ITEM NO:  7a 
DATE OF MEETING:  October 23, 2018 
Tourism Marketing Grant Program 
2018

Overview 
Tourism Partnership program advances
statewide tourism and use of Port facilities 
Program finishing 3rd year 
Program producing good results and building
effective partnerships across Washington 
Generating visitor interest and travel 
Smaller organizations VERY appreciative 
"Advance this region as a leading tourism destination and business gateway" 
3

Leveraging Tourism Partnerships 
Promoting Washington State as a Leading
Tourism Destination 
Increase visitors and visitors
expenditures throughout Washington
state and utilization of POS assets 
Demonstrates Port's leadership in visitor
industry and collaboration with travel
marketing firms statewide 
Generating additional awareness,
interest, travel and economic value for the
Port of Seattle and Washington state 
Increasing visitors to Seattle and Washington state 
3

Statewide Participation 
King County            11 
Eastern Washington     6 
Olympic Peninsula      4 
Western Washington    5 


Promoting Use of Port Facilities and Terminals

Marketing Partnership Generate Results 
Generating tour and attraction sales
through trade show/sales missions 
Increasing tour products offered
through familiarization tours 
Increasing out of state attendance at
events/cultural attractions 
Generating awareness and online
bookings through digital media 
Generating earned media and
testimonial value for Washington
State travel destinations 
More Travelers to All of Washington 
5

Trade Shows / Sales Missions 
"Contacts with international and
national tour operators have
directly increased bookings to our
Seattle attractions by a
conservative 20% to 25%. The
largest increases were China,
Japan and Korean markets."
John Hanson, Treasurer 
Puget Sound Attractions Council 

Travel shows generate more visitors and expenditures 
6

Media Familiarization Trips 
Hosted 40 travel / food / wine writers 
Also resulted in pre/post trips to other
destinations in the state 
Whidbey Camano Island efforts have
already resulted in 3.5M online
impressions / media value $75,000 


Media coverage for Washington state 
7

Event / Cultural Attractions 
Wintergrass Music Festival is
good example of success and
out of state visitor growth 
2017 - 871 
2018 - 1815 (108% increase) 

Offseason travel and related visitor expenditures 
8

Online Digital Campaigns 
Visit Walla Walla ran online digital
campaign promoting air travel (via
Sea-Tac ) to targeted markets in the
West Coast
2018  3.9 million impressions 
2018  25,099 click throughs to Visit Walla
Walla website 
2018  514 direct links to Alaska Airlines
travel site 

Increasing awareness and air travel via online campaign 
9

Special emphasis: Eco/Sustainable Tourism 
20 recipients engaged in
projects involving: 
Eco/Sustainable 
Cultural/Historical attractions 
Outdoor/Nature 
Promotion of public lands and
waters 

Assisting environmental and cultural oriented organizations 
10

Greater Grays Harbor 


Supporting Great Outdoor Experiences 
11

Greater Grays Harbor 
Promote Grays Harbor outdoor experiences 
Created outdoor TV show 
Targeted Western US states 
Strong ROI results 
Show downloaded over 101,000 times 
2809 links to Grays Harbor web landing page 
Reaching Outdoor Enthusiasts 
12

MOHAI 


Making a Difference For Cultural Attractions 
13

MOHAI 
MOHAI online digital campaign 
37% increase in website sessions 
Targeted markets visitation increased 23% 
Additional tourism spending 

Increasing Visitors to MOHAI 
14

Lessons Learned 
May want to limit repeat recipients 
Continue outreach to: 
Eco/sustainable tourism organizations
offering visitor experiences 
Tribal tourism entities 
Cultural and historical attractions 
Improve project implementation
time frame  authorize program
and related contract execution in
December 
Improving the Program 
15