Tourism Marketing Services

The vendor is required to provide marketing and public relations (PR) agency to develop and execute a comprehensive, results-oriented tourism marketing program.
- The selected contractor shall create and annually update a comprehensive marketing plan that outlines strategic goals, target audiences, performance measures, budget allocations, and implementation tactics across advertising, public relations, event marketing, and digital engagement.
- This marketing plan will serve as the guiding framework for evaluating all approved and proposed tourism marketing projects, as determined by the county’s project manager.
- include a production and review schedule, budget impact projections (including direct costs, overhead, and contractor fees), consistent messaging such as slogans, a mix of media channels (including print, web, events, digital, and story placement), and a method for evaluating return on investment (ROI).
- To ensure continuity of tourism marketing activities during the development of the full marketing plan in year 1, the awarded contractor shall develop an interim marketing plan and conduct an initial market assessment.as described below.
- Develop an interim marketing plan within 8 weeks of contract execution.
- This plan must identify any ongoing or pending tourism marketing projects and provide detailed information on the scope, timeline, staffing, budget, and performance measures for each.
- Conduct an initial market assessment within 12 weeks of contract execution that evaluates current tourism marketing activities and provides recommendations for improvement.
- Results of the assessment shall be utilized in drafting of the year 1 annual marketing plan.
- Design and implement a tourism marketing data plan using advanced tracking tools such as geofencing, mobile location analytics, visitor spending in business community, and integrated customer relation management (“CRM”) solutions.
- The plan must capture visitor demographics, origin, behavior, and campaign influence metrics to enhance ROI tracking and inform future marketing investments.
- To demonstrate return on investment (ROI) and maintain alignment with current industry standards and performance benchmarks among destination marketing organizations, the contractor shall benchmark and report performance against the following targets
• Increase website sessions by 10–15% annually, with a focus on organic traffic growth and conversions through key landing pages.
• Grow social media audience by 10–20% annually across active platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.), with higher emphasis on engagement rates and quality interactions rather than vanity metrics.
• Secure a minimum of four earned media placements annually in targeted regional and national publications, with at least two in high-impact, top-tier outlets (e.g., travel, science, or outdoor lifestyle verticals).
• Demonstrate a year-over-year increase in tourism visitation and provide insight on the visitor journey and its demographics using a third-party data application.
• Increase qualified leads and newsletter subscribers by 15% annually, using CRM data to track user engagement, retention, and audience segmentation growth.
• Achieve and maintain a digital campaign engagement rate (ctr) of 0.5–1.5%, consistent with average benchmarks for travel and tourism content marketing.
• The digital marketing strategy, the strategy shall include but is not limited to the following:
o Paid social media and streaming advertising (meta, Tiktok, LinkedIn, YouTube)
o Search engine marketing (google ads, Bing)
o Programmatic advertising and retargeting campaigns
o Email marketing and newsletter campaigns using a customer relation management (CRM) platform
o Influencer collaborations and user-generated content promotion
o Short-form video content and virtual experiences.
- The latest tourism marketing trends, including:
• Targeted digital ad placement across mobile, social, and streaming platforms 
• Real-time engagement through social media campaigns and influencer partnerships 
• SEO and SEM strategies to drive traffic and visibility 
• CRM-based email marketing and personalization tactics 
• ROI tracking using tools such as google analytics 4, meta insights, dashboards, and geolocation intelligence 
• Grant writing and administration experience is preferred, particularly with department programs.
- Contract Period/Term: 3 years
- Non-Mandatory Pre-Proposal Conference Date: July 8, 2025
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: July 14, 2025