Global Tourism Recovery Program: Park City, Utah

Situation & Challenge

Ski communities, particularly with all-inclusive resorts, were severely impacted by global COVID pandemic. The rebound of international inbound travel to destinations like this was further hindered by the natural ebb and flow of being highly seasonal attractions.

Park City, Utah, is renowned for its winter resorts, but it has no shortage of apre-ski experiences in town and summer experiences. But how could they determine what messages to share with travelers about planning their first post-COVID ski vacation?

Fortunately, thanks to long-term paid digital efforts by Herrmann Global,  in-market reps’ presence, and programmatic advertising, Herrmann Global had warmed up audiences in the UK, Mexico, Brazil, and Australia/New Zealand in the past, and we were able to stay in touch with prospective travelers with aspirational messaging through FY 2020-2021. In July of 2021, it was time to start building back to booking CTAs.

Strategy

At this key moment in the Park City global marketing recovery strategy, our Herrmann Global team was able to turn to a newly developed toolkit: Herrmann Global Insights. By tracking online mentions and conversations on public news sites, forums, and social media platforms, we were able to analyze traveler sentiment in the UK, Australia/New Zealand, Brazil, and Mexico throughout the year (and historically).

Implementing Herrmann Global Insights not only guided Herrmann Global’s paid digital marketing strategy on Park City Facebook and Google channels; it also demonstrated the results of our approach and informed all partners’ decisions on a monthly basis.

Each month, our team analyzed the performance of Facebook posts and ads, Google search ads,  and website behavior, and we placed those findings side-by-side with sentiment score, peak mentions by impressions, peak mentions by engagement, trends, and outliers to gain an understanding of how receptive each market was to visiting Park City in the near-term, even for a summer holiday.

The Herrmann Global staff was not the only team using these findings. Each month, the Park City team shared insights and recommendations within its staff and with partners to further leverage the research and analysis of their Herrmann Global Insights services. We believe the power of knowledge is multiplied by the number of departments who can use it and therefore endeavor to share our work widely within a client’s organization. 

Results

As a result of this coordinated, introspective approach, mentions of Park City in the key markets were 383% higher in June of 2022 than in July 0f 2021. 

The coalition of Herrmann Global, Visit Park City, and Park City representatives and agencies all developed a better understanding of sentiment and interests in each of the key markets, further informing future campaigns and priorities.

Finally, the paid digital campaign managed by Herrmann Global was able to deliver outstanding results: