3 Thoughts From the National Tourism Week Breakfast

1. The Door County Visitor Bureau has greatly improved when it comes to spreading the message about the importance of tourism to the county. They continue to stress the far-reaching impacts of tourism dollars and how even those not in the service industry benefit from it. “It defines the choices you have as residents,” DCVB President and CEO Jack Moneypenny pointed out.

2. We often look to the Visitor Bureau to lead businesses in marketing, as we should. But the visitor bureau can learn much from its members too. Moneypenny humbly admitted this morning that he was “dragged kicking and screaming” into social networking media. But it was our peninsula’s musicians and taverns that led the way in using sites like MySpace.com to connect to customers and visitors more than five years ago.

3. My guess is a lot of attendees will be talking about Bill Geist‘s presentation in the days and weeks ahead. Geist is an engaging and entertaining speaker (though a little fond of industry jargon and catchphrases), and his take on visitor trends was revealing. Geist cited surveys that show 61 percent of travelers use the Internet as their only source of information when they travel. He also cautioned against trying to paint an overly glossy picture of your destination.

Your message “doesn’t have to be white tablecloth,” he said, “It just has to be unique.”