Marketing Oro Valley to guests | News

Nine months ago, Oro Valley terminated its $410,000 annual operating agreement with Visit Tucson, which promoted the town and its resorts to the meeting, convention and leisure tourism markets.

Since then, the town has become its own Destination Marketing Organization — labeled Explore Oro Valley — hired a destination marketing manager, upped its digital tools for tourists, worked to “shore up” its special events application process, and created a five-year leisure travel destination marketing plan, according to Paul Melcher, community and economic development director.

Without Visit Tucson representation, convention and meeting business leads for the community’s two major resorts — El Conquistador Tucson, A Hilton Resort, and the Westward Look Wyndham Grand Resort and Spa — essentially dried up. Each resort has rejoined Visit Tucson on its own (see related story, Page 3).

 

Franke markets the destination

Crystal Franke is Oro Valley’s first destination marketing manager.

Franke, an Oro Valley resident who joined the town in August, worked for 10 years at Simpleview, the Oro Valley-based visitation software company. With her experiences, Franke understands search engine optimization, keyword richness, and other digital advantages that make a place more prominent and accessible to consumers.

Part of Franke’s job is “making sure the town has all the tools to bring events,” to “keep heads in beds” by enticing longer stays, and to “make sure we’re supporting local businesses and attractions,” Melcher said.

Franke serves “as a bridge between local tourism and the stakeholders as we work to develop that leisure travel strategy.”

Amplifying Explore OV

Among Oro Valley’s first DMO initiatives is the digital application Explore OV.

The app is “making it easier to discover what makes Oro Valley a memorable destination,” public information officer Jeffery Hidalgo said. It is available on the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Franke has changed Explore OV so it can “work better with Google and search engines, keyword rich and SEO-optimized,” she said. Franke is now “adding content.”

“She gets the credit for getting the app going,” Melcher said.

Icons on Explore OV highlight events, art installations, tours, things to do, parks, and places to eat, shop and stay. Behind each icon is a photograph of a place – Catalina State Park, as an example – with a description of its features, and a way to map its location. Guests can save “my plan,” and take a tutorial on using the application. 

“We can’t underestimate the number of visitors who are also leisure travelers,” Melcher said. “We want to have them understand, ‘this is what you can experience when you come to Oro Valley’.”

Since its launch, Explore Oro Valley has had 1,798 total users, and 11,383 page views. 

5 itineraries for visitors

Oro Valley has created visitor itineraries for outdoor adventurers, luxury travelers, wellness pursuits, family day trips and nature lovers.

Franke is “working to update them,” making them more “SEO- and keyword-rich,” and adding “inspirational imagery” and a blog-like, storytelling section, Explore OV Insider.

“How do you create Oro Valley as a visitors’ destination?” Melcher asked. “It’s about having the experiences ready to go.” 

People who click on the “outdoor adventurers” itinerary, for example, can learn about places to ride bicycles and mountain bikes, watch birds, hike, and play golf, disc golf, tennis and pickleball.

“Digestible things to do,” Franke said. “A girls’ trip? Families? Golfers? Here are alll your options.”

Oro Valley is taking a “hub and spoke” approach, too, Melcher said, calling attention to other places to go and things to do in greater Tucson.

“There are other cool things to look at in the region,” he said. “Use this as your home base. Stay in Oro Valley, and experience great things.”

To find Oro Valley’s five traveler itineraries, visit bit.ly/OVItineraries.

 

Exploreorovalley.com

Franke is creating the infrastructure for exploreorovalley.com, intended to become “a stand-alone, tourism-specific website independent of orovalleyaz.gov,” the town’s standing website, Hidalgo said.

Before exploreorovalley.com is launched, Oro Valley wants to identify what it has to offer, what visitors want, and how to get information to them. 

“We’ve never really defined tourism and visitation,” Melcher said. “As a new DMO, this is our opportunity to do so. It’s about enhancing the customer service experience.”

He wants data, rather than preconceived notion, to drive that definition.

“What’s our niche?” Melcher asked. Visitor data can reveal “why they came here. We  didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves with a site that didn’t suit the DMO’s goals and objectives.”

The ‘why’ of marketing OV

Events and attractions bring people to Oro Valley who spend money, bolstering businesses and generating the lodging and sales tax revenue relied upon by town government to help provide services.

That’s part of the “why” of Oro Valley’s new effort in destination marketing, Melcher said.

Oro Valley’s total lodging / hotel tax rate is 8.5%, applied to a booked hotel room, according to Hidalgo. The town’s budgeted tax collection from the bed tax levy is projected at $3.5 million for the current fiscal year, which extends through June 30.

Beyond bed tax and sales tax revenues, the town can measure the results of travel through estimated economic impact, booked room nights, and average daily spending by guests. In Melcher’s mind, the “why” has guests “bragging about us,” and planning to return.

Oro Valley is working to “rejuvenate” events like the Arizona Distance Classic, expected back in Oro Valley on March 2 after an absence of several years. And it wants to use customer relationship management tools to further raise awareness about events like the springtime Tucson Bicycle Classic, and the Tucson Marathon, held in early December.

When a major event fills Oro Valley’s resorts and limited-service hotels, “we want to make sure our stakeholders” – venues, retail, and restaurant establishments – “know about it,” Melcher said.

“We want them to get prepared,” Franke said.