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Cover Story: Experiencing Washington: State offers adventure and opportunity for many |
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Written On: March/April 2008 |
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Written By: Danielle Rhéaume |
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Let’s face it — we’re spoiled. Washingtonians are accustomed to beautiful and diverse natural landscapes, cosmopolitan cities, folk and high art, scores of activities, world-class wine and delectable cuisine. It’s impossible to sell Washington’s tourism and travel opportunities under a single advertising campaign or sum up its attractions in one guidebook. Unfortunately, persistent misconceptions about Washington still exist. Even the world-famous Frommer’s travel guide addresses this by reassuring readers in its introduction, “Despite what you may have heard to the contrary, there is more to Washington state than lattes, rain and Microsoft. It is actually such a diverse state that it could have served as a model for the song ‘America the Beautiful.’”
Frommer’s begs readers to stretch their minds and think beyond beverages, precipitation and technology. If readers own the guide, they’ll likely turn the page. However, if they’re like many of us, they’ll probably leave the guide at the bookstore, go home and log on to the Internet. From the comfort of their home, they can explore our state online and make plans — as Washington’s official marketing campaign now advises — to “Experience Washington.”
Growing revenue and opportunities
Last year, travelers experiencing Washington spent $14.8 billion on lodging, food services, recreation, transportation, and retail purchases — what is considered “total direct travel spending.” This spending contributed more than $975 million to local and state tax revenues. While visitors from outside the state contributed about $250 in taxes for each Washington household, residents traveling within the state contributed around $140 — a combined benefit of $390. If statistical projections hold true these amounts will continue to grow, as the steady growth of travel spending in Washington has exceeded the national average since 2002.
As tourism increases, so do statewide business and employment opportunities. While half of the 149,800 jobs supported by travel spending are in urban areas, many significant opportunities extend into non-urban counties where there are a greater number of travel-generated jobs in relation to total employment. In fact, while jobs in the urban counties of Washington account for only slightly more than 3 percent of total employment, travel-related jobs in some non-urban counties — like Skamania, Pacific, San Juan, Grays Harbor, Jefferson and Chelan — account for an impressive 10 percent of employment supported by travel spending.
Tourism is also great for small businesses with less than 50 employees. These businesses, which are often unique to their region (like Seattle’s Ye Olde Curiosity Shop) depend almost entirely on tourists as customers. Likewise, tourists experiencing Washington depend heavily on them. Small businesses serving anything from culinary experiences to river-rafting tours constitute about 85 percent of all businesses serving tourists in the state.
Without both parties — the small businesses and the tourists — tourism as Washington knows it would cease to exist. This would have devastating consequences for Washington’s ambitious proprietors, who account for one in eight travel industry workers.
Compared to other major Washington industries like manufacturing and software, the tourism industry also employs an unusually large number of women — especially in the areas of accommodations, food and beverage service, retail trade and travel arrangement — where women constitute more than half of the employees. In those and other areas, minorities make up a remarkable 29 percent of the overall labor force.
Don’t forget that first summer job. Another benefit of the tourism industry is that it employs many young and inexperienced workers in part-time, entry-level and seasonal jobs. This gives many the opportunity to work around school schedules and gain on-the-job experience that brings long-term benefits to them and, in a larger sense, Washington’s workforce.
Legislative support
Recognizing the benefits of the tourism industry, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire revealed a plan in early 2007 for the reformation of the Tourism Development Advisory Committee. She also recommended increased funding for the Tourism Division of the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, which had a near rock-bottom budget of around $3.6 million from 2006-2007. Only Iowa, North Dakota, Delaware and Rhode Island had lower budgets in that period. While it’s normal for budget differences to exist between states—for instance, Hawaii’s budget is more than $70 million while Rhode Island’s is a paltry $1.5 million—Washington’s program was seriously underfunded.
Gregoire recommended leveraging additional regional spending by working in concert with Montana, Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia on tourism promotion.
She also emphasized making a special effort to promote eco- and geo-tourism. “Washington’s abundant environmental assets are a significant pull for tourists from other states and other countries,” Gregoire said. She advised that the state’s tourism strategy “make the most of our unique cultures, geography, agriculture, wildlife and wild water.” Her final recommendation related to capitalizing on the opportunities presented by the proximity of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.
Ground-breaking legislation
Gregoire’s recommendations preceded passage of SHB 1276, the governor-sponsored “Tourism Bill,” in April 2007. This bill was “ground-breaking,” according to the new managing director of the Washington Tourism Division, Marsha Massey, who speculates that tourism legislation like this wasn’t passed earlier because previous administration didn’t see the value of tourism to the degree that they do now. This wasn’t due to lack of appreciation for the state, but quite the opposite, according to Massey. In fact, some people even thought, “Washington is so great that we don’t need to market it!” she said.
Once enacted, the Tourism Bill eliminated rather than reformed TDAC and created the Washington Tourism Commission. This 19-member commission includes four legislators, one from each of the major legislative caucuses, as well as 15 governor-appointed members. Since their first meeting in September, the commission has met a number of times and embarked on several efforts mandated in the Tourism Bill, including a biennial marketing plan and six-year strategic plan that should be finished early this year. In the meantime, they have contracted with private research and marketing organizations and hired several new staff members, including Massey, who served as interim director though most of 2007. When she started there, her background was “100 percent travel and 0 percent state government,” said Massey. Over the years, she has worked for the Seattle Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Westin Hotels and Travelclick, an international business-to-business consulting firm.
As managing director, Massey openly recognizes that businesses look to the state for direction on how to attract tourism dollars. “That was missing in the past,” she said. However, through recent legislation — including state-wide strategic planning input sessions by CTED and the cohesive, grassroots efforts of many — Massey sees the face of Washington tourism changing already. Rallying on the local level has increased as destination marketing organizations, or DMOs, are “no longer working in isolation and communities are advocating the entire state, not just their corner,” she said.
Customer service is vital
One of the main incentives for increased regional efforts in Washington is preparation for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Vancouver, B.C. These events up the ante for destinations along the I-5 corridor close to the United States-Canada border. But efforts by DMOs certainly don’t stop there. Many other areas are actively developing and enhancing their markets—some are even working in concert with those preparing for 2010.
While it may be easy to overlook the necessity of “soft skills,” exceptional customer service is a fundamental part of tourism. Chris Erickson, director of tourism services for Walla Walla Tourism, said, “It’s like the old saying goes: If people have a great experience, they’ll tell 10 people. If they have a bad experience, they’ll tell 20.” Naturally, Walla Walla and other areas would rather acquire 10 new tourists than turn away 20 — especially since their area is seeing a steady increase in fine-dining establishments and tasting rooms that cater to wine connoisseurs. “You can have a great product — serve great food — but if your customer service is lacking it colors everything,” said WWT’s president and CEO Michael Davidson. “As tourism grows, we need to think about how we treat people, because that’s what people remember.”
With that in mind, WWT sought out SuperHost—a rigorous customer service program that was originally designed and administered by Tourism British Columbia for Expo ‘86. Over the years, its popularity and reputation have caught the attention of states like Montana and other countries, like New Zealand, who have adapted it to their tourism programs. By time WWT found it, the SuperHost program was already under consideration by the Snohomish County Tourism and Visitor’s Bureau, whose efforts to prepare for 2010 have proved to be way ahead of the game. Soon, the two DMOs began working together to bring SuperHost to Washington. “Because SuperHost is not only excellent, but right at our front door — up in B.C. — we felt it was the right program for us,” Erickson said.
SuperHost can only be licensed through a government agency, so after reviewing a few different options, the pair reached out to the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges. This led to a collaborative effort involving both of the DMOs as well as Walla Walla Community College and Everett Community College, where customer service classes began last month. Davidson anticipates that, over time, many other DMOs and community colleges will get involved in the program. “We’ve already seen a lot of interest from around the state,” he said.
Davidson’s 20-plus years of tourism experience was largely informed by his time working for DMOs on the East Coast, where he claims to have learned “about 95 percent” of what he knows about tourism from the state-run “I Love New York” program. Not only did that program provide excellent customer service training for people in the tourism industry, but it also understood the importance of working well with DMOs. “That is the key component,” said Davidson, who sees tourism as a pyramid with the state at the top and the different areas, destinations, hotels and restaurants following respectively. “The state has to realize that we—the DMOs—are their key clients, not the individual tourists.” In other words, it’s the state’s job to get the people to the DMOs and then the DMOs will take it to the next level. “We don’t need the state to do everything—we just need them to do what they do well.”
Moving in the right direction
Over the past year, the Washington State Tourism Division has pulled together a library of shared photos shot all over the state during all four seasons. This collection of images is not only a valuable resource, but also “tangible evidence of Washington’s communities working together,” according to Massey. The tourism office has also worked with media partners to offer a cooperative print advertising program for spring 2008, which allows businesses involved in the Washington tourism industry to purchase reduced-rate ads alongside the “Experience Washington” brand advertisements in magazines like Sunset or National Geographic Adventure.
The first four colorful advertisements, which premiered early this year, feature Mount St. Helens, The Museum of Flight, Tacoma’s Museum of Glass, and Washington’s Wine Country. While CTED isn’t yet revealing what the next marketing effort will be, chances are that it will include watchable wildlife or eco-tourism, subjects aimed squarely at so-called “urban naturalists.” Though they might sound downright silly at first, these buzzwords describe Washington’s unique attractions and their appeal to those who enjoy both the great indoors and the great outdoors.
The Tourism Division has also developed the Washington State Tourism WebLink Program, which provides all tourism-related businesses the opportunity to be linked on the state tourism Web site, www.experiencewa.com. Subscribers can choose between regular and premium memberships, or even add different marketing features to their Web pages. Over time, the Tourism Division plans to do more in the way of developing competitive grants, defining the private match, and tightening relations with more DMOs, nonprofit entities and Native American tribes, according to Massey. Once their marketing and strategic plans are ready, she anticipates that the tourism office will know more about how to proceed.
“People often don’t realize it, but Washington is competing globally now. Costa Rica is our greatest competition for rainforest tourism,” Massey said. “So when someone in another state is online trying to chose between Washington or South America, we must have a strong enough presence to bring them our way.”
Thanks to advances in technology, legislation and the cohesive efforts of many, Washington tourism is changing and growing. While the 113-year-old lyrics to “America the Beautiful” still apply to our state, the words “challenging” and “opportunity” must be applied to the business of tourism. Fortunately, with the diversity of our cities and landscape and the ambitions of many, Washington’s tourism industry can look forward to endless possibilities.
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