County tourism bureau eyes improved marketing

By Sean P. Ray

MEADVILLE TRIBUNE

VERNON TOWNSHIP — With the COVID-19 pandemic finally letting up and wanderlust seizing Americans who otherwise largely have been homebound, the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau is looking to improve its marketing of the county and its many attractions to draw in tourists.

In a presentation Tuesday held at The Movies at Meadville and before an audience of county officials and stakeholders, the bureau’s Executive Director Victoria Soff and a team from Bull Moose Marketing discussed how they planned to make Crawford County into a more friendly tourist destination.

While the Visitors Bureau had worked with Bull Moose Marketing See MARKETING, Page A6

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in the past on an intermittent basis, the bureau began full contractual work with the marketing firm earlier this year. Soff said she wanted to have the bureau work with a local marketing company, rather than some of the more distant ones that had been employed in the past.

Through the partnership, the Visitors Bureau hopes to accomplish a wide range of goals, ranging from increasing the average total money spent by overnight visitors to $7,000 a month to launching a digital version of its Visitors Guide to developing a marketing plan for the overall county.

“That’s why we brought Bull Moose in,” Soff said. “Because we need to have a clear marketing strategy. We don’t want to just throw things onto the wall and hope it sticks.”

As the pandemic comes closer to a finish, the desire of people to get out and travel is on the rise, according to Ron Mattocks, vice president of client strategy with Bull Moose. Increasingly, people are looking to go farther than normal in their trips, opting for distances of 250 miles or more.

“The big picture here is that the hyper-local vacations are over,” Mattocks said. “People want to get out.”

Crawford County has a number of advantages in trying to capture the attention of those travelers. Bull Moose identified elements such as the county’s heritage tourism sites, its centralized location around major population centers and the county’s many natural features as potential strengths in drawing people in.

However, the county also faces difficulties. For one, there is a major lack of hotel space, with Crawford County only having 19 hotels, according to Bull Moose findings. Comparatively, Erie County was identified as having around 123, Mercer County around 65, Venango County around 26, and Warren County around 62.

Further, one major focus of the presentation Tuesday was to push the idea that the county should form a formalized branding to attract people. This would highlight unique aspects of the county and serve as a draw.

“We can’t stress this enough,” Mattocks said. “We’ve got to have something that we’re recognized for universally.”

The heritage and cultural parts of the county could serve as a major source of tourism with a wide range of benefits. Josh Sherretts, vice president of business development with Bull Moose, said heritage tourism is the “fastest growing segment of tourism in the U.S.”

Heritage tourists, Sherretts said, spend more on average per trip — about $1,319 versus $820 for the average leisure tourist — and go on vacations more likely. It is anticipated heritage and cultural tourism will increase once the pandemic is fully ended.

Moving forward, Soff said she anticipates Bull Moose helping the Visitors Bureau to expand its digital presence and use of such platforms for marketing purposes. One such method they hope to employ is to invite online influencers to the area, showcasing Crawford County’s features to their fan bases.

Mattocks said the effort would focus on what he termed “nano” and “micro” influencers. These are influencers with audiences sizes of between 4,000 to 10,000 and 10,000 to 45,000, respectively.

He said the county was recently visited by one such nano influencer, a bird-watching and camping enthusiast from Buffalo, New York.

“So this is something we could see as repeatable,” Mattocks said. “It’s very low cost, but it has very high impact, very high awareness reach.”

Other aims for the future are improvements to the Visitors Bureau website, aiming to better showcase county amenities and features.

A video recording of the whole presentation is available on the bureau’s Facebook page, where it was also streamed live.

Sean P. Ray can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at sray@meadvilletribune.com.