e-Traveler - Register for the Iowa Tourism Conference + More
November 13, 2024
Registration Now Open for the 2025 Iowa Tourism Conference
The annual Iowa Tourism Conference will be held on March 12-13, 2025 at The Meadows Events Center in Altoona! This can’t-miss conference is dedicated to promoting Iowa's tourism destinations and attractions through marketing initiatives.
Join destination marketing professionals from across the state to gain insight into the most innovative and data-driven tactics happening in the tourism industry and leave with actionable solutions, new inspiration and valuable new professional connections. REGISTER
Book your room: The 2025 Iowa Tourism Conference has a discounted room block reserved at Prairie Meadows, which is connected to their Meadows Event Center. Rooms are available for $134 per night plus taxes and fees.
Attendees are encouraged to book their rooms early as the room block is expected to fill quickly. LEARN MORE
Sign Up for the 2025 Arrivalist Co-op
The Iowa Tourism Office is again partnering with Arrivalist to provide partners exclusive access to the State Visitation Dashboard with county and city level visitation data from January 2022 through December 2025. The dashboard allows you to segment visitation by month or day/weekend and provides insights on origin markets, length of stay and more.
The 2025 program provides 24/7 access to the dashboard on a sliding scale of investment:
Economic Impact of Tourism is $10.9B in 2023
In 2023, visitors spent over $7.3 billion across the Iowa economy. This direct visitor spending generated a total economic impact of $10.9 billion in Iowa, sustained 70,954 jobs and generated $1.1 billion in state and local tax revenue.
The statewide 2023 Economic Impact Report is now available, as well as county level spending and economic impact numbers. Watch the webinar that goes into detail about the report.
DEADLINE: Last Call for November Tourism Insider Meeting Registration
Join partners from around the state at the last Tourism Insider Meeting of the year in Iowa City on November 19-20, 2024. Discussion topics will include the new Economic Impact Report and how to use it, film tourism plus a ‘news ready workshop’ and discussion about working with media. Optional activities include dinner at The Den at St. Burch Tavern and a fun Wednesday morning activity taking a Beginner’s Improv Class at Riverside Theatre. If weather allows, a mural walk around downtown Iowa City will be offered.
If you can no longer attend, or will no longer be able to stay for Tuesday night's dinner or the Wednesday activity, please let Stephanie Neppl (stephanie.neppl@iowaeda.com) know your plans have changed.
International Marketing Trainings - Next Steps
Thank you to those who were able to join the first session of 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.
If you missed session one, you are absolutely welcome to join the remaining sessions to hear valuable information about working with the international inbound market.
Mark your calendar for the next two trainings:
All training sessions are virtual and must be joined live – they will not be recorded.
Pre-Order the 2025 Iowa Travel Guide
We have officially run out of hard copies of the 2024 Iowa Travel Guide. Click here if you would like to see the digital version or place a pre-order for the 2025 Iowa Travel Guide.
Wine, Beer and Distillery Passports Update
Check-ins and signups of the Iowa Wine, Beer and Distillery Passports continue their strong 2024 results with successful marketing tactics. Highlights include:
Helpful Tools to Organize Grant Opportunities
Many private and public entities are looking for grant reviewers. Some have a formal application process, while others may approach you and request your assistance. If you have the time and the desire to learn how to become a better grant writer, this is something you should seriously consider doing. Reading other people’s applications will give you a different perspective and provide new insight into how grant reviewers are scoring your application. Some grantors provide a panel reviewer handbook, a matrix, rubric or other scoring guidance. So, even if you don’t have the time to be a grant reviewer, if they make them available, you should use these tools to understand how your own application will be scored.
Featured Grant:
The Iowa Tourism Grant is scored by volunteer peer reviewers from around the state. Each reviewer reads all the applications within one of the four categories associated with the Iowa Tourism Grant and scores them using this rubric. Reviewer scores are then averaged to determine final awards by category. Scorers may not score within a category in which they are applying. These volunteers typically score applications for one to three years.
If you are interested in learning more about becoming a reviewer, contact Lora Friest (lora.friest@iowaeda.com).
Here are the most important updates this week:
- Sign up for the 2025 Arrivalist Co-op.
- Last chance to register for next week's Tourism Insider Meeting.
- Pre-order the 2025 Iowa Travel Guide.
- See how strong marketing tactics have boosted the Iowa Wine, Beer and Distillery Passports.
Registration Now Open for the 2025 Iowa Tourism Conference
The annual Iowa Tourism Conference will be held on March 12-13, 2025 at The Meadows Events Center in Altoona! This can’t-miss conference is dedicated to promoting Iowa's tourism destinations and attractions through marketing initiatives.
Join destination marketing professionals from across the state to gain insight into the most innovative and data-driven tactics happening in the tourism industry and leave with actionable solutions, new inspiration and valuable new professional connections. REGISTER
Book your room: The 2025 Iowa Tourism Conference has a discounted room block reserved at Prairie Meadows, which is connected to their Meadows Event Center. Rooms are available for $134 per night plus taxes and fees.
Attendees are encouraged to book their rooms early as the room block is expected to fill quickly. LEARN MORE
Sign Up for the 2025 Arrivalist Co-op
The Iowa Tourism Office is again partnering with Arrivalist to provide partners exclusive access to the State Visitation Dashboard with county and city level visitation data from January 2022 through December 2025. The dashboard allows you to segment visitation by month or day/weekend and provides insights on origin markets, length of stay and more.
The 2025 program provides 24/7 access to the dashboard on a sliding scale of investment:
- $2,500 (marketing budgets under $500,000/year)
- $5,000 (marketing budgets between $500,000-$2,000,000/year)
- $10,000 (marketing budgets over $2,000,000/year)
Economic Impact of Tourism is $10.9B in 2023
In 2023, visitors spent over $7.3 billion across the Iowa economy. This direct visitor spending generated a total economic impact of $10.9 billion in Iowa, sustained 70,954 jobs and generated $1.1 billion in state and local tax revenue.
The statewide 2023 Economic Impact Report is now available, as well as county level spending and economic impact numbers. Watch the webinar that goes into detail about the report.
DEADLINE: Last Call for November Tourism Insider Meeting Registration
Join partners from around the state at the last Tourism Insider Meeting of the year in Iowa City on November 19-20, 2024. Discussion topics will include the new Economic Impact Report and how to use it, film tourism plus a ‘news ready workshop’ and discussion about working with media. Optional activities include dinner at The Den at St. Burch Tavern and a fun Wednesday morning activity taking a Beginner’s Improv Class at Riverside Theatre. If weather allows, a mural walk around downtown Iowa City will be offered.
If you can no longer attend, or will no longer be able to stay for Tuesday night's dinner or the Wednesday activity, please let Stephanie Neppl (stephanie.neppl@iowaeda.com) know your plans have changed.
International Marketing Trainings - Next Steps
Thank you to those who were able to join the first session of 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.
If you missed session one, you are absolutely welcome to join the remaining sessions to hear valuable information about working with the international inbound market.
Mark your calendar for the next two trainings:
- Step #2: Thursday, November 21, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. (REGISTER)
- Step #3: Thursday, December 19, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. (registration coming soon)
All training sessions are virtual and must be joined live – they will not be recorded.
Pre-Order the 2025 Iowa Travel Guide
We have officially run out of hard copies of the 2024 Iowa Travel Guide. Click here if you would like to see the digital version or place a pre-order for the 2025 Iowa Travel Guide.
Wine, Beer and Distillery Passports Update
Check-ins and signups of the Iowa Wine, Beer and Distillery Passports continue their strong 2024 results with successful marketing tactics. Highlights include:
- Check-ins on the Iowa Beer Passport in October 2024 (362) were 3x as many compared with October 2023 (100). Monthly sign-ups (323) were up more than 4x compared with 2023 (70).
- Check-ins on the Iowa Wine Passport in October 2024 (115) were 2x that of October 2023 (55). Monthly sign-ups (225) were also more than 4x that of October 2023 (54).
- Total sign-ups for the Iowa Distillery Passport (3,438), which has been integrated with the Iowa Beer and Iowa Wine Passports for the past year, are 3x as many compared with the previous version of thstephanie.neppl@iowaeda.come Iowa Distillery Passport (1111).
- Since the relaunch of the three passports in mid-November 2023, there have been 10,855 signups and a total of 4,692 check-ins to businesses through October 31, 2024.
Helpful Tools to Organize Grant Opportunities
Many private and public entities are looking for grant reviewers. Some have a formal application process, while others may approach you and request your assistance. If you have the time and the desire to learn how to become a better grant writer, this is something you should seriously consider doing. Reading other people’s applications will give you a different perspective and provide new insight into how grant reviewers are scoring your application. Some grantors provide a panel reviewer handbook, a matrix, rubric or other scoring guidance. So, even if you don’t have the time to be a grant reviewer, if they make them available, you should use these tools to understand how your own application will be scored.
Featured Grant:
The Iowa Tourism Grant is scored by volunteer peer reviewers from around the state. Each reviewer reads all the applications within one of the four categories associated with the Iowa Tourism Grant and scores them using this rubric. Reviewer scores are then averaged to determine final awards by category. Scorers may not score within a category in which they are applying. These volunteers typically score applications for one to three years.
If you are interested in learning more about becoming a reviewer, contact Lora Friest (lora.friest@iowaeda.com).
- November 19-20, 2024 – Tourism Insider Meeting, Iowa City
- November 21, 2024 – International Inbound Travel Association Steps to Success Training – Step #2, virtual
- December 19, 2024 – International Inbound Travel Association Steps to Success Training – Step #3, virtual