For the past 55 years, Travel South USA has been the bedrock for 

southern state tourism offices, providing a solid foundation for successful regional collaborations both domestically and internationally. Our efforts have evolved into best-in-class partnership marketing that places us on the global stage with some of the most well-funded destinations in the world - Las Vegas, California, NYC, and Florida. Over the years, these efforts helped grow billion-dollar industries in each of our member states and created tens of thousands of jobs for our business communities. We've worked together to optimize our success during good times. We've weathered storms together and supported each other through the downturns, too.

We all recognize the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis call for stopgap measures to endure in the short-term and mid to long-term strategies to facilitate economic recovery and rebound our industry. These past few weeks, the Travel South USA Board of Directors has been in constant contact with the headquarters in Atlanta, under the direction of Liz Bittner, as they worked to shore up the organization. None of the measures taken were easy decisions to reach, but they were necessary to sustain our organization in the long run. We said goodbye to two of our team via furlough, David Kemp, and Catherine Li, and enacted pay-cuts and other operational measures to reduce spending. We paused all global marketing, including closing our Global Partner Program offices in seven countries.   We have looked to our good friends and partners across a broad spectrum of businesses - from creative agencies to information-technology companies - to save money. In addition, we have fully transitioned Domestic Showcase to Southeast Tourism Society.

 

These are difficult times for everyone. Each day over the past few weeks, the circumstances of COVID-19 have presented us with extraordinary challenges, hard choices, and new uncertainties. Through the necessary social distancing and quarantine measures that have been put into place worldwide, travel and tourism was the first industry to feel the serious economic consequences of COVID-19. I am confident, however, that when all of this is behind us, we will be the first ones to bounce back. We know there is pent-up demand for travel. We know consumers from far and wide will come to experience our authentic corner of the world.  We know they will stay in our hotels and B&Bs, crave our cuisine, enjoy our festivals, concerts and sporting events, and explore our attractions. And, we know - when the time is right - our collaborative efforts between state tourism offices, DMO partners and travel industry businesses will be needed more than ever. For the time being, we are planning and preparing, laser-focused on being ready to re-engage consumers through world-class destination marketing.

 

Please visit this space in the coming weeks for What's Next. I look forward to the return of tourism, when we can once again welcome the world to our beloved region, Travel South USA.

 

Thank you for your continued support.

Duane Parrish, 

Director, South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism & Chairman, Travel South USA Board of Directors