Yellowstone Country

TBID February Board Meeting
February 18th, 2016
 Preliminary estimates by the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at
the University of Montana show that approximately 11.7 million nonresidents
visited Montana in 2015 and spent almost $3.6 billion in the Treasure State.
 While the number of travelers visiting the state in 2015 increased by almost 8
percent compared to 2014 numbers, the total amount spent by those travelers
decreased nearly 8 percent. Believed the decrease due to lowered fuel prices
and the decrease in the value of the Canadian dollar meant less spending.
 Of the tourism-related business owners surveyed by ITRR this fall, 59 percent
saw an increase in visitation or customers in 2015, while 19 percent reported
seeing a decrease. Of those businesses that benefited from increased visitation,
33 percent had a significant increase – more than 10 percent over 2014.
 Looking forward:
 61 percent of the businesses responding to the ITRR survey expect to see
their visitation increase in 2016.
Final Visitor Counts for 2015
January 2016 recreational visitors by entrance

West entrance was up 13.78% (10,157 versus 8,927 – January 2015)

North entrance was up 5.51% (114,827 versus 102,309)
South entrance was up 26.86% (16,618 versus 15,750)
East entrance was up 23.39% (306 versus 248)


Other west entrance statistics: all categories were up!

Snowmobile visitors were up 11.33% (5,198 versus 4,669 – January 2015)
Snowcoach visitors were up 16.03% were up (4,901 versus 4,224)
Ski Visitors were up 70.59% (58 versus 34)
Overall vehicles were up by 9.42%

Snowmobile vehicles were up by 11.22% (1,844 versus 1,658)

Snowcoaches were up by 17.51% (557 versus 474)




January collections
(reported in February )
were up approx. 23%
$109,780 collected in
January 2016 compared
to $86,237 for January
2015.

Up 14.44% YTD
(starting 7/1/2015)
Summer collections versus same month in 2014
• May 2015 was up 16.48% (38 properties reporting)
• June 2015 was up 4.57% (38 properties reporting)
• July 2015 was down 0.02% (38 properties reporting)
• August 2015 was down 0.48% (38 properties reporting)
Fall collections versus same month in 2014
• September 2015 was up 3.45% (39 properties reporting)
• October 2015 was up 12.60% - an increase of 0.99% from last month
with 34 properties reporting
• November 2015 was up 17.21% - an increase of 1.76% from last
month with 14 properties reporting
• Winter collections versus same month in 2014/2015
• December 2015 was up 9.23%- (13 properties reporting)
• YTD TBID collections are $288,289.76 (beginning July 1, 2015)
(94.8% of forecasted revenue for the 2015/2016 budget)
•
•
•
Sessions, users, page views, and pages were slightly down from January
2015. Spikes early in the month were from the digital campaigns and the
spike around January 20th were the Montana print ads.
January results have many visitors hitting the sleep search page and exiting
rapidly to a specific lodging site – planning Yellowstone summer trips.
57% of the visitors coming to the website last month came from mobile
(phone or pad).
•
•
•
•
We had website visitors from every state.
Visitors from Texas jumped into the #1 state of location for January,
followed in order of volume by: Montana, Utah, California, Idaho,
Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois, Colorado, and Florida.
Top originating countries (in order of volume): U.S., Canada, France,
Brazil, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, and China.
Forecast is for over 600,00 China visitors to come to Yellowstone Park in
2016… a 20+% increase over 2015.
Top 15 content pages for January 2016
in order of volume:















Winter landing page (general winter ads )
Sleep landing page for TBID lodging properties
Home page (organic search)
Snow landing page (snowmobile ads)
Explorer Cabins general page
Sleep search page for TBID lodging properties
“Top 7 Winter Adventures” blog
Geyser Inn info page
Best Western Desert Inn info page
Brandin’ Iron info page
Hibernation Station info page
Share on my social media
Yellowstone Cabins & RV info page
Three Bear Lodge info page
Days Inn info page
Our TBID Facebook “Visit
West Yellowstone” page now
has 48,127 followers (up 22%
from last month).
Engagement is climbing.
This week alone we had a
post reach of 52,354 with
461 new page likes.
•
We also support the “West
Yellowstone Snowmobiling”
Facebook page with posts
and snow reports. This page
has grown to 7.398 likes – all
organic growth. It also has
great engagement averaging
over a 5,000 post reach each
week.
•

Monthly email blasts that include links
to our lodging and activity landing
pages, as well as social media website.
(12,500 subscribers)

January niche blasts to Nordic (1200)
and Snowmobile (5500) from within
our database.

Focus on winter and spring , summer
destination planning and upcoming
events. Always include links to our
lodging pages and social media sites.
After a blast, we receive requests for
more information.

Build-out of the meeting
planner/conference section with a new
design, content, and photos.






Two video folks here during the first week of Snow Shoot
During that time, the video crew will work with TBID & Chamber with ties to
snowmobiling (I.E. lodges, restaurants, tour operators, dealers, etc.) to show what
makes a snowmobile vacation to West Yellowstone unique.
shoot action sequences at Snow Shoot for use in the segment. (maybe 2 days
filming action, 2 days doing things in town and at certain locales)
the 4 minute segment would be professionally shot, edited, and packaged for West
Yellowstone to use for marketing purposes after the fact.
American Snowmobiler will do numerous promotions of the segment including a
branded e-blast to over 50,000 of our readers.
AmSnow will also be promoting the episode that this segment airs in on our
website, through bi-weekly newsletters, on our social media pages, and YouTube.





Registration coordination for
lodging and meal program (onsite)
Help with check-in day for media
(Feb 25th & March 1st)
Name badges
Flash drive with information for
media and attendees including
fun facts, written and visual
content that can be repurposed
for articles about West
Yellowstone and snowmobiling
restaurant list and “things to do”
calendar to promote experiencing
more of our community and
expenditures
Yellowstone Loop” a new marketing partnership
that includes: UOT, Pocatello ID, Jackson,
Wyoming, and West Yellowstone. There will be an
itinerary that is built around this “Yellowstone Loop”
concept with emphasis on communities outside the
Park. Build out of a West Yellowstone landing page
with embedded links back to website.
To date:
 Attended World Travel Market (WTM) in London
last November on behalf of the Yellowstone Loop.
Yellowstone Loop one-sheeters for UK, France,
Canada and Australia completed
 Finalizing the translations for Germany and China
 Distributing information at ITB in Berlin,
Germany, the world's largest tourism trade show
 Second flight of Expedia Hub ad campaigns in
Canada (4/1 – 5/31/16) and Germany (3/1 –
4/30/16)
Full page color ad and West Yellowstone section promoting West Yellowstone as a
base camp for lodging in “Escape Magazine” produced by Brand USA affiliates with
Old Hand Holdings distribution of 15,000 magazines throughout the region
(Jackson, West, Cody, Bozeman, and Gardiner) as well as 10,000 to travel agents
and airport lounges throughout China.
Part of an ad in Essentially America Magazine went to every Chinese Recipient of a
US Renewal Visa in the year 2015, approximately 250,000 people.
Promoted West Yellowstone at one of the largest shows in the world in Shanghai and
a major travel expo in Taiwan where we met with over 250,000 potential visitors in
3 days.
West Yellowstone information is posted on a Yellowstone WeChat account….THE
“Official” Yellowstone WeChat with 100,000 followers since mid-summer. . (WeChat
is the Facebook of China with 600,000 users.)
Over the next two months, we will update the ad, provide additional content about
West Yellowstone, provide pre-built WY Facebook posts, and implement a linking
strategy.
More than 80 percent of leisure travel is taken by automobile to places close to
home making “one tank” trips very appealing to populations in Salt Lake City,
Boise, and Las Vegas.
Partner with Maverik Adventure Getaways and Inside the Outdoors Media Group
to promote spring/early summer adventure getaways in and outside of West
Yellowstone and Yellowstone Park.
Finalizing details to include Maverik sweepstakes destination promotion
with store, TV, audio, email (800,000 reach)
website (300,000 monthly reach), and
social media (100,000 reach)
 10 western state region
 In-store promotion (2,000 customers
per day)
Outdoors NW (shared with WYCC)
Quarter page print ad with direct
distribution at the Seattle Travel
EXPO, rectangle web ad, social
media postings though Facebook and
Twitter, and direct distribution of
your marketing materials at
upcoming onsite events (including
the travel expo).
Sportshow Edition of “Dakota Adventures”
Half page color ad in out of state destination travel section with editorial,
distribution through North and South Dakota, copies also distributed at
largest sport show of the year. Follow with a digital campaign emphasis
determined by snow conditions and weather in early March.
Inside Front Cover Fly, Rod, & Reel
Full color, full page. New creative with large image and geo-locator map of
streams & lakes surrounding West Yellowstone. Editorial featuring Montana
brown trout.