Tourism focus shifts to experiences Asheville offers

ASHEVILLE – The city’s top tourism agency is expanding to more markets this year with a strategy aimed at selling the area to travelers as an experience.

The Asheville Convention & Visitors Bureau, part of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, is moving into five new television advertising markets where tourism managers hope to attract more overnight visitors.

And the agency plans to up its spending with a media budget of about $3.8 million, an increase over the $3.2 million it spent last fiscal year. Occupancy tax money is up, giving the agency more money to invest in advertising.

It is also working on a new advertising campaign that managers say will create an emotional connection that capitalizes on the area’s unique experiences.

Stephanie Brown, executive director of the Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the shift is away from selling the product to capturing the emotion of experiencing the Asheville area.

Getting more beds filled

Television advertising for Asheville travel has traditionally focused on Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta and Greensboro-Winston-Salem. Tourism bureau managers have expanded TV ads to Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, and in August will move into Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee, as well as Cincinnati.

A big goal is to get more overnight and multiple night stays even during the week, said Marla Tambellini, marketing vice president.

Research shows visitors might spend a night or two in Asheville out of a five-night trip. That means the city is sometimes a stop along the way to or from another destination.

Tourism managers want Asheville to become the destination. That’s important to the local economy, where visitors spend $1.5 billion annually.

The area gets 9.1 million visitors, with 3.1 million staying overnight. Tourism in the Asheville area supports 22,924 jobs.

Tambellini said nearly 1,000 new hotel rooms will open in the next two years, making increasing overnight stays an even bigger goal.

The exact direction the new TV advertising will take is still being developed, she said. The target of the advertising is “experiential” travelers. Travel for these customers is more about enriching their lives and less about prices, she said.

Stephanie Brown, the executive director of the Convention & Visitors Bureau, said these customers travel for enrichment.

“They are traveling for experience,” she said. “They are traveling to be immersed in a different place.”

Making a connection

The developing TV ad campaign — which Tambellini likened to Brand USA’s “Discover America” campaign or the “Pure Michigan” campaign airing now on The Weather Channel — will have more to do with the feel of Asheville rather than a rundown of attractions.

“It is not a list of things to do but the experience that will invoke an emotional response in the consumer,” she said.

The advertising expansion and the focus on creating an emotional connection with customers resonated with Asheville tourism businesses.

Ken Stamps, CEO and managing partner of zip line company Navitat, which offers unique mountain canopy experience, said many of its customers already come from Cincinnati and Nashville. The company tracks customer locations through waivers and website traffic.

“For us the indicators would very much support the CVB’s strategy to be more proactive in this markets,” he said.

He also likes the idea of creating an emotional connection with experiential travelers.

“I think that’s smart,” he said.

Hotel owners also like the expansion and focus on emotional connection.

“I agree 100 percent,” said hotelier John Winkenwerder. “I think its well thought out and well planned and a great next step forward to develop more markets as potential places for visitors to come from.”

Winkenwerder’s company, South Asheville Hotel Associates, runs the three Hampton Inns in town and the Homewood Suites on Tunnel Road. His family has been in the tourism business in Asheville for three generations. He was twice the vice chair of the Convention & Visitors Bureau and the chair of the Chamber of Commerce.

He’s seen the waves of more product than demand in hotels and restaurants in the Asheville area over the years. Right now, he said, Asheville is heading into a cycle where there is more product than customers.

“Therefore it is up to us, as a community, to make sure we continue to develop and build the brand, so that the amount of customers and demand will catch up with the inventory we will have in the next three or four years.”

He also likes moving toward a marketing strategy that builds an emotional connection, something he said world-class companies like Apple are doing very well.

“The thinking is very current,” he said.