The Measurement of Tourism in the Post-COVID Era


Destination management in a rural coastal area such as Tillamook County includes the protection of natural areas. View of Neahkahnie Mountain, Manzanita and Nehalem Bay.

Brand Story – From destination marketing to destination management, turning the focus on people and place.

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When the impact of COVID-19 hit the Oregon Coast like a never-ending tsunami, it shut down restaurants, lodging, most retail, fishing charters, performance venues – in other words, it stopped tourism. Even six-plus months into the pandemic, most businesses are at half-capacity in order to meet state safety guidelines. Reaction by businesses owners was quick but not without fear: how do you keep community, employees and customers safe, yet survive as a business?

The Great Recession of 12 years ago provided valuable lessons.

“In 2008, we did not respond quickly enough, not realizing the downturn would extend into a deep recession,” said Jim Prinzing, CEO of Pelican Brewing and Kiwanda Hospitality, located in Pacific City. “When COVID-19 happened, we took immediate steps to protect the community, employees and families, and resources for the financial support of our businesses.”

Jim Prinzing CEOJim Prinzing, CEO of Pelican Brewing and Kiwanda Hospitality, says the tourism industry must adapt, making safety a top priority and redefining the visitor experience.

Just as hospitality businesses had to react quickly, so did tourism organizations. Advertising came to a halt, replaced by safety and closure information, and “stay home, hope to see you soon” messaging. But change was already in the salty air on Oregon’s north coast, which seemed overwhelmed more each year by increasing numbers of summer visitors. Community members, although used to living in a popular vacation spot, began resisting what they saw as a threat to local livability.

This also happened in Europe 20 years ago, as popular tourist locations such as Venice, began to suffer under the weight of overtourism. That’s when the United Nations World Tourism Organization, and travel industry experts from Great Britain and the Netherlands began formulating an approach they called sustainable tourism.

People, place, profit

Sustainable tourism is defined as a three-legged stool: people, place and profit. In other words, does it serve and include the community; does it respect the environment and culture; and, does it create long-lasting economic vitality. To have sustainable tourism, the answer to all three must be ‘yes’ in any plan, program or project under consideration.

Tillamook Coast Visitors Association (TCVA), organized in 2014 as Visit Tillamook Coast, was set up as a destination marketing and management organization, a bridge between the traditional heads-in-beds approach to tourism promotion and that of a more leveraged, sustainable model. However, the benchmarks for success were focused on growth: more visitor spending, more lodging tax revenue, more brand awareness. To meet those benchmarks required more attention to promotion.

In 2017, in a collaboration with Travel Oregon and Clatsop County to develop programs supporting destination and visitor management, TCVA transitioned more to sustainable tourism, much less on promotion. Also in 2017, cultural organizations formed the Tillamook Coast History Alliance to share resources and event planning; and a collaborative effort of farmers, fishers and food producers signed up for the North Coast Food Trail. Collaboration is a hallmark of sustainable tourism.

In 2019, having completed a majority of the initiatives in the original Tourism 2025 strategic plan, TCVA’s team and board of directors developed a new strategic plan based on different benchmarks, dubbed the “3 R’s:” Return on Relationships (people), Return on Responsibility (place), Return on Investment (profit).

“These new benchmarks take the focus off the need for more, more, more, and instead measures success on benefits to community and environment,” said Nan Devlin, Executive Director of TCVA. “We also rewrote our job descriptions, reevaluated all programs, and revised the budget to reflect the values of destination management.”

49014464881 158ec97a8f o2North Coast Food Trail members meet at producer events, where they conduct business, learn of seasonal products and meet new contacts.

New models for hospitality

Prinzing, the board chair of TCVA, sees this new priority on destination management as a way forward for businesses, too. “People will always want to travel, that’s a given. But the world has changed, and we must adapt, as do visitors. While safety for the community, staff and guests has always been part of our business culture, the  pandemic has brought it to the forefront, and will continue to form how we adapt our businesses for the future.”

“Hospitality is about creating a welcoming experience for guests,” said Prinzing. “But how do you convey a smile under a mask? We all need to engage our guests on a more purposeful and personal level of communication, which is a key component of destination management.”  

Profit, of course, is key to sustaining a business. But how can destination management in the age of COVID-19 help ensure survival of tourism businesses, especially when tourism industry estimates don’t expect a return to the revenues of 2019 until at least 2023.

“We are all learning as we go during this pandemic,” said Devlin. “However, sustainable tourism is about taking the long view, collaborating with partners in tourism as well as other industries, and involving the community in decisions about the values important to them – and then sharing that message with visitors. Our new strategic plan prepared us to stay on track while getting consistent COVID safety messaging across all social and media channels.”

TCVA is now embarking on a project that will help measure destination management progress even more diligently: by meeting the performance indicators of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s criteria for destinations, the gold standard of sustainable development goals.
“Now that would be something to be proud of,” said Devlin. “If we come out of this pandemic with that designation, we’ll be on a strong and exciting path.”

Go to tillamookcoast.com/industry for more information on TCVA’s Destination Management plan.

 


Brand stories are paid content articles that allow Oregon Business advertisers to share news about their organizations and engage with readers on business and public policy issues.  The stories are produced in house by the Oregon Business marketing department. For more information, contact associate publisher Courtney Kutzman.