Visit Savannah getting big bang for marketing bucks

Study shows exponential return on advertising money spent

If you could spend a dollar and get $188 back, you'd likely consider that a pretty good investment.

So does Visit Savannah, the primary destination marketing organization for the Savannah-area tourism industry.

A new study completed for the organization by marketing research firm Longwoods International indicates that Visit Savannah's advertising return on investment – or ROI - last year equaled $188 per dollar spent in total visitor spending and $13 per dollar in local and state taxes.

And that's the tip of the iceberg.

The study also estimates that Visit Savannah's advertising efforts resulted in 1.2 million trips to the Savannah/Chatham County area, which produced an estimated $174.8 million in incremental visitor spending and $11.6 million in incremental local and state taxes.

'This is the first time we've tested our work in this way and we could not be more pleased,' said Joseph Marinelli, Visit Savannah president. 'The ROI generated from tourism advertising shows a direct correlation to economic prosperity in our community.'

According to Visit Savannah, the study was based on a $929,000 portion of the organization's advertising budget, which is allocated for digital, print and billboard advertising efforts targeting leisure travelers.

'That means this did not include marketing that we did for conventions, meetings, trade shows, group tours or international travelers,' Marinelli said.

To determine the return on investment, participants were asked to complete an extensive online travel survey. Those surveyed were travelers from Visit Savannah's key target advertising markets in the Southeast, Northeast, Midwest and Texas, as well as benchmark competitive destinations, including Charleston, S.C., Asheville, N.C., St. Augustine, Fla., Alexandria, Va., and Santa Fe, N.M.

'It's fascinating to see how the perception of Savannah as a visitor destination stands strong among competing cities,' Marinelli said. 'People are very interested in visiting this part of the country and Savannah is often at or near the top of the list of those preferred destinations.'

The study also measured the impact awareness of Savannah's tourism advertising had on the area's economic development image among non-residents. Those who had seen at least one ad rated Savannah considerably higher in such categories as a good place to live, a good place to start a career, a good place to start a business and a good place to retire.

Of the 1.2 million trips generated by the advertising campaign, nearly 740,000 were overnight trips, while 453,000 were day trips.

The study listed four major conclusions:

• Savannah's tourism advertising campaign is providing very strong economic returns, benefitting residents of the city and the state.

• Savannah's image as a leisure destination is strong among its competitor cities - listed as Charleston, S.C., St. Augustine, Fla., Ashville N.C., Santa Fe, N.M. and Alexandria, Va. - with Charleston being the strongest competitor.

• Savannah's tourism product is very strong, delivering an experience that exceeds visitors' expectations in all areas.

• It needs to be recognized that Savannah's tourism advertising is already playing a powerful role in positioning Savannah as a place to live, work, run a business, attend college, buy a vacation home and retire.

[Full article here.]