Visit Tri-Cities: Community collaboration and tourism innovation…even during a pandemic

To say 2020 was a difficult year for the tourism industry is an understatement. The silver lining has been the numerous collaborative opportunities provided to Visit Tri-Cities as we continue to invest in our community. These collaborations among jurisdictions, other economic development agencies and various hospitality businesses have served to highlight the value of our organization and industry.

Last summer, we partnered with Benton County, utilizing CARES Act money to provide COVID-19 mitigation marketing communications to Benton and Franklin counties. We collaborated with the Benton Franklin Health District (BFHD) to create campaigns in English and Spanish.

Most effective was our use of humor to encourage social sharing and ultimately adoption of public health behaviors. We created a series of spots called CYA. As in, Cover Your Airholes. We had two main goals: preserve public health and our local economy. For Visit Tri-Cities, if we were successful in meeting these goals, we would be successful in rebuilding tourism, supporting local businesses, jobs, funding for emergency services, schools, teachers and our quality of life. All of the things tourism helps to support in our community.

Let’s back this tourism bus up to the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020 when Visit Tri-Cities began working with our Governor’s Office and agencies across the state and locally. We wanted to help businesses successfully navigate this pandemic, or at least mitigate as much of the financial pain as possible.

In March, we launched the Get Your Order On! campaign to help promote the newly adopted activity of curbside service following the Stay Home, Stay Safe order issued by our governor. We also created a PSA with General James Mattis, hometown hero and former U.S. Secretary of Defense, encouraging residents to support our local businesses, jobs, economy and quality of life by utilizing curbside, delivery and safe practices (prior to the mask mandate).

Immediately following the success of Get Your Order On!, we partnered with TRIDEC and the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce to launch Tri-Cities Open for Business. This initiative highlighted local businesses in an even grander fashion, with PSAs promoting support of local businesses and a robust listing of open businesses that offered accessible services.

Our group then launched the Tri-Cities Open and Safe Coalition in partnership with BFHD and created an easy-to-navigate website to help businesses quickly access information needed to safely reopen under Washington State’s Safe Start Plan.

This included the Tri-Cities Open and Safe Business Pledge that businesses voluntarily signed to show our region’s commitment to public health as well as the safety and wellbeing of employees, patrons and volunteers. The pledge was a key factor in our community’s advancement into a modified Phase 1 in 2020.

Visit Tri-Cities complemented these important endeavors with viral video content featuring messages to steer the community in a positive direction as we balanced public health and economic recovery. In June, we collaborated with community partners to create an inspirational video, “We Are Tri-Citians,” emphasizing the resilience of the Tri-Cities. It was followed by a video with local elected leaders promoting the use of masks, prior to the statewide mandate.

The endeavor was successful, and the positive outcomes initiated the opening of more businesses. We also rewrote Cake’s “Going the Distance” to “Social Distance” to reinforce the mask up and socially distance message.

Every step of the way in 2020, we were able to showcase the value of tourism and the work we do at Visit Tri-Cities for the benefit of our region. We look forward to doing even more in 2021. The Visit Tri-Cities team already has tourism and economic recovery initiatives in motion.

Visit Tri-Cities continues to host cutting-edge virtual events to promote tourism in our region, encouraging travel as it is safe and allowable. This spring we will host another virtual Customer Appreciation luncheon, highlighting our hoteliers and Tri-Cities amenities for Washington state associations that bring group business to our region. Mark your calendars for May 2-8 as we promote National Travel and Tourism Week to inspire travel to the Tri-Cities. Stay tuned to Visit Tri-Cities’ social channels for updates.

Sports tourism is on the return to local playfields. Local sports clubs are hosting competitions, opening the door for tournaments that would welcome teams from outside the area. Event directors have indicated they plan to add new tournaments to our area due to the expected increase in demand for sports tournament options later this year.

To support local small businesses and aid in the economic recovery of the Tri-Cities, we recently launched Tri-Cities Small Business Spotlights. The Spotlights are a weekly social campaign providing tourism-related businesses a platform to highlight the experiences they offer to visitors and residents.

TBEX, a conference for travel content creators (writers, bloggers, influencers, etc.), will be hosted here in the Tri-Cities. The event takes place Aug. 16-19, 2021, bringing more than 400 travel media attendees to our community to experience all of our amazing amenities. The earned media from this event will have positive outcomes for the Tri-Cities for years to come.

While 2020 was a difficult year, through community collaboration and tourism innovation, together we overcame many challenges. We’re looking forward to doing even more with our community partners in 2021.

Be safe. Be collaborative. Be innovative. Be impactful. Be More Cool, Tri-Cities.

This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 12:02 AM with the headline "Visit Tri-Cities: Community collaboration and tourism innovation…even during a pandemic."