 2016

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LAUDERDALE COUNTY ADR (AVERAGE DAILY RATE)

$140.00 $120.00 $100.00 $80.00 $60.00 $40.00 $20.00 $ 2016

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THE VISITOR ECONOMY LOCAL AND STATE An estimated 22.5 million people visited Alabama in 2020 spending over $13.4 billion. This represents a decrease of 20 percent as compared to 2019 spending.

More than $800 million of State and Local tax revenues were generated in 2020.

Without this revenue, each Alabama household would pay an additional $427 in taxes to maintain current service levels.

At a local level, visitors spent over $191 million in Lauderdale County in 2020 – a 23% decrease over 2019 figures. However, the Shoals tourism industry generated well over $261 million in visitor-related expenditures. Tourism employs 2,922 people in Lauderdale County and over 3500 in the Shoals area in full-time, part-time, and seasonal positions.

LAUDERDALE COUNTY LODGING TAX HISTORY $1,400,00.00 $1,200,00.00 $1,000,00.00 $800,000.00 $600,000.00 $400,000.00 $200,000.00 15 20 16 20 17 20 18 20 19 20 20 20 21

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CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMMING

2022 SALES AND MARKETING PLAN FLORENCE/LAUDERDALE CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU

ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGIC OVERVIEW To develop and enhance the tourism sector through the positioning of The Shoals area as a year-round destination of choice for visitors, through leisure travel, sport tourism, conferences, or group travel, and to realize an increase in visitation and visitor-spending to strengthen the overall economy and quality of life.

The Florence/Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) undertakes tourism marketing and development initiatives because it is a key driver in our economy. Destination marketing can also serve to introduce businesses and potential residents to the city in both professional and leisure capacities.

Marketing initiatives will be focused on showcasing the area’s competitive assets and leading with its unique value proposition for travel to differentiate us from competing destinations. We will achieve this by leveraging all tourism markets to maximize visitation and visitor-spending.

CORE ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES • Market leisure activities that highlight Florence/Lauderdale County and the Shoals area’s unique music heritage, culture, culinary, fashion and natural resources and develop products, services, and activities to keep visitors continually coming back.

• Increase visitation in the Group Travel/FIT sectors and to act as a lead generator for the conference market.

• Attract regional, state, national and international sports events to build the shoulder season and strengthen our event resume.

• Ensure each guest to the city has access to visitor services, information and support.

• Increase the positive travel media coverage referencing Florence/Lauderdale County and Muscle Shoals.

• Build upon existing product clusters which need further enhancement and support as part of a tourism development initiative, including but not limited to, Music, Outdoor, Fashion, Art, and History.

TARGET MARKETS: Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, including some international markets consisting of the United Kingdom, Germany, China and Australia in the Travel Trade markets.

2022 KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS: The sales and marketing team have established targets for individual markets. The following list indicates where we will be focusing our efforts to influence growth in our industry: -

LEADS FAMILIARIZATION TOURS EARNED MEDIA SPORT BIDS SPORT MEDIA TOTAL ROOMS BOOKED ECONOMIC IMPACT FROM EVENTS NEW UNIQUE USERS TO WEBSITE FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS E-NEWSLETTER REACH

Further to the above KPI’s, our digital marketing campaign will have a set of campaign metrics that will track the campaign delivery, channel performance, new vs. returning visitors, time on site, top converting channels and path to conversion. This information helps us to focus our campaigns to capitalize on the highest concentration of activity in a particular channel.

CAMPAIGNS2022 AND PROGRAMMING FLORENCE/LAUDERDALE

CVB

OPERATING BUDGET

REVENUE

2022 OPERATING

Lodging Tax

$1,065,000.00

Other Public

$20,000.00

Private

$18,000.00

TOTAL REVENUE

$1,103,000.00

EXPENDITURES

2022 OPERATING

Corporate

$341,172.00

Programming

$484,916.00

Administration

$266,959.00

TOTAL EXPENDITURES

$1,093,047.00

- SURPLUS OPERATING BUDGET

CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMMING

LEISURE TRAVEL OBJECTIVE: To attract a visitor(s) through multiple consumer advertising channels for the purpose of a pleasure visit by showcasing the unique product offerings of The Shoals to increase length of stay.

MARKET OVERVIEW/STRATEGY: The consumer/leisure market is one which yields significant spending over the entire calendar year. Statistics indicate that over 22.5 million people visited Alabama in 2020, spending $13.4 Billion. Faced with the world-wide pandemic and the negative impact on travel, visitors spent over $191 million in Lauderdale County in 2020.

A -23% rate of growth.

Florence/Lauderdale County and the Shoals area has a unique and eclectic music history, natural resources, historical narratives, fashion icons and cultural gems which make this destination an attractive and appealing place to visit, live and work.

A key objective in our 2022 strategy will be to see a further incremental return on each dollar spent.

While not all advertising channels produce a reported and demonstrated ROI, a digital campaign with Epsilon will provide a net economic impact report tracking every dollar and the return on that dollar in multiple travel segments. The intelligence of cross-device technology will deliver messages to high-yield, high-propensity visitors to The Shoals area.

Social media, limited print advertising and newsletter efforts will round out the objectives in Leisure Travel.

2022 TARGETS: Establish a benchmark on website visitation and inquiries of 235,400 unique users.

Establish a benchmark of 35,000 likes on Facebook in 2022 Grow our Instagram follower audience by 50% to 15,000 followers Lead: CEO/Director of Marketing + Communications

Additionally, a Net Economic Impact (NEI) Report will follow 90 days after the campaign ends.

A six month check-in is provided to get a pulse on visitor traffic and spend. The NEI is a comprehensive report which outlines total message revenue, investment, return on ad spend, total transactions, averages per visitor, and average message spend per visitor.

CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMMING

TRAVEL TRADE OBJECTIVE: To attract motor coach and other visitor groups (FIT), fly n’ drive, escorted groups - both domestic and international, to Florence/Lauderdale County and the Shoals area.

MARKET OVERVIEW/STRATEGY: An aggressive and strategic effort will be made to capitalize on the Shoals advantage to attract group tours to the area. Operators have indicated first-hand that there is an increased interest in the area because of the popular “Muscle Shoals” documentary and niche attractions that are attractive to group travelers, such as the Rosenbaum House, Indian Mound Museum, Helen Keller Home (Ivy Green) and Tom’s Wall.

Group tour business still lagged through 2021 with some operators requesting tours in the latter half of the year. Bookings for 2022 are beginning to pick up with the promise of a more customary schedule by summer of ’22.

Rezgo, an independent software agency focused on tour travel, has cited several possible scenarios for travel in 2022, with physical distancing topping the list. Those that are risk-averse will travel in “bubbles” to reduce the risk of COVID transmission. With RV sales skyrocketing, road tripping and VFR segments are important markets to capture in 2022.

According to the AARP and their sources, travel will not fully recover until 2023.

Efforts in this market will be light, to focus on higher yielding markets including sport and leisure. Highlighting outdoor events, festivals and venues will be a priority.

Maintaining good communication with operators who have a high propensity towards The Shoals will be important to remain top of mind and relevant for future planning.

Visit the Shoals will attend both the International and Domestic marketplaces for Travel South.

2022 TARGETS: Increase the number of qualified leads by 11% by 100 leads.

Establish a benchmark of three (3) familiarization tours.

Lead: Sales Manager, Travel Trade + Sport

CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMMING

SPORT TOURISM OBJECTIVE: To lead and assist the local community by establishing Florence/Lauderdale County and the Shoals area as a sport tourism and recreation destination. The Florence/Lauderdale CVB serves as a vehicle to support the creation, promotion and delivery of sport events for visitors, participants, partners and residents.

MARKET OVERVIEW/STRATEGY: The 2021 season for elite bass tournaments proved to be a strong year. Our team hosted 9 tournaments with some record revenue events including the Bassmaster Elite and the Alabama North Regional Softball Tournament.

Our priority will still be placed on the creation of new, non-traditional sporting events including pickle ball, disc golf, corn hole and more outdoor oriented events.

Working with the City of Florence to develop a tournament-size pickle ball complex has been a focus over 2021 and will continue in 2022.

An increased effort will be placed upon working with event rights holders to direct more stays to Lauderdale County to ensure that partners see a ROI. Tournament hosting fees average $200,000 to $250,000 annually.

According to the National Association of Sport Commission’s (NASC) annual study in 2017, sport tourism was responsible for $11.4 billion in direct spending nationwide.

2022 TARGETS: Establish a benchmark of 50 new qualified leads Make three (3) bids on future sporting events. One being a non-traditional sporting event Increase the economic impact of events by 25% to $5,000,000.00 through tournaments.

Increase the total number of room nights booked by 7.5% to 7,000 through our sales efforts

Lead: Sales Manager, Travel Trade + Sport

CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMMING

MEDIA RELATIONS OBJECTIVE: To lead and assist the local community by establishing Florence/Lauderdale County and the Shoals area as a sport tourism and recreation destination. The Florence/Lauderdale CVB serves as a vehicle to support the creation, promotion and delivery of sport events for visitors, participants, partners and residents.

MARKET OVERVIEW/STRATEGY: In the last 3 years, we have seen our tracked earned media grow from just over $2.2 million in 2016 to over $20 million in 2019. This staggering climb is the result of multiple partnerships throughout the nation to curate the right media partners who will maximize our story.

In June 2020, Nashville’s Big Backyard launched as a region of 13 communities between Nashville, TN and The Shoals, AL. This natural watershed region has quickly become a new territory for visitors and new residents. In the first year, the Big Backyard media initiatives reached over 121 Million people through 968 associated press outlets.

Start community spotlight blogs, at least one blog or spotlight per quarter.

Showcasing different municipalities, their leaders, and their favorite things in The Shoals to see and do. Engaging our local leaders and community residents engenders affinity for the area and the destination brand.

2022 TARGETS: Establish a goal of 20 qualified media leads Establish a benchmark of 10 familiarization tours in 2022 Establish a benchmark of $50,000,000.00 in media value for the destination LEAD: Director of Marketing + Communications

CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMMING

VISITOR & PARTNERSHIP SERVICES OBJECTIVE: To provide Florence/Lauderdale County and the Shoals area visitor information and retail products to guests of the Visitor Center with outstanding customer service. Our Partnership Services team stays connected with our industry stakeholders through company visits and selling enhanced listings on the destination website.

MARKET OVERVIEW/STRATEGY: Ensuring visitors to Florence/Lauderdale County and the Shoals area can access information and support during their travels is an essential component of the visitor experience – one which can translate into increased length of stay, repeat visitation and referrals for the city.

The Visitor Center was established as a multi-purpose venue to service the growing number of visitors to our city. Its primary purpose as an information and retail outlet provides visitors with useful resources and souvenirs for purchase, but further serves as a gathering-place for local residents, artisans, musicians, and those representing the cultural and historical scene in the city.

New in 2022, Visit the Shoals will open it’s first cloud-based online store through Shopify, The Shoals Shop. Select items from the gift shop along with new designs will be ordered online and shipped direct to the consumer. We will use social media platforms and our website to advertise and promote this new feature.

theshoalsshop.com Partnership Services was designed to support our industry stakeholders and ensure that communication and customer service was the core of the program. A variety of support services are offered. You can learn more at www.visitflorenceal.com/partnership-services.

ROB CARNEGIE President & CEO

WILL MARTIN

Director of Marketing & Communications

LINDA JONES

Visitor Services Manager

TYLER DOLAN

Sales Manager - Sport & Travel Trade

LEE MOORE

Office Administrator

ANGELA BROYLES PROJECT MANAGER

THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

DAVID MUHLENDORF

ROB JONES

MARY WHITE

TREASURER

CHAIRMAN

LARRY McCOY PAST CHAIRMAN

VICE-CHAIRWOMAN

HALEY NEWTON SECRETARY

Florence-Lauderdale Convention + Visitors Bureau McFarland Park / 200 Jim Spain Drive / Florence, AL 35630 www.VisitShoals.com / 888-356-8687 @VISITTHESHOALSAL