Here are a few highlights from the ongoing work at the Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB).
Visitor Marketing & Communications -
FY 2016-17 YTD
The CVB's Visitor Marketing & Communications department has been aggressively generating interest in Santa Clara local businesses, including visitor attractions, places to eat, and hotels. Thus far, this fiscal year-to-date, the team has increased Visit Santa Clara's social media following, influenced Santa Clara hotel package weekend room nights, and generated hundreds of Santa Clara destination video views.
For Fiscal Year 2016-17 YTD (July - December, 2016), staff oversaw Visit Santa Clara's social media Followers growth by 25% (12,066 new followers). Total social media following is nearly 50,000. The department also increased Visit Santa Clara blog views by 33% with over 21,000 new views.
In addition, the team saw a 89% increase (+4,707) in the number of online leads/hand-offs to Santa Clara hotel package pages and also garnered nearly 1,000 new Santa Clara destination video views.
Convention Sales Advanced Room Night Bookings
Convention Sales booked over 30,000 sleeping rooms at Santa Clara hotels this FY 2016-17 YTD (July - December, 2016), resulting in thousands of advanced bookings for Santa Clara hotels. Advance bookings are a significant metric for convention and tourism officials. The number of rooms booked by the CVB is directly linked to the number of meetings and conventions the organization secures for the Convention Center and local hotels.
Both room nights booked and Convention Center business is a direct result of the CVB's aggressive sales department efforts. Santa Clara hotels near the Convention Center averaged 81.08% during the 2016 calendar year with an average daily rate of $220.88.
Facebook Campaign Reaches Over 100K Consumers
In conjunction with WinterFest coming to California's Great America theme park this past November/December, 2016, the CVB created an online WinterFest Hotel Packages page to increase Santa Clara hotel weekend room nights during the holiday period.
WinterFest Hotel Packages were promoted via an online media release and also via a Facebook promotional post that reached 111,032 consumers and received 4,330 Likes. In addition, the post generated hundreds of direct hand-off links from the CVB's webpage to local Santa Clara hotel package pages.
