MTA 2011 Tourism Promotion of the Year

Tunica Convention & Visitors Bureau
2011 Social Media Tourism Symposium (SoMeT) – Social Media Campaign

The Tunica Convention & Visitors Bureau (TCVB) has always strived to be on the cutting edge of the tourism industry.  With the uprising of social media in the past five years, the TCVB has become an industry leader in the use of this marketing tool.  In 2009, the TCVB, with their advertising agency, created pages on both Facebook and Twitter, and began building a database of visitors that actively wanted information and updates about Tunica.  The staff made every effort to learn as much as possible about this new tool and in doing so, in 2010, a TCVB representative attended an inaugural symposium for tourism professionals named the Social Media Tourism Symposium (SoMeT).

SoMeT is a conference that brings together tourism professionals from around the United States and features several tourism focused presentations and panel discussions on the impact of social media in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.  The creator of this symposium decided to keep the event as transparent as possible and allow the attendees to choose the location by way of a vote on Facebook.  Loudon, Virgina, was chosen as the host for 2010.  After attending and gaining a wealth of knowledge, the TCVB representative returned to Tunica with aspirations of hosting the meeting in 2011.  Thus, began the TunicaMS social media campaign to host the 2011 SoMeT Symposium.

The submission process began in early February 2011 by asking destinations to submit a one-page bid that creatively detailed all the information listed in the RFP.  The TCVB submitted their one-page RFP, along with 37 other destinations across the U.S., all vying for the opportunity to host the 2011 event.  Destinations ranged from Cleveland, Ohio, to Portland, Oregon, to Aspen, Colorado.

The voting was a multiple round process that began on March 11, 2011.  In the first round, the one-page RFP bids were housed on a tab located on the SoMeT Facebook page.  The voting, which was open to the public, took place over one week. Voters were asked to choose their top three destinations for SoMeT 2011.  During this time, all 37 destinations were posting on various social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs to garner votes.  On March 16, 2011, the top 13 destinations were announced and Tunica placed 7th.  These 13 destinations continued on to the second round of voting.

The second round was similar to the first in asking voters to pick their top three destinations, again to whittle the 13 destinations down to three.  Voting for this round was March 16 through March 23.  Like before, the destinations were taking full advantage of their social media followings to gain votes.

The TCVB decided to mobilize their fan/follower base by holding their own contest to give away Tunica two-night stays to two lucky fans/followers.  The TCVB posted a blog on their site, DownTheRoad.TunicaTravel.com, which directed visitors to the SoMeT Facebook page to vote and then return to the blog to post the three destinations they had voted for to enter the Tunica contest.  This blog was distributed via Tunica’s e-newsletter to the 90,000+ in the database twice, as well as, posted on the TunicaMS Facebook and Twitter pages.

Tweets included promotion of the contest, general announcements, reaching out to area industry to further extend contest reach, community chatter about Tunica and SoMeT, and additional partnerships.  The contest ran concurrent with the SoMeT voting.

There were a total of 663 posts to the Tunica blog with a total of 1,748 votes for Tunica in the SoMeT voting.  These numbers landed Tunica in first place with Savannah, Georgia, and Knoxville, Tennessee, rounding out the top three.

The final three destinations were asked to submit a formal RFP bid to the SoMeT organizers for review. The TCVB decided to take it a step further and created a RFP website, SoMeTunica.com, to make their bid public, in addition to keeping with the theme of social media and staying as transparent as possible.  A conference call, via Skype, was then held with each city to review proposals and ask questions.  The SoMeT organizers were so impressed with all of Tunica’s social media efforts, as well as their low rates, that prior to an actual site visit, the Tunica Convention & Visitors Bureau was announced as the host city of SoMeT 2011 on April 14.

In addition to bringing this 200+ attendee meeting to the state of Mississippi and because of a partnership between SoMeT and Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI), promoters of DMAI have scheduled meeting dates adjacent to the SoMeT Symposium, which will bring an additional 50+ visitors to the area. In total, these two meetings will bring the state and Tunica approximately 375 room nights and revenues estimated at $75,000. This is the first time that DMAI has ever held a meeting in the state of Mississippi.

The DMAI meeting will be held in Tunica November 6-8 and SoMeT will be in Tunica November 9-11.  Because of a week full of events between the two meetings, there is also the potential of attendees booking additional room nights and extending their stay to include vacation time in the adjacent weekends.

Additional links:
TunicaTravel.com
DownTheRoad.TunicaTravel.com
Facebook.com/TunicaMS
Twitter.com/TunicaMS
SoMeTunica.com

Click here for the 2-page PDF of the 2011 MTA Promotion of the Year Nomination copy.


 

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