LOVELAND — As states across the country tighten belts and trim funding for tourism marketing, the landscape is fertile for growing Colorado’s share of tourists.
That was the message at the Colorado Governor’s Tourism Conference in Loveland this week, a confab of tourism businesses and cheerleaders that this year was themed “Colorado Rising.”
A multifaceted plan to sway and lure vacationers to Colorado in the coming year is taking shape — backed by a governor heralded among tourism business owners as “one of us” and fueled by a new tourism director, a fresh Colorado Tourism Office staff and a new advertising agency.
While penny-pinching lawmakers trimmed the Colorado Tourism Office’s annual budget from almost $15 million to $12 million this year, the office is orchestrating an emotional campaign that will wash across print, cable television and the Internet.
Recent research shows that although Colorado’s in-state travelers are fiercely loyal to their home state, brand awareness out of state is weakening.
“We are going to fix that,” said the office’s associate director, John Ricks. He is working with Denver advertising firm Karsh & Hagan in sculpting the new ad campaign, which will peddle Colorado across all platforms.
While nurturing the state’s already rabid fan base, the new campaign will focus on prospective consumers who are teetering toward a Colorado holiday. Attendees of a Thursday breakout session at the conference saw a brief glimpse of the campaign.
“We have to project the personality of the state in our advertising,” said Matt Ingwalson of Karsh & Hagan as he launched a short, homemade-type video of happy people eating, roadtripping and playing in sunny locales. The video ended with the tagline “When people come to Colorado, people come alive.”
That’s not the new tagline of the state’s campaign, but a starting point, said Karsh & Hagan’s co-president, Pocky Marranzino.
The tourism office this year also will elevate niche markets including agritourism and heritage tourism. The office also is setting aside roughly $300,000 a year for matching grants of up to $15,000 for innovative projects that promote regional tourism.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
