Inland Northwest area tourism ads up

Experts offer insight for marketing region

COEUR d’ALENE — It’s one of the biggest industries in North Idaho, and with help from the state, marketing tourism should be a little easier for about 60 in the business after attending a workshop this week at the Coeur d’Alene Inn.

By RICK THOMAS
Staff writer

http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2004/10/15/business/bus01.txt

Following an overview of the state’s tourism economy, marketing experts from the Idaho Division of Tourism Development showed participants how to best use advertising, Web sites and media to get the most bang for their buck.

Good and bad ideas were presented to help show what to do and what not to do, such as an ad from a magazine showing an empty convention center.

"That’s the most boring ad I’ve ever seen," said Jeremy Chase of E.S. Drake Communications of Boise, the advertising agency for the tourism division. "It’s high-concept, low content."

Chase warned against using too much copy, especially in reverse type in advertising.

"Write enough to close the deal," he said. "If it looks hard to read, it is."

The same is true, he said, for Web sites — an essential part of tourism marketing.

"If you don’t have an Internet program at this time, you’d better hop to it," he advised.

He was joined by Peg Owens, marketing specialist for the Idaho Division of Tourism, in showing good and bad Web sites from small lodgings to chambers of commerce and communities.

Finding a target market and hitting it repeatedly is essential, they advised.

It’s also important to plan ahead, and begin tourism marketing in the spring, as travel decisions often take a while.

Larry Lookabill traveled the west for six months looking at "rails to trails" bike paths to start a bicycle touring company before deciding to start Great Cycles Tour Co. in Plummer next spring. With his focus on finding a route compatible with the disabled members of families he wants to focus his business on, the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes was the perfect site.

Lookabill is a retired professor from Bainbridge Island, Wash., whose expertise is in accounting and finance. He attended to get an idea of what to do to promote the business, and found the workshop informative.

"The marketing part is what we need," he said. "We need to know what to do and not to do."

Rick Thomas can be reached at 664-8176, ext. 2005, or e-mail [email protected].