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Visit Grand Junction offers a wide variety of resources that are available to tourism stakeholders in the Grand Junction area. These tools provide you with additional marketing opportunities which enhance your own initiatives. Most options are at no cost. The DTN partnership is a pay-to-play program that helps you navigate Google ads, search, website, and social advertising options that are specific to your business' marketing strategy. Further details on this opportunity are below, including an educational live webinar exclusively for the Grand Junction area.
To assist you, our team has set up a VisitGrandJunction.com partnership page that helps you navigate the resources that Visit Grand Junction offers.
As mentioned in last month's Stakeholder eNews, there will be several challenges in 2022 including the economy, staffing, shifts in the marketing landscape, and world events. Utilizing Visit Grand Junction's resources provides you an avenue to capitalize on data analysis and strategies that Visit GJ is already deploying to elevate the Grand Junction area brand. By partnering with Visit GJ, you will save time and money, while benefiting from our expertise in marketing techniques including social media, PR, Google, ad tech, website, etc.
Thank you,
Elizabeth
Director, Visit Grand Junction
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Visit Grand Junction is supporting local businesses with being more digitally sophisticated. This helps you meet your customers where they are. To do that, we are partnering with Destination Travel Network (DTN) to assist with the complex digital marketing landscape and offer affordable solutions to solve your digital marketing challenges.
Consumer behavior is constantly shifting with changing technologies, which makes attracting new customers and driving more revenue a pretty daunting task. You need the knowledge, tools, and most importantly, the time to implement an effective digital marketing strategy. But where do you start? You can start by asking yourself questions like these:
- Can customers find you?
- Do they like you? (guest reviews)
- Does your website provide meaningful information?
- What is your social media plan for the next 6-months?
DTN can help answer these questions and provide the expertise and tools to take your digital marketing game to the next level. Visit Grand Junction and Destination Travel Network (DTN) invite you to attend a virtual workshop to highlight effective digital marketing strategies that will help your business attract new customers, drive more revenue, and save you time so that you can focus on running your business. After the workshop, you can meet with DTN and they'll run a FREE digital scorecard of your business (you'll get a copy of your scorecard), which will give you a starting point for implementing an effective digital marketing strategy.
There are two live virtual workshops, click this link to pick the day and time that works best for your schedule. See you there!
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Lodging Tax Revenue Report
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December 2021
From the 4.25% lodging tax collections that Visit GJ received (short-term rental lodging tax revenue is collected quarterly and reflected here), December 2021’s business was a factor of 65.2% higher compared to December 2020 (adjusted for late and missing payments). For a more accurate comparison, December 2021's business was 31.5% higher than December 2019's business (pre-pandemic). Of the Grand Junction lodging properties that reported their metrics to STR, LLC., occupancy for December 2021 was 50.6%, ADR was $85.97, and RevPAR was $43.48.
As expected, Grand Junction experienced a decrease in all hotel metrics compared to the previous month of November. December 2021’s business experienced a factor of a 9.0% decrease in occupancy, a 3.6% decrease in ADR, and a 12.4% decrease in RevPAR compared to November 2021. For national metrics, Grand Junction was 5.0% lower than U.S. hotels in average occupancy, 36.4% lower in ADR, and 39.7% lower in RevPAR for December 2021. Compared to the state, Grand Junction was 4.7% lower than Colorado hotels in average occupancy, 53.0% lower in ADR, and 55.2% lower in RevPAR for December 2021.
Lodging tax collections for 2021 exceeded expectations. Lodging tax collections for 2021's business (January through December) was 72.7% higher than 2020's collections and 13.7% higher than 2019's collections. For the entire year of 2021, Grand Junction’s occupancy outpaced U.S. occupancy by 14% and Colorado's occupancy by 10%. That is outstanding! Visit GJ optimized its ad-tech solutions, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) programs by strategically deploying campaigns based on data insights and brand awareness, which resulted in record visitation to Grand Junction in 2021. Our hospitality industry partners deserve an enormous amount of credit, as well. Great job, everyone! RevPAR for Grand Junction in 2021 came in 9.3% lower than the U.S., and 23.6% lower than Colorado, largely due to a 26.0% decrease in ADR compared to the U.S. and a 30.6% decrease in ADR compared to Colorado.
The latest research insights from Destination Analysts show that Americans' excitement for travel over the next 12 months is the highest it has ever been in the pandemic era. With many vacation plans already underway, the outlook for spring looks robust. Be sure to capitalize on this opportunity by appropriately yielding rates. Grand Junction's occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR metrics reached record levels in 10 out of the 12 months in 2021, proving that increasing room rates does not jeopardize occupancy. In fact, data shows that travelers expect higher room rates and have more disposable income to spend for travel. If you would like assistance with yield management, especially since the outlook for spring travel is strong, contact Elizabeth at ElizabethF@GJCity.org.
Click here for the latest sales, use, and lodging tax collection reports from the City of Grand Junction.
*Source: STR, LLC. - REPUBLICATION OR OTHER RE-USE OF STR’s DATA WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF STR IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
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Performance & Partnerships
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Last week, Visit Grand Junction sent out the February Marketing eNewsletter. The communication consisted of three blogs that highlighted local businesses, unique experiences, and outdoor adventures in the Grand Junction area. Compared to industry averages provided by Campaignmonitor.com, the February Marketing eNews had an open rate that was 19.8% above the industry average and a click rate that was 78.6% above the industry average. Residents and locals are reading the eNews!
Content that Visit GJ promotes is often based on feedback from local businesses. Visit GJ is constantly looking for new ways to highlight the Grand Junction area and its unique experiences. As always, if you are looking to get more involved with Visit Grand Junction or have questions about how to enhance your partnership, please reach out to Mason at MasonB@GJcity.org or visit the stakeholder partnership page.
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Love'n GJ on Social Media
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Shawn wrote, "It's a special place for sure."
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Alejandria said, "I miss GJ soooo bad 😞"
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Colton said, "I love the Grand Junction area!🙌 Free Lunch is probably my favorite trail.👍"
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