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Event and Promotion Ideas

Sponsoring a creative event during National Tourism Week or running a special promotion can help raise awareness of the importance of travel and tourism and historic preservation in your community. You can also leverage these national programs to create more business for your destination or tourism attraction. Here are some promotion ideas to get you started:

Honor Local Airport Personnel and Transportation Safety Officers - Airports are filled with front-line travel industry personnel (airline workers, airport staff and volunteers, transportation safety officers) who interact around the clock with travelers. Recognize the contributions to the overall travel experience made by these workers. Reach out to your local airport administration or marketing office and organize a simple event to recognize the important work performed at ports of entry. Ideas include:

• Organize breakfast or snack foods for a break room used by transportation safety officers (TSOs) and/or other airport personnel.
• Produce a table sign or tent card promoting National Tourism Week and thanking front-line workers for their role in moving travelers safely and efficiently through airport facilities. Include your organization's name and logo.
• Give small amenities, thank you gifts.
• Create a banner for use at airports (in terminals, employee break rooms, employee parking sites, etc.) with the 2008 theme and logo: "Discover Great American Traditions". Personalize the banner with greetings and notes of appreciation from destination staff members.
• Award stellar security agents with gifts, prizes.
• Highlight positive stories of TSO and airport/airline employees in your local industry newsletter. Promote how they influenced a positive travel experience in your destination.

Individual airports can advise on what activities are permissible, so check with them first. But plan to include transportation workers in your local celebrations.

Energy to Discover America - Almost everyone needs a good cup of coffee and breakfast to give them energy to enjoy the day. Organize a community-wide program to give all visitors to local restaurants and tourist attractions free coffee and bagels or donuts throughout the morning. Tie it into the National Tourism Week theme, Discover Great American Traditions.

Be a Resident Expert - How much do local hospitality and tourism industry employees in your community know about local attractions? Maybe not enough! Conduct an educational program and/or distribute materials and information about local attractions to hospitality employees in the community or your company.

Honor Local Heroes - Declare all front-line hospitality and travel industry employees as "heroes" and hold a ceremony with local officials to honor representatives of each front-line service, such as taxi drivers, airport personnel, hotel bellmen, visitors center workers, etc. Run an ad in the newspaper honoring these people, and give them medals or pins to wear during National Tourism Week.

Wear Red Day - Show unity for travel and tourism by dressing in red, a hospitality industry practice that dates back many years. Consider wearing red and using the bold color to decorate at industry luncheons and events. Any day within NTW is appropriate to "go red."

Passport to the Past - Develop a special passport for local residents and tourists to use to visit historic attractions at a special rate in your community. Have them present their passport at each location to have it stamped to receive special prizes or discounts. Include a map that shows their locations and suggest "tour agendas" they can use to visit a series of attractions for a day.

Public Service Day - Government officials, such as Members of Congress, state legislators, mayors, city council members and others, are elected to serve the public interest. Call them into front-line service at local visitor centers or attractions. Encourage local media to cover officials' service during National Tourism Week; it makes a great photo opp.

Teach Schoolchildren About Local History and Tourism - Work with local schools to have local historians go into classrooms to educate students about local history and the importance of the travel industry to the community. This can be tied into history, social studies or economics curriculums. Give students a simple test at the end of the talk so students go home to their parents and encourage a family visit.

Cross Promote with Other Venues - Offer a special National Tourism Week or National Preservation Month deal and partner with other local venues to gain marketing leverage. (For example, visitors to your attraction can get 10 percent off or a free dessert with a meal purchase at a nearby restaurant).

National Preservation Month

May is also Preservation Month. Coupled with National Tourism Week, this celebration provides an excellent opportunity to showcase the diverse and irreplaceable heritage of a place. Learn more about National Preservation Month from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

National Train Day

To raise awareness of the vital role rail plays in our nation's transportation system, Amtrak will celebrate the first annual National Train Day during six weeks of celebrations culminating on Saturday, May 10 (coinciding with the first day of National Tourism Week). More information at NationalTrainDay.com.

Events Roundup - PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR 2008 ACTIVITIES TO TIA!

TIA invites cities, states and businesses to share details of Tourism Week activities for a national events roundup page on TIA.org. Please send a brief description to Greg Staley at gstaley@tia.org. The National Tourism Week events roundup is open to TIA members and non-members. Submissions may be edited prior to posting.