<< All News Tuesday, January 7, 2020 - 11:00pm

North Dakota Tourism unveiled its new marketing materials and destination marketing strategies inviting visitors to Be Legendary in 2020.

The new campaign encourages visitors to experience North Dakota’s outdoor and recreational opportunities – to Be Legendary – while also promoting attractions and events.

“Our 2020 marketing strategy will take on a more active tone, inviting guests to follow their curiosity not the crowds –  immersing themselves in our diverse opportunities to Be Legendary,” Tourism Division Director Sara Otte Coleman said. “These new strategies, materials and publications unveiled today will help us drive new visitation and revenue to the state.”

North Dakota Tourism continues to promote vibrant communities, destinations and recreation through television, digital and print channels. The Tourism Division will spend $2.9 million advertising the state in 2020. 

North Dakota native and actor Josh Duhamel will continue as the voice of North Dakota Tourism’s efforts to market the state to visitors. Duhamel has been featured in North Dakota Tourism campaigns since 2013, inviting visitors to explore his home state by showing a variety of experiences and activities. Go to www.ndtourism.com/information/advertising-campaign to view the new materials and campaign.

Tourism’s advertising efforts had more than 100 million impressions through TV, print, out-of-home and digital advertising last year. Verified arrivals in the state in 2019, as tracked through digital advertising, increased 2%. Arrivals from the Chicago market where targeted marketing efforts ramped up increased 22%. In addition, inquiries requesting visitor information and travel guides increased 44%. Early year-end indications look solid, however, a more comprehensive look at 2019 results will be available later this quarter as partners report their statistics. 

New research from Tourism Economics reports that North Dakota had a visitation of 22.6 million, a 5.2% rise in visitor spending to $3 billion and $300 million generated in state and local taxes from tourism. Visitors were spending more in all sectors of the travel industry, but the largest percent of growth was in recreation spending, with an increase of 10.3%.

“2018 visitor activity surged in North Dakota with the number of visitors growing by more than 4% and their spending increasing more than 5%, showing the interest by travelers in North Dakota attractions, events and people,” Tourism Economics Director Chris Pike said.

Notables: 

  • Each household in North Dakota would pay an additional $950 in taxes per year to replace the traveler taxes received by state and local governments. 
  • Visitor activity supported 41,753 jobs. Put together, these jobs would be the fifth-largest city in North Dakota.  
  • Each North Dakotan would need to house 30 people to equal the number of annual visitors in 2018. 
  • The county with the largest share of visitor spending is Cass with $878 million in spending (4.9% growth). McKenzie County had the largest increase in spending up 33.1%. 
  • State tax revenue collected from tourism activity netted $300 million in 2018 – enough to cover the public safety (Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) 2017-2019 budget. 

See the complete report that also includes the county-by-county breakdowns at www.ndtourism.com/sites/default/master/files/pdf/EconomicImpactofTourisminNorthDakota2018_0.pdf.

Find additional campaign images and video at www.medialibrary.nd.gov/assetbank-nd/images/assetbox/c4fe4c22-a7bc-49fb-929b-e32d65868f89/assetbox.html.

 

Follow North Dakota Tourism on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TravelND, on Instagram at  https://www.instagram.com/northdakotalegendary/ or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NorthDakota and get tips on what to see and do all year long.

 

 

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