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ACTIONABLE ADVOCACY INSIGHTS:

The Perceived Effectiveness of Advocacy Strategies

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STUDY OVERVIEW

The findings and recommended actions of this research are based on a nationwide study of tourism advocacy planning efforts.
In-depth interviews with 26 state-level destination and advocacy association leaders and an online survey with 205 local-level destination leaders were conducted.

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EVALUATING YOUR ADVOCACY STRATEGIES

Advocacy ensures that destination community stakeholders understand, prioritize, and support the value of tourism.

What strategies are you currently using to communicate the value of tourism?

How effective are these strategies in communicating the value of tourism?

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COMMON ADVOCACY STRATEGIES AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

The top 10 strategies that most local-level DMOs did to advocate for tourism in their community during the most recently completed financial year were:

88.0%

81.2%

54.2%

Communicated with tourism industry partners

100.0%

Attended community networking events as a tourism representative

98.8%

Communicated with policy decision-makers

98.2%

Communicated with leaders from other industries that impact tourism or are impacted by tourism

97.0%

Staff involved in/served on boards and commissions

97.0%

88.0%

81.2%

Reported to decision-making bodies (e.g., City Council, County Commissioners, state level elected officials)

95.8%

Used local media outlets to share content on the value of tourism

95.2%

Shared content on the value of tourism through your social channels

92.8%

Reported economic impact of tourism numbers for your community

92.8%

Provided guest speaker(s) from your organization to talk at community events about the value of tourism

92.7%

SPEAKER NOTES:

An online survey with local-level destination leaders revealed common strategies that destinations used to communicate the value of tourism.

All local-level destination leaders indicated that their organization had communicated with tourism industry partners.

More than nine-in-ten local DMOs adopted the other top advocacy strategies during the most recently completed financial year.

The least commonly used advocacy strategies reveal two potential opportunities for local-level DMOs. The first is crafting legislation related to tourism – only 42.3% of local-level DMO leaders indicated that their organization did this to advocate for tourism in their community during the most recently completed financial year. The second is hosting an annual tourism day/week event – only 54.2% of local-level DMO leaders indicated that their organization had done this. However, some local-level destination leaders considered this to be one of the most effective advocacy strategies for their organization. If you are not already hosting an annual tourism day/week event, we encourage you to consider doing so.

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HOW STATE-LEVEL TOURISM LEADERS IMPLEMENT EFFECTIVE ADVOCACY STRATEGIES

Two-way communication with tourism industry partners - advocates can identify key issues

“When we're in session … every Friday, we send all of our partners throughout [the state] our lobbyist's report for the week… Then people respond to us and say, ‘Well, let me tell you what has happened this week,’ or ‘Let me tell you what happened at our city council meeting.’ ” – State Tourism Advocacy Association

Communicating with policy decision-makers - integrate diverse coalition members speaking with a unified voice

“The communication will come from different people, different organizations, a different sector, reinforcing the same thing.” – State Tourism Advocacy Association

Reporting to decision-making bodies - aligns with communicating the value of tourism to residents

“One of the outcomes is to educate … residents on the value of tourism and the savings it brings households by way of tax savings and various other things. That's one. The second is looking at our local leaders as an audience to really educate them as far as the value and the return on investment that the investment destination marketing brings to any region if you do it the right way.” – State Tourism Office

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PERCEIVED EFFECTIVENESS OF ADVOCACY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

In general, local-level DMOs perceived their organization’s advocacy efforts to be effective in:

*Mean scores on a 7-point scale

(where 1= not at all effective and 7= extremely effective)

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IT’S TIME TO TAKE ACTION

Short-Term

Assess the effectiveness of current advocacy efforts –

decide what to keep and where to improve.

Mid-Term

Connect with peer organizations and those in related industries to identify potential new advocacy efforts.

Long-Term

Implement one new advocacy effort and assess its effectiveness.

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CONVERSATION STARTERS

What advocacy strategies have we found to be the most effective?

What is one new advocacy strategy we could implement in the next year?

Who should lead the planning for implementing that advocacy strategy?

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ABOUT THE NATIONAL ADVOCACY STUDY

Purpose: To identify best practices in advocacy planning among tourism industry organizations.

Goal: To advance knowledge of tourism advocacy planning.

Overview: This study provides insights into the competencies, practices, and resources of tourism organization leaders who engage in advocacy.

Methods:

Interview and survey data were collected from 2019 - 2021 to inform this Actionable Advocacy Insights series.

26 in-depth phone interviews with state-level destination and advocacy association leaders.

205 online survey responses from local-level destination leaders.

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CONTACT US

Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism

Whitney Knollenberg, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management

North Carolina State University

wgknolle@ncsu.edu

Ashley Schroeder, Ph.D.

Data and Analytics Manager

Destination Analysts

ashley@destinationanalysts.com

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In addition to the study participants, we would like to give special thanks to the following individuals and organizations for their support of this research: Hailey Post, Ann Savage, Shannon Stover, Dr. Mandi Stewart, Southeast Tourism Society, Travel and Tourism Research Association, and American Society of Association Executives.