Find newideas atfederalagency,partnerwebsites
BY JULIE P. HEIZER,
DEPUTY DIRECTOR, INDUSTRY RELATIONS
NATIONAL TRAVEL AND TOURISM OFFICE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
The travel and tourism industry has an important roleto play in maintaining the United States’
competitiveness in today’s ever-expandingtravel and tourism marketplace.The world gets smaller every day as thenumber of options available to globaltravelers grows exponentially.
The UnitedStates can’t afford to rest on its laurelsas one of the great travel experiences.
That’s where you come in. As an industry leader, you play acritical role by continually adding freshproduct offerings so that clients alwayshave something new and different toexperience when they choose the UnitedStates as their vacation destination.
Here are some “hidden resources” thatcan help in your product developmentwork. These websites focus on three differentaspects of U.S. tourism product:the great outdoors, cultural heritage andNative American experiences. Theseoptions can help keep your product new
and exciting for many years to come.
Not just a saying
“America’s Great Outdoors” isn’t just asaying. It’s a factual assessment. Variousfederal land- and water-based agenciescame together last month at IPW, theindustry’s largest annual sales gathering,to promote a set of itineraries thatfeature fabulous American scenery.
Those agencies include National WildlifeRefuges, National Marine Sanctuaries,and Parks and Scenic Byways.
Of course you know about the NationalPark Service and its website (nps.gov),but you might not know that a dozenbrand-new itineraries have been postedto americasgreatoutdoors.com, a websitethat is hosted by the National ParksPromotion Council. On this website you
can pull an itinerary that allows yourclients to experience the wonders ofWashington’s Olympic Peninsula, cycleOregon’s spectacular state trails or discoverPresident Theodore Roosevelt’shome. Those are just a few examples.
Itineraries will continue to be addedto this site. If you are inspired by theexamples of America’s Great Outdoorsbut want to find product in a differentpart of the country, you can alsoreach out directly to the National ParksPromotion Council, which can connectyou to the individual federal partnerswho developed the itineraries.
A ‘great get’
From an international perspective, culturalheritage travelers are a “great get.”
According to the National Travel andTourism Office’s “2014 Cultural HeritageTraveler Profile,” cultural travelers staylonger while visiting the United Statesand spend more money here than generalleisure travelers. International culturalheritage travel to the United Stateshas increased each year since 2010, soadding some cultural heritage “spice”to your product stew would not onlygive you something new to sell to yourdomestic clients, but it just might entice
some new international clients.
Whether you’re looking for new anddifferent cultural heritage tourismassets to refresh existing itineraries, oryou’re looking for a whole new set ofideas, there are two good sites whereyou can begin your planning:
The first, culturalheritagetourism.org,is an aggregator site organized intocategories
such as arts districts,world heritage sites, state heritagesites and national landmarks.
On theculturaltraveler.com, you canview destination itineraries thathave already been developed; theyinclude foodie tours, family fun, U.S. history and artisan trails.
An example ofthe destinationitineraries available ontheculturaltraveler.com
Increased international interest
Continuing along the cultural heritagetravel path, but with a slightly differenttwist, Native American tour productis becoming increasingly popular. Atnativeamerica.travel, you can find informationon more than 40 stellar NativeAmerican experiences, which are asvaried as the tribes themselves.
From tours such as “American Indiansand Route 66” to “Ojibwe CulturalWorkshops,” and from “Thriving on theBayou” to the “Acoma Pottery and theFour Matriarchs,” you’ll find product
ideas and activities you can incorporateinto existing itineraries. You can alsouse these tours to build new productthat would be of significant interest toyour clients.
The American Indian Alaska NativeTourism Association operates this websiteon behalf of its member tribes, andnew product is regularly added to it. TheAIANTA team is always willing to workwith you one-on-one if you would liketo add a Native American componentto your travel product line but don’t seeanything in an area of the United Statesthat you currently sell.
From the international perspective,the number of travelers visiting NativeAmerican sites has set records for each of the last three years. In particular,China, the U.K., France and Germany
have continued to show increasesin travel to Native American lands.
However, the international market isone that must continually be worked,making new and exciting product availableto keep interest in the UnitedStates piqued and to prevent the
been-there-done-that mentality.
Each of these websites is a tremendousresource for building exciting newproduct. Please do your part to maintainthe United States’ competitive edgein the global travel and tourism arenaby adding and offering something newfor 2017!