The Power Of Travel

VISIT MESA EDUCATES ABOUT POWER OF TRAVEL, LAUNCHES RESIDENT & STAKEHOLDER SURVEYS AND PREPARES FOR TRAVEL’S ‘NEXT’ NORMAL

May 26, 2020 – (MESA, Ariz.) – Visit Mesa launched its Visitors Mean Business advocacy outreach campaign aimed at educating Mesa residents about the power of travel as the industry prepares for the ‘next normal’ and recovery from COVID-19 begins in Arizona. The destination marketing and management organization has released a video sharing the economic impacts of tourism illustrating how visitor dollars support Mesa’s quality of life while lowering resident taxes. As part of the campaign, Visit Mesa also launched two important surveys, the first intended to capture resident sentiment connected to tourism impacts, and DestinationNext, the kickstart initiative to a long-range futures study for Mesa targeted to the city’s key industry partners and stakeholders. 

VisitorsMeanBusiness.com is an up-to-date information resource and new platform for the public to engage directly with Visit Mesa. As a travel destination, Mesa attracts 4.4 million annual visitors who account for more than $460M in spending from day and overnight trips (Longwoods International, 2018, Mesa Visitor Profile data). The website features an interactive word cloud that updates in real time based on consumer input data, and the public is invited to upload images for promotional consideration of Visit Mesa’s social media channels and pledge their support for Mesa’s Visitor Industry.

The new information site is also where Visit Mesa is asking residents via a survey link to share their feedback regarding their awareness of visitor industry impacts and what tourism both looks like and means to them. The survey takes only a few minutes and is open to any Mesa resident to complete before June 15. The Community Perspectives™ study is engineered by MMGY Travel Intelligence, and aimed at gathering solid data points and perspectives that will help guide Visit Mesa’s destination marketing efforts.

“We can all benefit by having an eye on the street and an ear to the hearts and minds of the citizens,” said Visit Mesa President & CEO Marc Garcia. “As an organization, we’ve always valued consumer insights and take stock in the targeted research we mine. Now, more than ever however, we want to involve our neighbors in the process of sharing our dynamic destination with the world – and our subsequent results. More, we want residents to see the value of an outsider through our unique lens and appreciate what lifestyle qualities we promote to make Mesa stand out to visitors. Afterall, imported visitor dollars are vital to Mesa and so is our role to create travel demand.”

Visit Mesa is also engaged in DestinationNext, the futures study pioneered by MMGY Next Factor in partnership with Destinations International. Led by local resident and Visit Mesa Board member Tannis McBean, the initiative starts with an assessment of Mesa’s performance as a premier travel destination. The survey gauges the perception of Mesa as a desired location for both business and leisure travel and the data will help support future economic development, as well as visitor-serving product and infrastructure investments. The diagnostic tool is a proven 360-degree survey that is targeted to key stakeholders in tourism, hospitality, business, economic development and government who would all find themselves impacted by Mesa’s ability to attract and inspire imported visitor dollars. More than 230 destination marketing organizations have engaged in this comprehensive study. Results will further define Visit Mesa’s strategic planning as tourism in this nation prepares for a rebound that is predicted to take two to three years to meet pre-COVID-19 performance levels.

Visit Mesa has been actively distributing the U.S. Travel Association’s new guidelines for travel-related businesses in the country. The guidelines are anchored on the VisitorsMeanBusiness.com website and will serve as a vital reference tool for Mesa residents as they plan their own domestic trips in the foreseeable future. The guide on safety measures for hotels, attractions, restaurants and more follow the evidence-based measures set by both the CDC and the White House and can be viewed HERE. Visit Mesa will regularly update the VisitorsMeanBusiness.com site with findings from both surveys when complete, as well as ongoing visitor industry research and impacts.

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CONTACT:
Michelle Streeter, Visit Mesa, Sr. Vice President, Communications & Partner Relations
480-682-3638
[email protected]