April 2008 E-News ISSUE VI

Greetings from the Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association (TA), the official marketing organization of beautiful Gunnison County! Each month our goal is to bring you news about the TA and other useful information.  Your feedback is invited and welcomed! Read on! And, if you wish to “unsubscribe” please “reply” to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

TOURISM ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTIONS

The board welcomes Paul Edwards, Interim Executive Director of the Gunnison Arts Center, as the Gunnison Valley nonprofit representative to the board. Paul replaces Glo Cunningham. Thank you Glo for five years of dedication to tourism promotion in the Gunnison Valley!

PUBLIC RELATIONS NEWS

Media Visits

• The TA and CBMR have hosted numerous journalists already in 2008.  The journalists visit on their own or as part of media familiarization trips (FAMs) coordinated by Ski Country USA and the Colorado Tourism Office. 
• Groups of journalists from the U.K., Japan and Australia have visited with FAMs, and we also have seen journalists from the Washington Times, Boston Globe, family travel columnists, editors from travel/lifestyle magazines, and a whole crew from Country Home magazine that is working on an article for December 2008.

 Recent Media Hits – SkyWest Magazine, Powder, Colorado Meetings + Events,  www.CNN.com, www.kidtravels.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.coloradoinfo.com, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, Cherry Creek News, Boulder Daily Camera, Colorado Springs Gazette, and more!

Local Awareness Committee - Local awareness articles about the TA and a “Voices of Tourism” column will be making their debut and continue to appear in local media.  Thank you to our media partners for supporting our educational efforts.

Summer/Spring 2008 PR – The Tourism Association’s summer/fall media kit CD was mailed to key media contacts in mid-February and press releases are loaded in the media room at www.GunnisonCrestedButte.com.  Please keep PR Director Beth Buehler informed about any changes in event schedules and details by calling 349-1168 or emailing bethbuehler@qwest.net.

INTERNET NEWS

2008 “unique visitors” to the TA’s web site continue to grow.

• In 2008, the TA will continue to focus efforts on qualified leads rather than simply more leads (or traffic) to the site.
• In late 2007, we implemented two new tracking scripts that will help us measure our successes on the web. One will help us track lead conversions from ads and links, and the other is for overall site traffic statistics. Stay tuned for those new reports in our August e-newsletter.

Search engine optimization work is ongoing and helps keep us current on industry trends. This is just one part of the strategy to help our site be found easily in searches done by individuals with a variety of search engines.

• Paid-for advertising on major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, etc. also is used. Currently these top search engines provide 51% of our site traffic, up from 35% in 2007.
• An emerging search term for our web site is “Gunnison Airport,” where we link guests directly to United and American Airlines as well as provide a flight map and detailed schedule.
• We also are working to improve the way our site is found via search engines for some broader Colorado terms. 

"Book now" functionality was remodeled last fall and there is instant "check availability" capability for all partners on www.GunnisonCrestedButte.com.  The TA encourages businesses to use a specific toll-free number on our web site so the number of calls received can be tracked from your deals or business listings. We can recommend a telecommunications firm who charges $.07 per minute and provides free toll-free numbers. So you can have 1 or 100 numbers for just $.07 per minute and only pay when a guest uses the number! Call Rob at 641-7992 for more information.

Community Calendar Update - Special thanks to all who have participated and loaded events on www.GCBcalendar.com.

• NOW is the time to load your spring, summer and fall events. Visitors are coming to the site looking for summer information and locals are planning their events. Specific details can be added as the event nears. 
• We continue to develop new tools to make things easier for our partners. For example, local partners soon will be able to drop a calendar graphic onto their web pages to promote area events to customers and visitors. 
• There are also a number of ways we can help your business/organization better utilize and understand what the calendar can do for you. Just let us know and someone from the committee will gladly meet with you.

Internet News Flash – GCBTA was selected as a finalist for the 2008 Travelzoo Awards, which celebrates companies and organizations behind the best deals in 20 categories. Travelzoo, a global Internet media company, examined 67,000 deals to determine the 59 finalists. GCBTA is one of five finalists in the “Most Outstanding Achievement in Marketing of Travel Deals for a Destination.” Travelzoo’s 40 deal experts used a five-point system: reliability, appeal, competitiveness, consistency and quality. Winners will be announced in April. The honored deal was a two-part campaign including Mt. Crested Butte lodging and ski passes, which were featured in an email and on www.TravelZoo.com. There was also an ad banner for the Gunnison Get-Away Ski Deal in the Ski & Golf Section and the Top 20 Deals home page.

ADVERTISING NEWS

Recent Gunnison-Crested Butte advertising

• Frontier Airlines inflight magazine and a 60-second summer video running on all Frontier Airlines flights
• 4’ x 5’ scrolling summer ad located in the Montrose Airport
• Banner ads on Colorado.com, DiscoverColorado.com, ColoradoInfo.com, KansasCity.com
• Texas Monthly, Austin Monthly, Kansas City Spaces, Oklahoma magazine, United Express/SkyWest Airlines inflight magazines, High Country Anglers, American Cowboy, True West, Colorado Springs Gazette
• E-broadcast communication to reach targeted winter travelers
• Five Internet travel web sites and more!

UPCOMING EVENTS

April 8                    Opera Colorado Outreach Ensemble, Quigley Recital Hall, Western State College
April 9 – 13            Flauschink, Flush Out Winter & Welcome Spring!

April 10                  WSC Faculty Recital with Kenneth Todd, violin & Alicia Belgiovane, piano, Quigley Recital Hall, WSC
April 13                  Crested Butte Mountain Resort & Crested Butte Nordic Center Close for the Season

April 22                  Western State College Jazz Ensembles, Quigley Recital Hall, WSC
April 24                  Western State College Symphony Band & Orchestra, Taylor Auditorium, WSC
April 29                  Western State College Concert Choir & Chamber Singers, Quigley Recital Hall, WSC 

May 2                     First Fridays: Gunnison Gallery Crawl & Music

May 2 – 22            Gunnison Open Art Exhibit, Gunnison Arts Center

May 10                   Western State College Graduation

May 10 – 11          Blue Mesa Fishing Tournament, Blue Mesa Reservoir

May 17 – 18          Monarch Search & Rescue Fishing Tournament, Blue Mesa Reservoir

May 24 – 25          Jack Russell Terrier Trials, Fred R. Field Western Heritage Center

IN GUNNISON COUNTY, TOURISM PAYS FOR TOURISM!  The Local Marketing District 4% tax (paid only by overnight lodging visitors) and the Mt. CB admissions tax (paid mostly by skiing visitors) funds tourism marketing via the TA.

WE’RE GLAD YOU’RE HERE! Posters, brochures, bumper stickers, pins and bicycle tags are available! Just call 641-7992 and we’ll get you fixed up for spring!

AIR SERVICE and BUS TRANSPORTATION information can be found on www.GunnisonValleyRTA.org.  We hope many of you experienced the RTA’s expanded winter bus service! The TA developed and maintains the RTA’s web site and helps market the organization. The bulk of the site’s traffic is coming from related transportation pages on www.GunnisonCrestedButte.com.

READER FEEDBACK

Please let us know what you think about our newsletter and if you’d like to be entered to win a great prize, email your recommendation for the “best spring photo spot” in Gunnison County and why it’s your favorite to JChaney@GunnisonCounty.org