 Good evening. My name is Austin Davis. I'm the government affairs manager with the Lake Champlain Chamber and welcome to live at 525 our bi-monthly segment and I'm joined here today by my colleague from the chamber What's your official title? My official title is Vice President of Tourism at the Lake Champlain Chamber Jeff Lawson ladies and gentlemen So for those not familiar with Lake Champlain Chambers our regional chamber of commerce that's focused on Supporting our workforce and prosperity for for everyone in our region and as part of that effort We have stood up a destination marketing organization Which is actually not that unique. It's it's new for our region. It's new for our state however, it's not that unique out there in the marketplace and For places with such an awesome travel and leisure scene So I guess tell me a little bit more about what Hello, Burlington is and what its value proposition is. Yeah Well, you got it exactly right. Hello, Burlington's what we would call a destination marketing organization in our case an initiative because we're part of the division of the division of the Chamber of Commerce and essentially what we do is we're an economic development initiative that uses marketing and promotion to promote greater Burlington is a great place for leisure travel for Business meetings and conferences and for city-wide events. That's basically the gist of it in a nutshell Yeah, and so, you know, it's called Hello, Burlington, but we're talking larger than Burlington Help help me understand folks who are watching understand that a little bit. Thanks for asking the question Yeah, it's critically important to note that it's a it's a regional destination marketing initiative So when we say Burlington we actually mean greater Burlington and that's one of the things You'll see at different places across the country where larger cities large metropolitan areas can kind of stand alone smaller areas that are kind of more of a Lean a little bit more toward rural tend to do it on a county-wide basis Ours is a little different because we don't have strictly defined boundaries But we sort of who's you can call us Chittenden County and up into Grand Isle County Certainly and then nudging a little bit into Franklin and Addison depending on the depending on the scenario I mean, it's funny because we we think in Vermont and just really our small towns as such strong identities If you're traveling here, it's probably pretty hard to know when you cross over into a new ski Yeah, or that shell burns not really part of Burlington because in many cities you can travel for 45 minutes And still not cross the whole city, but it can be up in St. Albans in 30 if you drive like I do That's absolutely true We figured out really really quickly that this is very different perception that our our target audience has As opposed to what our what we consider our stakeholders has have and that by stakeholder I mean residents in the community and businesses in the community We are all very very well aware of the lines in the sand Whereas someone coming here for a visit they have no idea They might go for a jog in Red Rocks Park and have zero idea that they're actually in South Burlington Yeah, even if they knew they probably wouldn't care and they'd probably go home And they'd say we had a great trip to Burlington and they'd mentioned the Shelburne Museum and the causeway up in Colchester, they might get out to Bolton Valley. They might get up to St. Albans as you said But really what most folks do in this situation is they take the biggest name on the map And they market and brand around that simply out of strength of name recognition and to simplify the message for the for the audience Perfect. So break down for a little bit what you're doing to promote this. It's interesting You know, this is something that's affecting a lot of folks in the region. It's helping a lot of folks in the region They might not know about it and that's kind of the idea Yeah, that's one of the weird curses of these types of initiatives a lot of the work We do is actually not seen here in the market Essentially, what happens is all of our all of our work is sort of outward facing with With an eye toward helping the market internally. So really what we do you can look at it in a few different ways There's the straight marketing piece and in in that. I mean we do a lot of digital ad campaigns paper-click display advertising video advertising in New York, Boston and Montreal and are slowly getting a little bit further out outward particularly in in BTV's direct flight markets and then we actually do a great deal of PR work With some agency partners where we're just looking to garner press coverage about different things in the area and that press coverage typically focuses on Leisure travel, but in some cases does actually get into our business community We've actually ended up getting some great coverage for things like beta technology Accidentally because a travel writer heard of us and asked us a couple questions and they went in a different direction But it's all coverage for Burlington and we think that's a really really good thing And then there's the meetings and sales piece We have a full-time staff person that's dedicated to Connecting with meeting planners, which is a really specialized audience Share some things with leisure travel, but not that not that much their needs are very very specific in particular And she spends 40 plus hours a week connecting with meeting planners convincing them to bring their next Business conference or meeting to greater Burlington. That's got to be huge for economic impact because yeah, you're bringing people here Yeah, they're not deciding necessarily the boss is deciding whoever's setting up the conference. Yeah, I think they're coming here with their per diems It's they might come back to be tourists or starting a location, right? There's a lot of great research that indicates People that attend a conference or an event in one city and enjoy their time there will come back again And then some cases come back with friends or come back with family The other part of that that's really interesting to step back and look at is when you're able to place Business conference at let's say, you know the double tree in South Burlington What that does for the rest of the market is creates what we call overflow and compression There's 200 rooms taken up at the double tree meaning that people that might stay there are actually apt to go to a different hotel property It's just pushing that overflow into different directions So actually all of our hotel partners benefit from us parking one large event in that hope in Competitors hotel and then compression is what happens when that overall demand goes up and average nightly rates go up So people are basically charging more for the exact same service So my you know you booking a business meeting in Burlington doesn't necessarily help my mom's small six bedroom better breakfast Not directly, but yeah, if they can't get a hotel room at the Hilton or some other place Then they're gonna go looking and they might look there Yeah, yeah, so it drives just it rises all the tide rises all boats. It Absolutely does and that's really why You'll see in destination marketing organizations across the continent and across the world really basically Competitors come together to collaborate because they realize if we just bring more people in and then fight over them Once they've decided to get here whether they're here for leisure travel or for meetings That just it's a tide that rises every lifts up everybody's boat and they all benefit Which is why I make sense as a chamber initiative because that's what we're really out without getting all of these Otherwise competitors and maybe just sectors with different goals at the same table to figure out What is good for the best of the community to drive prosperity for all at the end of the day? Yeah, yeah, and really too we should also just touch upon the fact that you know We can talk about the hotel dynamics all day long as there's a lot that goes into that But it's super important to remember that while you know That's sort of the first concentric ring of hospitality in our in our approach Everybody benefits in the entire hospitality industry everybody who's coming here whether they're on vacation Or coming to see one of their kids who's at college or here for a business meeting They go out and they do stuff They go out to eat they might want to go You know rent a mountain bike or a bike and go out on the bike path or jump on the spirit of Ethan Allen or go to the museum or go shopping on church street any number of things and Really the simplest way to distill it down is that what we're doing is just bringing more business to local businesses And and then Let's also just note that you know that turns into tax revenue Absolutely that tax revenue helps with schools and lay cleanup and all sorts of other things. So yeah It just is really a fantastic multiplier effect that starts with Just some of this work you're doing in terms of content outreach, etc. Yeah, yeah And and really I don't want to get too too High concept with you But the most evolved destination marketing organizations eventually ladder up and out of travel and tourism And start to do that promotional work in terms of economic development talent attraction or workforce development or even economic investment Where they're essentially Convincing companies to set up shop in their neck of the woods, which is a whole another level of economic development Yeah, I think folks think about this kind of thing as as tourism. Yeah, typically it's not tourism. You're talking about visitors full stop Can I talk about tourism for a second? Yeah, let's talk tourism tourism is a weird word It's a really really strange word It makes sense in like a in the context of like an economic discussion where you're talking about say tourism or say Agriculture or say manufacturing at the same time on a more personal level. It's it's Nobody identifies themselves as a tourist. Yeah, nobody does. I know It's almost like it's almost a pejorative term makes you think that I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a Big camera around my neck and a map and I'm lost with a bad sunburn. You're blocking traffic Yep, yep all of that and and really with that in mind We tend to use the term visitor because it's just more accurate and it's it's less Got less baggage This is also more encompassing. Yeah, because you're not just talking about the the typical sunburned Hawaiian shirt wearing Absolutely me. Yeah on holiday. You're talking about Also, you know people are coming for a work conference or experience Someone who might be coming and just saying I'm looking for a place to set up shop You know, I've got a small business or I've got a business idea And you're looking for just anybody who comes through the door kind of Putting Vermont's best foot forward. Absolutely and saying yeah, come on in and these days And we'll talk about trends a little later. I think but these days what they call Bleasher travel is a real thing Where somebody's got a business conference in some town or a meeting in some town and they go and they say I'm gonna extend my stay for a couple days At what point they stopped being a business traveler and become a tourist I couldn't possibly tell you and it's sort of a great example of the fact that there's just a big A lot of gray area and the hope is at what point did they stop being you know, this Pleasure travel or if that was the term and a potential resident. Yeah, you know if they that goes well Then we maybe they move here We like to say that that travel and tourism is essentially the first date of economic development If you're really trying to attract people here to live and to work It has to start with a visit I mean, it's really unrealistic to think they're just gonna pick up steaks and put down routes In a place. They've never been before In some cases. I'm sure that does happen But I think it's highly unlikely And in most cases people need to see a place and experience a place before they start to think Oh, yeah, I could I could actually live here. So the traditional thought of you know, buckets of travel Like for business travel for leisure travel for relocation And and searching for you know, a new place to establish a satellite office or anything that's kind of Gone away and now we're at this kind of just You're a visitor. We're putting our best foot forward. We're making the connections we want out there. Yeah, and Come on come on down pretty much. I mean we've it's easy for us to talk about things in terms of silos It's just not really reflected in the real world that cleanly anymore And with that in mind, you know, when we set out to build the hello Burlington brand a few years ago We really did set out to build it as sort of a 360 degree brand That could speak to anyone For any purpose whatever they were thinking about when they thought about greater Burlington brahmat that brand could speak to them Which in fact is kind of why we called it hello instead of visit for example or explore Those things are are very outward facing I'm not going to speak to um, you know, I'm not going to speak to someone who might be considering Moving here to live with the term visit But hello is sort of a universal It's a universal greeting. So we sort of leaned it leaned into that thinking it just was a had a broader reach That's fantastic. So let's talk a little bit about some of your your content It's a big part of what you're doing here is you're creating content for specific audiences You're targeting it in the regions and sectors that needs to be Um, what's that like? What's that entail? That entails a lot of partnerships Honestly, you know, we have a lot of partnerships both with folks inside the hospitality and on the fringes of the hospitality community um, whether those are hotels or restaurants or breweries or Attractions or even experiences, you know, for example Adventure dinner has been a great partner for us. I'm not sure where they fall in the hospitality silos And we should probably de-silo that a little bit um, but we have those partnerships that we cultivate and Then we have partnerships in the creative community here where it's video production companies Design houses marketing firms media buying agencies to help us Package up what we can shoot on those on those um with those partnerships within the hospitality community And then sort of disseminate that stuff into the rest of the world So you want to highlight things that are going to get a target audience place that so I understand You've done some partnerships with with different Hospitality businesses around their region. We have we have and we've for example bulletin valley We've got a great partnership going with and there's so much to talk about there And it's a great example of us being regional because they're right on the edge of chitin and county But it's also a great example of like how close Burlington is to the mountains. Yeah, it's a great thing for us to talk about. It's four seasons They've got not just skiing, but they've got alpine skiing. They've got night skiing They've got cross-country skiing. They've got great backcountry touring Also, they've got rental opportunities and and guide opportunities and lesson opportunities for people who might be curious about skiing Or touring or some something like that Summertime, they've got the mountain bike stuff going Then they've also got a great they've renovated a bunch of their hotel space up there too So it's a great place to stay overnight. Yeah, I mean it is it is incredible to think that we think and bolt that That's so removed from Burlington. Yeah, but at the end of the day it is just You could be mistaken to say I went to Burlington when you're there if you're not from around here And it is easy too, you know, I mean I plenty of days will try to get a tour up Bolton before work, you know, and It's great to think about it that way Well for our target target audience if you're talking about a traveler visitor who might be coming from say Washington, DC Their daily commute one way is longer than it would take you to get from downtown Burlington to Bolton Valley Yeah, you know so for them. Yeah for them. They're like, no, this is fantastic. Yeah another interesting way to underscore that is In talking with my counterparts in different parts of the country a bump into glacier country, Montana Which is a destination marketing organization that markets in a region about the size of Maine In a singular effort, you know, and that when I heard that I realized, okay, we can talk about going Yeah, and and without feeling too too guilty about it. So you did a partnership with them or some video I think we have that video if you want to roll it. Let's let's see that Maybe we don't You know, Bolton Valley. I was I was having a Sit down with a larger employer who's actually talking about moving here at one point And he was like, you know, tell me what's it like recreating here? And I was like, well, you can do it all and he's like, how can you give me an example? And I was like, well, I went mountain biking this morning. Yeah, and this afternoon I'll be scuba diving the Lake Champlain. He's like, there's scuba diving Lake Champlain There's a dive shop that's been here forever And there's some of the best trails in the country just out our door. You know, it's fantastic It's almost an embarrassment of riches to be honest with you. There are times I know, I feel bad saying that but I'm not Not some like, you know extreme person. I genuinely feel like there are a lot of Small city outdoor destinations that have remarkable proximity to particular outdoor activities There aren't many that are as close to a body of water like Lake Champlain And mountains like the green like we have we have this real amazing proximity and and variety that very few other places can boast Yeah, I mean on that note, I have plenty of people who, you know, remanters leave and a lot of them come back Plenty of my Vermont friends have left and you know, they've gone to places where there's the best rock climbing They've gone to places where there's the best mountain biking or the best skiing But what ultimately comes back to you for them is like, you know, you can kind of do it all And you can do it all within a 35 40 Yeah, yeah hour and a half at most drive And it's just incredible that we have the density of different activities might not be the best at it But it's damn good and it's right here. Sometimes I feel like I have a wicked easy job that way You know, it's really it's an amazing destination We have so so much to offer for both residents and visitors are like if you're interested in the outdoors And we all know that and I think we take it for granted because We know it and it needs to be communicated. So that's that's why you're doing it. Yeah So, you know, you've got the the spirit of Ethan Allen. You've got the Bull and you've got like other content you create Ultimately that that's disseminated through different channels, but you just culminates also in a website That you just launched a new version of this and we did Tell me a little bit more about, you know, the functionality and why it's so important. Yeah, so the website We just launched on the 18th of october and it's been a really interesting project It took us a good a good long time probably eight months or so to get that whole thing Sort of up and ready the website's a big Leap for us both in terms of our ability to connect with the outside world and you know reach the target audiences We want but equally important It's a big leap up in capability in terms of how local businesses can plug into that for free Control their own presence on that website, you know change the description of their restaurant, for example Change the photography in the wintertime So it's a nice cozy fireplace in the dining room or outdoor dining in the summertime if they want They can run their own promotions on the website if they say so choose they can add in Calendars to our regional event. Sorry events into our regional calendar if they want Basically, it's kind of the platform that we've been hoping for Since 2020 when we were going to build this but the pandemic sort of put us sideways a little bit And it's also scalable. So we'll be able to not only grow this Exponentially but also add new capabilities as time goes on. Yeah, so I think you know folks think when they hear me Say a website they think I've I put together a word press. Right. Yeah, I've done a website before it's not that big a deal Why are you why are you kind of highlighting this? Yeah, you know if a website typically is a car you you build a transformer. Yeah, this thing is it's really it's it's built a jet Yeah, it's it's really really Capable and it's really really flexible and it's pretty vast. There's a little over 200 pages on the site If you can show show us a little bit of it. Yeah, here we go. Are we on okay? So this is a welcome page, right? Yeah, so this is the home page and you can see, you know, we've got all the stuff that somebody might be looking to do Right up in this top level navigation in terms of things to do events going on whether it's annual or focused on particular subject matter Like concerts art arts and culture Restaurants we've got all sorts of different cuisine types craft Craft beverage information then lodging as well as plan your plan your visit Capabilities, so you know to kind of bring it full circle like if I was interested in Bolton Valley I can come right here and I can go straight to the Bolton Valley listing And I can you can they see what they've curated absolutely website for the presence that they want to have for me Yeah, and so Bolton Valley you'll be able to find in the things to do in the outdoor section You'd be able to find it in the skiing section in the winter activity section You'd be able to find it in the lodging section because you can stay up there Yeah, you can find all of these multifaceted businesses in all of their appropriate categories, which is great And then you'll see the little top level of secondary navigation up here Which is exclusively focused on groups meetings events and city-wide events So yeah, and then just really quick scrolling down and I'm sorry I stare at this thing like I've stared at this thing for what feels like nine straight months But everything's pretty well sorted and categorized and we've got a nice little interactive map down here Of greater Burlington and each little town, you know has its own little informational pop-out window So if you're interested in Shelburne you can actually punch into this And it'll give you a list of stuff going on in Shelburne as well as things to do events that sort of stuff Everybody's represented across the region And if you want to take a closer look into greater Burlington Give you a little more information down here on Burlington's neighborhoods Which are all interestingly kind of really taking on identities of their own in the last 10 or 15 years So and we're trying to articulate those stories as well each town's got its own story each neighborhood's got its own story Whole idea being essentially we want people to really get out and explore and spend a little more time Checking out this region in this area because it's got a lot to offer rather than kind of coming in and coming out in a day or two And then the events calendar is actually one of the most popular ones that we've had One of the most popular pages that we have on the entire thing. So that's fantastic Yeah, but I definitely I definitely encourage people to jump on the website Take a look it's got information that a residence can use just as well as locals say exactly that You know, it is really geared towards Telling the story for outside folks, but that calendar some of these little opportunities, you know fantastic You know, there's nothing like vacationing in your own backyard and yeah when you can do it in a weekend It's even better Yeah, and we're we're building some momentum to where we're starting to get event promoters for example reaching out to us Early, you know to say this is going on and that's going on so that we're out in front by a few months and You know, for example, I was at a local event Last last spring and talking to a couple people about the soccer team. They didn't know what I meant They didn't realize there was a usl league two team playing here in the form of vermont green. Yeah Yeah, it was really interesting and they're all local folks, but it was just this opportunity to be a resource for residents As well as visitors. Yeah, and what a story to tell there too And and and and that is actually maybe the the key one of the key takeaways from this kind of conversation is that you know Tourist is a pejorative term. We should use visitor and the truth is what is interesting And positive for visitors is usually pretty interesting and positive for residents and vice versa So we're all people and we actually share a lot of perspective and enjoy sharing experience and Burlington is not a place where anybody's looking for an all-inclusive resort Nobody comes here and complains. There's not a mcdonalds downtown. Nobody wants to change this place into the place They came from so much And it's interesting when you have those moments where you really can see that that's actually the that's actually the truth And we're all just people so if i'm a local business and i'm interested in Getting featured on the website. What do I do? You should reach out. Hello at hello, burlington vt.com and you can find all that information on the website pretty readily And then you'll be on boarded to get into that portal Decide how you want to present yourself exactly. Yeah, we'll connect you with a staff member And then we'll actually give you secure login credentials and we'll build out your listing and then you can go in and make changes Over time as you see fit And yeah, and and then actually what we're also able to do, you know We didn't actually talk about the social media piece of our work But along with that the pr piece we do a ton of social media work and and are working hard to Amplify that and get a little bit better and busier with it But we're constantly bringing in travel writers and bringing in social media influencers if they're really on brand For us. That's a particular one with that space But we're able to in one fell swoop Let everybody know that austin davis is coming to town. He likes to mountain bike and he likes do you like beer? He likes beer There's a brewery out there that would like to host him He'd be happy to mention you and in his next You know in his two posts while he's in town to his audience of 300 000 people Yeah, and you've gotten some fantastic folks. I mean, yeah, it's funny. My mother-in-law Sent me her favorite travel writer from I think it was I think it was the times or maybe it was a lonely planet But just you know someone she's followed for decades and she's like, oh look, he's he's featuring Like burlington and he's doing these things and I was like, yeah, that's not by accident. Yeah That was that was pre-ordained. It was set up by my colleague. Yeah. Yeah, it's fantastic, you know It is that's a really, you know, you can spend a lot of money on advertising No matter what business you're in but the pr on the communications piece cannot be underestimated You know, it's more of an endorsement than an advertisement if we get that lonely planet writer or editor to put in a good word Come up and take a trip and in that particular case We were actually able to get them here using the new m-track route Yeah, which sort of helped us promote the route but helped us promote sustainable travel to the destination all things That we're trying to incorporate into our aspirational thinking moving forward. It's absolutely fantastic We can always from there you have the ability To to target that to regions that you think are best for us You know, we've got drive markets that that we want to reach. I mean, that's a fantastic set of Tools you just have at your disposal really. Yeah, you kind of need to be omnichannel this day and age You know, I think travel decision-making is is not the same as buying a pair of shoes So you really need to sort of have many touch points along that path before someone is sort of convinced to to You know make that purchase and make that trip. Yeah. Yeah, so what do you want to leave people with? I mean if we're coming down towards the end of our time here Over we just for no no But you know What what do you want to leave people with here? Like what's your biggest takeaway from your time with hella burlington about either this region or Yeah, I think the biggest takeaway for me is that we are deaf and it sounds cliche But with a region of our size and character, we're definitely more capable and competent working together And coming together whether we're competitors or not to collaborate on this messaging We're also far more capable As a 360 degree brand, you know in some places you do see the fractured landscape where one entity does the marketing for leisure travel Another organization does meetings and conferences someone else does economic development, for example We're better if we do that all together and then most important thing is This really not that much difference between what's in the best interest of a resident and what's in the best interest of a visitor We're all really just people. Yeah and what you're kind of doing here is supporting just The underlying fabric. Yeah of the community. You're doing it by putting it, you know Wrapping it up and and putting it on display for folks. Yeah abroad, but yeah, you're you're providing that that insight that kind of just Overall cohesiveness. Yeah to some extent. We're tapping into the great stories that are already here We're not manufacturing one and again at the end of the day It's it's really just about bringing more business to our local businesses And we're lucky to live in a place where people want to come here for the local businesses Again, they don't want an all-inclusive resort or mcdonalds. They want to see what's being done here uniquely in a vermont and burlington kind of way Well, what a fantastic just initiative. I mean, I know I'm biased because Our offices are next to each other and we said the same Staff meetings often, but you know, truly it is just incredible. What do you look at? You know, like you said, we kind of have the embarrassment of riches in our in our area in terms of things that we all enjoy on a day to day and You know, I think There's a necessity to get the messaging out there explain to people what we have to offer And and to look at them as you said this holistic visitor Whether that be travel or business leader or whatever And then, you know, bundle it up and and advertise it and I think this is absolutely incredible Thanks for coming on and all of the work you do. Thanks for having me and You know sharing a little bit with us today. Yeah, well, I really appreciate it. Thanks for you want to learn more the website is Hello, burlington.com or hello, burlington vt.com. There you go That's I think all the time we have for today I'm Austin Davis with like Sharon playing chamber my colleague Jeff Lawson from hello, burlington Shoot us an email if you want to learn more or visit the website. Thanks