e-Traveler - International Marketing Training Dates Announced + More
September 18, 2024
LAST CALL: Register for the Next Tourism Insider Meeting
Registration is open for the next Tourism Insider Meeting, which will be held in Marquette and McGregor on September 24-25, 2024.
The agenda includes downtown tours, how to package compelling stories and opportunities to enjoy local attractions. Registration closes at 4 p.m. on September 19.
Hotel rooms are available for both September 23 and 24 at the Cobblestone Marquette. The room rate for attendees is $95 + tax ($106.40). Please call the hotel to book (563.873.8900) and mention you are attending the Iowa Tourism Office meeting. Reach out to Stephanie Neppl (stephanie.neppl@iowaeda.com) with questions.
REGISTER HERE
Iowa Tourism Office Available to Speak at Industry Events
The Iowa Tourism Office team is available to speak at industry conferences, meetings and events. To request someone from our team to present at your event, please complete the form here. Once received, you will be contacted to discuss availability.
Mark Your Calendar for International Marketing Trainings
The Iowa Tourism Office is excited to invite our tourism partners to the International Inbound Travel Association’s Steps to SuccessTM Program! This program, presented by Alon Tourism Solutions, is the leading national training program to help tourism businesses thrive and secure long-term business with the international inbound travel market. This FREE program will guide you through how to enhance your ability to work effectively and efficiently with business-to-business (B2B) international inbound operators by:
All three training sessions will be virtual. You must join these sessions live – they will not be recorded.
As part of the training program, all Iowa tourism partners, lodging properties, attractions, restaurants and more are invited to complete a short survey to help our trainers better understand the current level of knowledge and engagement with the international inbound travel market and visitors.
Iowa Travel Guide Ads Now Available
The 2025 Iowa Travel Guide will feature editorial content centered around the five travel areas. There will be 125,000 copies printed for 2025, an increase over the 100,000 copies produced in 2024. Business Publications coordinates all advertising sales.
View the 2025 media kit here and submit your inquiry here. The ad space reservation deadline is October 14, 2024.
Partner Shoutout: Explore Siouxland Wins Awards at UMCVB Conference
Congratulations to Explore Siouxland's Kristen Heimgartner (L) and Kristi Franz (R) for being recognized as top industry professionals at the UMCVB Annual Conference.
Kristen Heimgartner was awarded the 2024 Geist Up & Coming Hospitality Leader Award, which honors young professionals who exemplify exceptional leadership and commitment within the hospitality industry.
Kristi Franz was awarded the 2024 McDaniel Individual Professionalism and Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding contributions to the tourism industry and strong leadership throughout her career.
Sign Up for U.S. Travel's SmartBrief
You don't need to be a member of U.S. Travel to take advantage of the association's industry news and travel trends. Sign up for the SmartBrief to receive a daily snapshot of the travel industry through news summaries from the Washington Post, Reuters, the Associated Press and other leading sources.
Catch Up: Watch the Iowa Sports Market Analysis Webinar
If you weren't able to attend the Iowa Sports Market Analysis webinar, watch the recording to catch up with the industry findings. The report includes an evaluation of destinations through the Sports Tourism Index™ benchmarking tool, economic impact, facility inventory and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in regards to the sports tourism market in Iowa, and recommendations for how to grow Iowa's sports tourism market.
The State of the American Traveler Update
Recognized as one of the nation's leading travel studies of American leisure travelers, The State of the American Traveler features quarterly research of over 4,000 adult travelers. The most recent surveys were collected August 16-27, 2024, and included the following findings:
Add Travel Iowa's Build a Trip Widget to Your Website
Travel Iowa's Build a Trip tool utilizes the site's extensive collection of business and attraction listings to help travelers customize their road trip. Partners can add this tool to their own websites by using the provided code to help travelers plan the perfect visit to your community and discover other Iowa attractions along the way.
To be featured within the tool, be sure to also add/update your traveliowa.com listings to provide travelers the most accurate information.
Share Your Photo/Video Assets with the Iowa Tourism Office
Share your photos and videos with us via Meta with CrowdRiff's Advanced Tracking tool. This helps us more easily discover partners' user-generated content to include in articles, social media posts and more, while also amplifying your reach and audience.
All you have to do is click this link to connect your Instagram and Facebook accounts to the Travel Iowa CrowdRiff account, which allows us to see and share (with your permission) your amazing Reels, stories, mentions and tagged content.
Helpful Tools to Organize Grant Opportunities
Although grants in general are an important part of fund distribution for both public and private entities, they are sometimes discontinued. Just as frequently, new grants emerge. Be in the know. Sign up for and read agency and organizational newsletters and announcements. Attend grant trainings and in-person meetings with funders whenever possible. Talk with legislators and decision makers at least annually to get an idea of what may be changing.
Featured Grants:
The Iowa Tourism Grant will close on September 30, 2024, and accepts projects that will occur between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025.
The Inspire Iowa Cultural Tourism Grant program grant through the Iowa Tourism Office is due October 9, 2024, for projects that will occur between July 1, 2024 and December 31, 2026.
The Iowa Arts Council has opened a fall round of Art Project Grants. Organizations and individual artists who have not previously been awarded funding for fiscal year 2025 are eligible to apply for projects taking place between November 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025.
Here are the most important updates this week:
- Last chance to register for the next Tourism Insider Meeting on September 24-25.
- Sign up for the free International Marketing Training Program; first session will be held on October 24.
- Add Travel Iowa's Build a Trip widget to your website.
LAST CALL: Register for the Next Tourism Insider Meeting
Registration is open for the next Tourism Insider Meeting, which will be held in Marquette and McGregor on September 24-25, 2024.
The agenda includes downtown tours, how to package compelling stories and opportunities to enjoy local attractions. Registration closes at 4 p.m. on September 19.
Hotel rooms are available for both September 23 and 24 at the Cobblestone Marquette. The room rate for attendees is $95 + tax ($106.40). Please call the hotel to book (563.873.8900) and mention you are attending the Iowa Tourism Office meeting. Reach out to Stephanie Neppl (stephanie.neppl@iowaeda.com) with questions.
REGISTER HERE
Iowa Tourism Office Available to Speak at Industry Events
The Iowa Tourism Office team is available to speak at industry conferences, meetings and events. To request someone from our team to present at your event, please complete the form here. Once received, you will be contacted to discuss availability.
Mark Your Calendar for International Marketing Trainings
The Iowa Tourism Office is excited to invite our tourism partners to the International Inbound Travel Association’s Steps to SuccessTM Program! This program, presented by Alon Tourism Solutions, is the leading national training program to help tourism businesses thrive and secure long-term business with the international inbound travel market. This FREE program will guide you through how to enhance your ability to work effectively and efficiently with business-to-business (B2B) international inbound operators by:
- Understanding the value of working with the international inbound market and how to harness them as a powerful partner to grow your business
- Learning how to prepare for this market, including developing your pitch, pricing, sellable products and operational resources that follow the protocols of working with the travel trade
- Discovering fundamental marketing strategies that you can use to promote your products and services via the varied distribution channels of the travel trade
All three training sessions will be virtual. You must join these sessions live – they will not be recorded.
- Thursday, October 24, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. – REGISTER HERE
- Thursday, November 21, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. (registration coming soon)
- Thursday, December 19, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. (registration coming soon)
As part of the training program, all Iowa tourism partners, lodging properties, attractions, restaurants and more are invited to complete a short survey to help our trainers better understand the current level of knowledge and engagement with the international inbound travel market and visitors.
Iowa Travel Guide Ads Now Available
The 2025 Iowa Travel Guide will feature editorial content centered around the five travel areas. There will be 125,000 copies printed for 2025, an increase over the 100,000 copies produced in 2024. Business Publications coordinates all advertising sales.
View the 2025 media kit here and submit your inquiry here. The ad space reservation deadline is October 14, 2024.
Partner Shoutout: Explore Siouxland Wins Awards at UMCVB Conference
Congratulations to Explore Siouxland's Kristen Heimgartner (L) and Kristi Franz (R) for being recognized as top industry professionals at the UMCVB Annual Conference.Kristen Heimgartner was awarded the 2024 Geist Up & Coming Hospitality Leader Award, which honors young professionals who exemplify exceptional leadership and commitment within the hospitality industry.
Kristi Franz was awarded the 2024 McDaniel Individual Professionalism and Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding contributions to the tourism industry and strong leadership throughout her career.
Sign Up for U.S. Travel's SmartBrief
You don't need to be a member of U.S. Travel to take advantage of the association's industry news and travel trends. Sign up for the SmartBrief to receive a daily snapshot of the travel industry through news summaries from the Washington Post, Reuters, the Associated Press and other leading sources.
Catch Up: Watch the Iowa Sports Market Analysis Webinar
If you weren't able to attend the Iowa Sports Market Analysis webinar, watch the recording to catch up with the industry findings. The report includes an evaluation of destinations through the Sports Tourism Index™ benchmarking tool, economic impact, facility inventory and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in regards to the sports tourism market in Iowa, and recommendations for how to grow Iowa's sports tourism market.
The State of the American Traveler Update
Recognized as one of the nation's leading travel studies of American leisure travelers, The State of the American Traveler features quarterly research of over 4,000 adult travelers. The most recent surveys were collected August 16-27, 2024, and included the following findings:
- Looking back at summer 2024
- Nearly half of Americans traveled overnight for leisure in the summer months
- Took at least one trip in each summer month
- Deterrence to travel included cost (gas, airfare, personal finance reasons); too busy at work or not enough PTO; crowds; health concerns
- Current sentiment
- 68% stay in full-service or 3-4 hotel or resort; 37% in budget hotel; 24% Airbnb/VRBO; 21% luxury or 5-star hotel or resort
- 32% say they are better off than last year, down slightly from last month, but up four points over last year
- 87% have high level of excitement for travel, same level as 2023
- Nearly 60% intend to make leisure travel a spending priority in the next three months, up eight points from last year
- Mean travel budget for next 12 months = $5,412, new record
- Trip planning windows have lengthened – 11.5 weeks, up a full week from 2023
- Older travelers skew traditional digital; younger to social/video
- Sporting events and the American traveler
- 34% have specifically traveled to attend a sporting event
- Skew Millennial, 200k+ income, more likely to be urban and men
- 72% will be prioritizing travel in near-term; average $6,700 trip spend
Add Travel Iowa's Build a Trip Widget to Your Website
Travel Iowa's Build a Trip tool utilizes the site's extensive collection of business and attraction listings to help travelers customize their road trip. Partners can add this tool to their own websites by using the provided code to help travelers plan the perfect visit to your community and discover other Iowa attractions along the way.
To be featured within the tool, be sure to also add/update your traveliowa.com listings to provide travelers the most accurate information.
Share Your Photo/Video Assets with the Iowa Tourism Office
Share your photos and videos with us via Meta with CrowdRiff's Advanced Tracking tool. This helps us more easily discover partners' user-generated content to include in articles, social media posts and more, while also amplifying your reach and audience.
All you have to do is click this link to connect your Instagram and Facebook accounts to the Travel Iowa CrowdRiff account, which allows us to see and share (with your permission) your amazing Reels, stories, mentions and tagged content.
Helpful Tools to Organize Grant Opportunities
Although grants in general are an important part of fund distribution for both public and private entities, they are sometimes discontinued. Just as frequently, new grants emerge. Be in the know. Sign up for and read agency and organizational newsletters and announcements. Attend grant trainings and in-person meetings with funders whenever possible. Talk with legislators and decision makers at least annually to get an idea of what may be changing.
Featured Grants:
The Iowa Tourism Grant will close on September 30, 2024, and accepts projects that will occur between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025.
The Inspire Iowa Cultural Tourism Grant program grant through the Iowa Tourism Office is due October 9, 2024, for projects that will occur between July 1, 2024 and December 31, 2026.
The Iowa Arts Council has opened a fall round of Art Project Grants. Organizations and individual artists who have not previously been awarded funding for fiscal year 2025 are eligible to apply for projects taking place between November 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025.
- September 24-25, 2024 – Tourism Insider Meeting, McGregor/Marquette
- September 30, 2024 – Iowa Tourism Grant applications close
- October 17, 2024 - Iowa Tourism Office Update webinar, virtual
- October 24, 2024 - International Inbound Travel Association Steps to Success Training