The power of branding: Bluffton, SC moves into Forbes list of top 25 places to retire

Last year our research center worked with marketing gurus Rawle Murdy on a new branding campaign for the cute little town of Bluffton in South Carolina. And the work we accomplished is already paying dividends. “Bluffton: Heart of the Lowcountry” has moved into the Forbes list of top 25 places to retire in the U.S. The list is based on housing and living costs, taxes, weather and air quality, crime rates, doctor availability, and active-lifestyle rankings for walkability, bicycling and volunteering. Forbes also looked at economic data with an eye toward a "working" retirement. But of course being the perfect place to retire means nothing if people don’t know about it – and that is where branding comes into play. You can read more about our branding project at http://scstatetourism.blogspot.ca/2014/04/final-report-from-bluffton-branding.html And see the full Forbes list at: http://www3.forbes.com/personal-finance/the-25-best-places-to-retire-in-2014/21/

Early season snow critical for ski resorts

I am up in the Canadian Rockies at the moment working on my new book ‘Winter Sport Tourism’ that will be coming out later this year. The resorts here have received plenty of early season snow. Practice runs for last week’s World Cup races at Lake Louise had to be cancelled because of too much snow. Contrast this to Europe, where the men's World Cup giant slalom and slalom races scheduled in Val d'Isere this week have been cancelled due to a lack of snow in the French Alps. Early season snow conditions and skier perception of these conditions greatly influence the momentum and success of the overall season. Demand is often the greatest at this time (over the New Year period in particular), so poor snow conditions can be expensive for resorts. A 2012 study by the American National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found that the ski industry in the U.S. lost over $1 billion in aggregate revenue because of poor snow seasons between 2000 and 2010. Skiers and snowboarders can be a fickle bunch – it is hard enough to tempt them to get up to the mountains in the first place. In fact, in America only 4.3% of the population take to the mountains each winter. Compare this to the percentages in Switzerland (37%), Austria (36%) and Norway (25%). Easily the most important factor for skiers/snowboarders is the quality of snow conditions, with more than eight in 10 skiers indicating that this is extremely important or important to them in terms of destination selection. So let it snow!!!

Hotels finding new ways to cut through the clutter

Although hotel marketers have not as a rule incorporated product placement or branded entertainment into their marketing mix, there are a few examples of hotels that have successfully employed these marketing tactics to gain exposure and attract guests through the mediums of film, television or the Internet. A new article by Simon Hudson in Hotel Business Review identifies the critical success factors necessary for effective communications of this nature, taking a closer look at the use of product placement and branded entertainment by hotels. The article presents several examples of hotels that have partnered with producers of television, film and digital content to cut through the advertising clutter. These include the Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas (Casino Royale, After the Sunset, Newlyweds and Meet The Parents); the Plaza Hotel in New York (Home Alone II: Lost in New York, Arthur and North By Northwest); the Hyatt in Aruba (The Greatest Movie Ever Sold); and Aria Hotel, Las Vegas (Last Vegas). The full article is at: http://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/4127/from-product-placement-to-branded-entertainment

SmartState Center Report Wins Prestige National Award

The SmartState Center’s report on the Bluffton branding project has won a 2014 American Graphic Design Award. Of the roughly 9,000 entries, just a handful of designs were selected as winners. The Center outsourced the design to Two Monkeys Graphic Design, a Columbia-based company run by Sherry Simmons. Sherry said: "I really appreciated this tremendous opportunity that the Center gave me to create something special for promoting Bluffton, SC. It is truly a great honor, to be chosen to design something for such a great area of South Carolina, while working with the SmartState Center.” Graphic Design USA (GDUSA) said the report “is, in a nutshell, exceptional.” The five decade-old competition is presented by GDUSA, the business-to-business magazine for creative professionals. The awards program honors the power of design to shape commerce, culture and communications across all media. Other winners this year included Adobe, Amazon, Duracell, General Motors, Kodak, Mattel and Nike. So the SmartState Center and Two Monkeys are among great company! To access the full report, click below: http://www.hrsm.sc.edu/CoEETourismandED/PDFs/BlufftonReport.pdf

Painting a picture of the future of travel: By Simon Hudson

I am currently writing an article about the top ten consumer trends influencing the future of travel. Number one on my list is the quest for learning and enrichment, and a growing trend in tourism today is for tourists to seek a learning experience as a part of the vacation. A recent survey found that half of North American travelers want to visit art, architectural, or historic sites on vacations, while one-third would like to learn a new skill or activity. Today’s travelers are seeking experiences that provide them with a greater insight, increased understanding, and a personal connection to the people and places they visit. Rather than choose their vacation by the destination, many are first determining the experiences they want, and then choosing the destination where these experiences are located. Capitalizing on this trend is talented Dutch-Caribbean artist, Elisa Lejuez. Elisa is a prolific painter, and I was very fortunate this week to visit her home and gallery on Aruba to see some of her work. Her mega modern home in Noord, Aruba, is a perfect backdrop for her art and innovative wallpaper. As well as creating colorful multi-media, textured paintings, Elisa is a textile and clothing designer. Her art can be seen in galleries and hotels around Aruba including the Aruba Marriott and eco-resort, Bucuti & Tara as well as online (www.elisalejuezart.com). And her clothing line is available in several boutiques and online (www.elisalejuez.com). A new project for Elisa is teaming up with a local tour operator to provide art lessons to holiday-makers. In November she joins a group of Aruban artists on a trip to New York City for a teaching seminar sponsored by the Aruba Tourism Authority. And, back home, she will offer private and group lessons from her studio throughout the year.

Aruba puts the spotlight on green: By Simon Hudson

I was invited to Aruba this week to speak at two conferences focused on the environment. The first conference, running from 21-22 October, is called Leading Sustainable Tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the second, Green Aruba/Europe Meets the Americas Conference (GA-EMA) runs from October 23-25. Essentially I am covering three key topics in my presentations. The first topic will look at whether the ‘greening’ of tourism is consumer or industry-driven, the second relates to the challenges associated with going green, and the third will examine ways that the greening of tourism can influence other sectors of the economy. Aruba as an island is attempting to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels by moving alternative sources of energy, such as wind, solar and wave energy. The tourism industry on the island is also taking steps towards sustainability. One hotel owner in particular is making great strides to this end, having won numerous awards for green practices. Ewald Biemans is owner of Bucuti & Tara Beach Resorts and is well know on the island for being an environmental preservation pioneer. His Eagle Beach property is the first resort in the Americas to be certified ISO 14001 – a classification that requires superior environmental management. I was fortunate enough to tour the property this week, and below I am pictured with Ewald, who is himself speaking at the Leading Sustainable Tourism conference. For more information on the resort’s environmental initiatives visit: http://www.bucuti.com/eco-friendly

SmartState Welcomes International Tourism Expert

Dr. Ying Wang, international tourism expert and esteemed colleague, recently visited the University of South Carolina. Dr. Wang, is a Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor in the US) with the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management at Griffith University, Australia. Her research interests lie in destination management and marketing, tourist experience and hotel management. Her work has appeared in internationally recognized journals including Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, International Journal of Hospitality Management, and Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research.