The Hamilton County Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is the official destination marketing organization for Hamilton County, Ind., has seen a major return on investment from their 2012 advertising campaign.

According to reports from the CVB, their efforts generated more than 52,000 trips to the county and more than two million visitors, resulting in an economic impact of more than $25 million. Additionally, their placements in key markets such as Fort Wayne, Ind. and Louisville, Ky. have raised awareness of the county's restaurants, hotels and events by nearly 10 percent.

"We are careful with our advertising dollars to make sure that our message resonates with regional visitors who are remembering Hamilton County when they put their travel plans together", said Brenda Myers, Executive Director of the Hamilton County CVB.

As the Hamilton County CVB is a valued client, we are always proud to see a strong ROI from their strategic marketing, hospitality and community development initiatives. For more information, read the bureau's official release on their site - VisitHamiltonCounty.com.

The Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, which represents tourism for four counties in northeastern Pennsylvania, has launched a new marketing campaign for attracting winter getaways to their destination.

Titled "Snowball," a mix of digital, transit and outdoor advertisements will be placed in the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan markets. This campaign also includes four comedic commercials that showcase why friends and families should consider a vacation in the Pocono Mountains. These can be found on their YouTube page - youtube.com/poconotourism.

According to research done by the bureau, the NYC and Philadelphia markets were part chosen because of traffic increases from these regions to their website - 800poconos.com. The 2011-2012 winter season of December, January, February and March had a 10 to 15 percent growth in site visitation from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania compared to the previous year's season.

With additional messaging around the campaign coming from their social networks and other channels, we are excited to see the results of the bureau's "Snowball" campaign.  For more information, read the bureau's full release on NewsTimes.com.

Choose Chicago - the city's official destination marketing organization - saw a major increase in downtown hotel occupancy and overall visits over the summertime, thanks to a 12-week advertising campaign.

The DMO used a mix of television and digital media placements that targeted six cities in the Midwest U.S. from June to Sept. 2012. This effort generated more than 233,000 visits and 378,000 booked hotel room nights, totaling $207 million in visitor spending. 

Overall visitations to Chicago over the period marks a 3.2 percent increase compared to 2011. Additionally, the average daily rate increased six percent to nearly $200.

""We're very pleased with the numbers," said Warren Wilkinson, Choose Chicago's chief marketing officer in a report from ChicagoBusiness.com." Chicago is an important visitor destination and these ads resonated regionally."

As Choose Chicago is a Simpleview client, we are always proud to see their efforts work and benefit Chicago's overall economy. For more information, read the full report on ChicagoBusiness.com. 

The Alexandria Convention and Visitors Authority (ACVA) in Virginia has recently launched a corporate community service program that provides opportunities for meeting planners to incorporate service projects into their event itineraries.

Titled "Alexandria Cares", the ACVA formed a partnership with local non-profit Get Out and Give Back to develop the effort. They plan to help introduce a variety of service projects to those visiting northern Virginia for conferences, events and meetings, which would directly benefit the Alexandria community.

According to a report from C-MW.net, the ACVA sales team developed the program to meet demands from meetings and group business representatives for more service and team-building events in their destination. Lorraine Lloyd, who is the Vice President of Sales for the authority, said the effort is a "win-win for the Alexandria community to benefit as meeting attendees get an even richer experience from their visit."

The ACVA is a valued Simpleview client and we are very impressed with this new program's launch, as it has potential to further show the value of tourism to those who live and work in Alexandria. We also hope this serves as an inspirational model for other destination marketing organizations.

For more information, read the full article on C-MW.net. 

Thanks to efforts from the Go Wichita Convention and Visitors Bureau and other hospitality industry businesses, the destination's tourism sector fully rebounded and returned to pre-recession highs in 2011.

According to recent findings from the bureau, visitors from outside the area spent more than $700 on hotels, meals, tickets, shopping and more in the four-county Wichita area. This marks a five percent jump from 2010.

Go Wichita also plans to increase tourism in coming years, thanks to several initatives they are spearheading. These include revisiting their strategic master plan, developing a more detailed profile of the area's visitors and redesigning their website.

This is excellent news for this Kansas destination and Go Wichita - one of our valued clients. We are excited to be involved with the city's tourism rebound and look forward to future work together.

For more information, read the full article on Kansas.com. 

Choose Chicago - the official sales and marketing organization responsible for promoting Chicago as a global visitor destination to business and leisure travelers - has named D. Bradley Kent as its Senior Vice President of Sales and Services. In his new role, he will lead a 32-person team to ensure the bureau's hotel room night and convention business goals are met/

Kent returns to Chicago, where he spent more than 26 years in the hospitality field in senior leadership positions with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Hotels Corporation.  Most recently, he was the Vice President of Industry Relations for Freeman in Dallas, Texas. 

"Choose Chicago has an aggressive annual goal of securing 2.3 million hotel room nights and 50 new pieces of meetings and convention business," said Don Welsh, CEO and President of Choose Chicago in an official statement from the bureau. "His ability to drive business growth through sales initiatives that deliver revenue, market share and market penetration is exactly what our organization needs to achieve these goals."

As Choose Chicago is a Simpleview client, we are proud to welcome Kent to the bureau team. For more information, read the official press release.

Thanks to efforts from the Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as other tourism industry businesses in Santa Fe County, the destination has seen a 2.1 percent increase in jobs over the past 12 months.

Based on findings from the State of New Mexico's Sept. Labor Market Review, this job increase comes from more visitors coming to Santa Fe. This resulted in local restaurants, hotels and other hospitality businesses hiring to accommodate travelers' needs. Tourism is the top growth area for the city and county.

We are proud of the Santa Fe CVB for their hard work and ability to boost interest in this fun, artistic city. For more information, read a full rundown of the Labor Market Review on HispanicBusiness.com. 

Nancy Cameron, President and CEO of Tourism Kelowna, has been named as the 2012 Business Leader of the Year by the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce in British Columbia, Canada. This award recognizes Cameron's leadership and contributions to the area's business community, as tourism is the third largest private sector employer in the city.

According to the Chamber's official statement, Cameron's "marketing savvy and astute promotional sense has allowed Tourism Kelowna to harness momentum around Kelowna's tourism attributes and to position the organization amongst Canada's advisory circle in the Destination Marketing Association Canada."

Cameron is the first woman to receive this award from the Chamber. Some of her major accomplishments for Tourism Kelowna include leading the implementation of Kelowna's two percent Additional Hotel Room Tax to help provide a sustainable, performance-driven funding source for marketing the destination.

As Tourism Kelowna is a valued Simpleview client, we are proud of Cameron and her organization's overall accomplishments. Her work to grow the DMO into a model for other mid-size Canadian tourism organizations is admirable.

For more information, read the Chamber's full press release.

The Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area Convention & Visitors Bureau recently received three marketing awards at the 2012 North Carolina Tourism Leadership Conference. This includes a Platinum Award for Print Advertising-Group, as well as Gold Awards for Constituent Communications-Newsletter and Best Publication-Visitors Guide.

During the conference, the Destination Marketing Association of North Carolina (DMANC) recongizes and awards CVBs for unique, creative and effective marketing activities within a 12-month period. The judging committee is comprised of travel and tourism industry professionals.

"Inside the state, the DMANC stamp of approval is highly valued," said Caleb Mills, President and CEO of the CVB in an official statement from the bureau. "Locally this recognition is extremely meaningful to our board, staff, and constituents as well as to our overall efforts to market our destination."

As the Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area CVB is a Simpleview client, we are proud of their recognitions from the DMANC and wish them continued successes for years to come.

For more information, read the full article on MyFoxAL.com.

Bonnie Quill, executive director of the Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau, recently received a Denali Award from the Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) at their annual convention in Anchorage. This honor, which is considered to be one of the top travel-related awards in Alaska, is given to individuals who showcase outstanding leadership, professional excellence and personal contributions to bettering the state's travel industry.

Quill has served as the CVB's executive director for the past 13 years and has also held management positions at the Alaska Tourism Marketing Council, Princess Tours and other travel industry organizations during her 28 year career. She has also served on the ATIA and Alaska State Fair's board of directors.

The Simpleview team is proud of Quill and the bureau, as they are a valued client. This award highlights what we have known for several years - there are some amazing professionals representing Alaska's Matanuska-Susitna Valley.

For more information, read the full article on Frontiersman.com.