Chamber of Commerce and SouthArk host tourism conference.
EL DORADO — The El Dorado-Union County Chamber of Commerce worked together with South Arkansas Community College to develop a oneday workshop for comprehensive community marketing and promotional program. The workshop was held Thursday, beginning at 10 a.m. lasting until 4 p.m.
“South Arkansas Tourism Strategies for the Rural Market,” was a planning, marketing, networking and resource workshop.
Stewart Colovin, of EVP MMGY, was the lunch keynote speaker and spoke about “unifying our efforts for tourism.”
Austin Barrow, president of Festivals and Events, introduced Colovin as the speaker.
Colovin leads the creative branding team for MMGY Global. They are a branding company who market travel, tourism, hospitality and entertainment. Colovin is helping to brand the El Dorado Festivals and Events organization.
“I was really excited when we engaged Stewart to work on a brand for our district,” Barrow said. “They are doing some absolutely amazing things, so when this conference came up, I couldn’t think of a better person to invite to be our keynote.”
Colovin has worked on branding for the city of Cleveland, Niagara Falls and Bermuda Island, to name a few.
He spoke about what opportunities will be available for El Dorado once the arts district opens, how El Dorado can be unique and his experiences with destination branding.
Colovin opened his discussion by explaing that when branding or rebranding a company, you want to sell the experience. “A lot of times, what we do is we sell the stuff,” Colovin said. “71 percent of travelers want memories over things.”
It is important to embrace the things that make a town different. When he was branding Bermuda, he took advantage of the Bermuda Triangle urban legend. They even incorporated a triangle in the logo. Now, the island is 19 percent up on air arrivals, on-island spending is up 18 percent and under the age of 45, their travelers are up 76 percent.
“It’s coming up with something that’s true to you, it’s not just being fake,” he said. “Don’t worry about what others are doing and don’t compare. Just be the best you can be.”
Since Colovin and his company rebranded the city of Cleveland a few years ago, millennials interested in visiting Cleveland went from 34 percent to 77 percent. Clevelanders likely to recommend Cleveland as a vacation visitor destination is up to 77 percent.
Colovin discussed how El Dorado can be successful and how everyone needs to get involved. He gave some suggestions on things people need in a tourist town including shuttle buses and rental bikes for transportation. He also said to take advantage of local opportunities including fishing, canoeing and hiking. Additionally, he said food trucks are popular and even ghost tours.
“People want to do things locals do and buy things that are local,” he said. “This is the time for everybody to get involved and be part of this brand. There’s a lot of opportunity because once this is built, it’s not the end of the story, it’s just the start of the story.”
The opening keynote speaker of the event was Kane Webb, executive director of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, who spoke about Arkansas tourism, economic impact and business affected at 10 a.m. At 11 a.m., John Vernedor, with Impat 360 Media, spoke about online marketing tools.
At 1 p.m., a panel composed of Elizabeth Michael of CJRW, Brittany Caldwell of Aristotle and Brant Collins of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, discussed topics on how to generate positive online reviews and affordable or free ways to publicize your business with social media. The closing speaker was Kalene Griffith, vice president of Visit Bentonville, who spoke about “working together to make a tourism destination.”