Tourism continues to be a significant source of revenue for Madison and Morgan County, and Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Director Jennifer Rosa summarized recent activity during a Madison City Council work session held on Oct. 4.
According to Rosa, visitor spending in Morgan County was up 1.3 percent for FY2023-24 for a total of $61.3 million, with 3.9 percent of jobs directly supported by visitor spending.
According to a study commissioned by Explore Georgia and conducted by Tourism Economics, LLC, those visitors generated $5.6 million in state and local taxes, the equivalent of $733 in tax savings for each Morgan County household.
“Tourism and tourism dollars bring much value to our community,” Rosa said.
Advertising efforts for FY2024 include paid advertising, earned media, social media marketing, and owned assets.
“[We are] diversifying our expenditures over those areas to meet people and inspire them to come to our community,” Rosa said.
The city has been using digital content to target “contextual keyword travelers and destination competitors within the target drive market” to increase traffic to visitmadisonga.com by 21 percent over the previous year, equivalent to 15,800 website visits. According to Rosa, the city has surpassed its goal with an increase of 27 percent (22,263) in visits online.
However, Rosa said renovations to one of the largest hotels in Madison, which caused operations to cease for four months, are likely to dip tourism numbers in the upcoming fiscal year.
Rosa said 145,496 total visits to Madison’s website have been reported this year, up 26.98 percent from 114,580 last year and 116 percent from pre-pandemic numbers.
Organic search efforts are up 40 percent.
Media outlets have also expressed interest in Madison attractions, especially new ventures such as the Georgia Conservation and Safari Park, which opened softly in June.
Publications such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Garden and Gun, Southern Living, Lakelife, and Atlanta Magazine have assigned writers to stories originating with Madison and Morgan County. According to Rosa, the stories bring further attention to Madison, which drives additional tourism and online exploration.
Although the CVB’s budget had been reduced by 33 percent, its public relations team generated 197,185,230 impressions with an advertising value of $284,890, exceeding the CVB’s goals by 285 percent.
Rosa said the CVB is active on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
“Our goal is to engage audiences across platforms to grow followers and increase organic and paid marketing impressions,” Rosa said.
“Our Facebook goals were to increase our followers, and we doubled our goal of an increase of 3 percent with an increase of 6 percent (currently 13,445 followers). CVB also met its goal of increasing its Instagram followers by 10 percent (currently 5,543 followers).
Rosa said the CVB has surpassed its Facebook reach goals but has struggled to make the same headway on Instagram thus far, prompting changes to the advertising budget.
Rosa said the Madison Welcome Center had 9,433 visitors during the previous fiscal year and continues to boast a 5-bubble rating on Trip Advisor.
However, Rosa noted that Welcome Center visit numbers are trending down due to how travelers plan trips, often relying on online information. Councilman Eric Joyce suggested reducing Welcome Center hours to focus some of the budget in other areas.
The e-newsletter started two years ago and now has 2,759 subscribers, indicating a growth rate of 60 percent, which is well above the goal of 25 percent.
Rosa said Madison’s printed “Destination Guide,” which is supported by advertising, has a total distribution of 35,000 with total ad sales of $16,400, exceeding the goal of $15,000.
Rosa said she hopes the CVB budget will include more money for research in the future to enhance strategic planning.