If you pay them, they will come: the US city giving tourists cash to visit
Microsoft’s hometown of Redmond, Washington, has turned to a very straightforward technique to jumpstart tourism more than a year after Covid-19 struck and the corporate travel it had come to rely on, dried up –pay people to visit.The small city just east of Seattle is home to Microsoft’s headquarters, along with such companies as Nintendo of America, the aerospace company SpaceX and Facebook.
So, on 4 March 2020, when Microsoft recommended its tens of thousands of employees in the city work remotely and other local companies followed suit, the impact radiated across local businesses, particularly the hotel industry, explained Peter Klauser, Experience Redmond tourism manager.“The hotels went from 65% to 85% occupancy range, down to single digits. So, you know, 6% or 9%,” he said. “There were times when one hotel might have even had just one guest in the entire hotel.”Months later, when the situation remained largely unchanged, Klauser was brainstorming creative solutions to attract visitors back to the city when he joked to colleagues: “Why don’t we just give them the money, you know, pay them, give them some cash.”The idea sparked “You Stay, We Pay”, a program launched late last month, which involves awarding the first 500 visitors who stay two or more nights at a participating hotel $100 worth of the community currency, “Geek Out Gold”.Nor is Redmond alone. After tourism-reliant cities across the US saw their economies pummeled by the pandemic and resulting shutdowns, others too have turned to this type of financial incentive program to usher in a fresh wave of socially distanced visitors.Glenwood Springs, Colorado, for example, a resort community 40 miles north-west of Aspen, is home to about 10,000 people and typically see’s 1.5 million visitors a year. But after its hotels were shuttered to non-essential travel last April and its hot springs closed for months over the summer, the town started offering $100 in Glenwood Gold certificates to visitors who booked hotel rooms.Lisa Langer, director of tourism promotion at Visit Glenwood Springs, said while the program, which was launched last year in June, never brought them back to normal visitation levels, it did serve as an important – though temporary – “Band-Aid”.“That energized us and kept us going through a very tough time,” she told the Guardian. “But now I feel like we are on the right track and we’re going to come back strong. I’m not as worried as I was last year at this time.”Santa Maria Valley, in central California, created a similar program in February, presenting the first 500 visitors who booked at least a two-night stay in one of its hotels, with a $100 Visa gift card. The community known for BBQ and wineries, sold out in two days, and then saw 2,543 additional people sign up on its waitlist, according to Jennifer Harrison, tourism director of Visit Santa
Maria Valley.She attributed the success not just to the financial incentive, but also the timing (“people were ready to travel,” she said) and the community’s clear commitment to social distancing and masks as thousands of masks were provided to local hotels for workers and guests. And now, after the program has officially wrapped up, it’s continuing to have an impact.“We’re still seeing the results of the future reservations for it. We’ve had a huge substantial uptick in engagement on our social platforms. I mean, it’s just been across the board a big win for us,” she said.In Redmond, Klauser said, the program initially faced some challenges with simply getting local merchants to agree to be a part of it. While some immediately took to the idea, others were unsure about visitors paying with certificates or didn’t feel like they had the time to sign up. In the end, they were able to get about 50 merchants on board, including restaurants, fitness facilities, salons, bookstores, pet supply stores and even the local shipping store Pony Express, he said. Officials then used funds from the city’s 1% lodging tax that was meant for event grants but had gone largely unused the previous year for the program’s $50,000-worth of incentives.Klauser said less than two weeks after the program launched, they had booked 750 of the anticipated 1,000room nights and awarded more than $30,000 to visitors.
“The anecdotal story from the hoteliers this week is that their phones are ringing off the hook, and that people are super excited,” explained Klauser. “You know, they’re getting more reservations than they’ve seen in well over a year. And so, it’s been highly positive on all sides.”But, he clarified, the program will not get in the way of any Covid safety restrictions. He explained that the offer will not change anything about hotels continuing to follow local and national safety protocols, such as caps on capacity and social distancing.On 22 March, Microsoft announced it would be reopening its campus in Redmond to employees, which Klauser considers great news for the city. But he doesn’t see the change having a particularly noticeable impact anytime soon.In fact, he’s already looking into launching a second installment of the incentive program after this one wraps up.“This was intended to be a shot in the arm, a short-term tourism stimulation program,” he said. “But the momentum has been so great that we want to try to keep it going for a little longer if we can so that’s why we’re exploring options for a future phase of this.”