Vacation Planning Assignment
NYC Hotel Experience
Suggested time to complete: 2 hours
“Travel and tourism are one of the fastest-growing economic sectors on the globe. It plays a vital role in the development of emerging destinations. According to figures from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the industry employs close to 100 million people, representing some 3 percent of global employment. Without question, it pays to promote travel and tourism.
According to the leading industry group, the Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI), each $1 spent in destination marketing generates $38 in visitor spending across international markets.
It’s not surprising, then that some $4 billion annually is spent on funding and financing DMOs worldwide.” –TripSaavy.com
Project-Based Activity Objective:
• Evaluate rating sites and learn how to use them.
• Analyze how to research and produce a visual marketing plan.
• Research and write a marketing strategy on a specific destination.
In this assignment, you work for a Destination Management Organization (DMO), which is your city or state’s tourism authority. You have been hired to pitch the advantages of working with the DMO to a local attraction or event. Research a local NYC attraction or event that you know of that could potentially bring in more tourists. Create a poster that is a visual montage you will use as your pitch, as though you were marketing the DMO to the event/attraction coordinators. Convince these coordinators using what you know about the hospitality, marketing, international travel, other local participants in the DMO, and the work of the DMO. Include research about the attraction or event as well in order to show them that you know what their purpose is, who their audience is, and how DMO can help them reach their goals. Include a few quotes from online reviews if you can find any for the location. Use images to sell how the location might benefit from DMO and the NYC tourist markets. Write a short pitch of about 2-3 paragraphs (400 characters max) to explain your pitch ideas and include this is the “description” field below of the “choose file” window below.
• Which is the top destination, and why is it the top spot?
• How would you market this location as a destination in your area?
• What rating sources did you use?
A link to a video can be included in the description field to supplement the montage if you find one or choose to create one.
Here’s how we will evaluate your assignment’s quality:
• The destination’s name is clear on the image.
• Annotations are used to note key information or enhance the visual image montage.
• The pitch has a clear location address.
• The concept and theme of your pitch are obvious, and the design relates closely to the concept of the location.
• The layout is presented neatly and thoughtfully.
• Pitch is neat and presented in an organized and easy to understand manner, digitally or physically.
• Sources are recorded for all reviews and content collected from other sources that are not your own unique work. Fair use is considered in the composition.
