Convention & Visitors Bureau: October 2006 Tourism Report

October 2006 Tourism Report

Nelson County Department of Economic Development and Tourism
October 2006 Report

Tourism Update
Projects
•   Washington Redskins on a pre-season contest promotion resulted in 75,000    visits to the nelsoncounty.com site – conversion study to follow
•   Working with regional partners on an illustrative map - Discovery map
•   Coordinating Explore Nelson Wine cooperative ad in the Virginia Travel        Guide
•   Explore Nelson Wine featured in a Rocky Mount editorial
•   Virginiawind.com highlighted Crabtree Falls
•   Invited to contribute 2007 events to Country Living and Nick, Jr. magazines
•   Coordinated North Carolina motorcoach tour to Pharsalia October 21
•   Submitted information about historic lodging properties to Washington Post    Express

Montebello Fish Hatchery
835 visitors in September

Tourism Statistics
                                              Fiscal                                            Fiscal
                September 2006   YTD 2007   September 2005   YTD 2006
Phone       510                        849                307                        992
Internet    116,163                 386,080         58,084                   184,421
Walk In    984                        3,592             947                        4,154

Taxes        July 2006       YTD 2006   July 2005       YTD 2005
Lodging     $25,087       50,840            17,564            32,829
Meals          $42,307       85,677            40,003            81,992

Media Coverage
Nelson County Times, News Advance, Daily Progress, News Virginian, magazines    Column Inches – 500 Number of articles - 16
Average open rate is $23.67 per column inch for regional papers –
Nelson County received $11,835 in advertising through print media source

September Meetings
September 5 – Nellysford Planning Project
September 6 – Nelson County Hospitality and Travel Association
September 7 – Economic Development Authority
September 8 – Explore Nelson Wine
September 8 – Callohill road maintenance
September 11 – Rural Development
September 11 – Nellysford Plannign Project
September 12 –Piedmont Workforce Network
September 12 – Watchable Wildlife program
September 12 – Career Tech Educational Advisory Group
September 13 - Watchable Wildlife program
September 13 – Nelson County Hospitality and Travel Association
September 14 – Blue Ridge Parkway Association
September 14 – Thomas Jefferson Partnership for Economic Development
September 18 - Piedmont Workforce Network
September 19 – Monticello Wine Trail
September 20 – Virginia Travel Guide
September 21 - Piedmont Workforce Network
September 22 – Regional Destination Marketing Organization
September 25 – Blue Ridge Tunnel
September 25-26 – Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association
September 26 – Nellysford Planning Project Community Meeting
September 27-29 – Virginia Economic Development Association

Economic Development Update

Project
•   Nelsoncounty.com reached 1 million page views in the 12 months
•   Working with the prospective buyer for the Callohill property
•   Coordinating the 2007 bicentennial celebration marketing efforts
•   Facilitating the marketing and branding strategy
•   Updating the visitor profile
•   Beta testing Virginia Economic Development Partnership occupational cluster analysis
•   Online business directory now complete, categorized by occupation and now being updated with 2006 business license information

Recruitment and Retention
Working with 2 new prospects and 4 ongoing relationships