Case Study: Tourism Recovery During COVID-19

The following case study below of Virginia Beach’s summer 2020 tourism success story during COVID-19 was authored by Bill Hanbury, the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau’s Executive Advisor, in collaboration with the CVB Marketing Communications team, Orange142, Robby Wells with I AM OTHER and FINN Partners.

Over the last three months, Virginia Beach has become a shining example of resiliency and recovery despite the disastrous economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. From a destination marketing perspective, it’s been an uphill ascent, with pivotal shifts in creative, audience messaging, target market groups, and safety initiatives to create trust for new and returning visitors from across the nation. The team at the Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau executed quickly and effectively, due to the nimble marketing approach, Virginia Beach is the number one performing destination in hotel occupancy recovery across the top 25 DMAs in America, week after week.

With July hotel occupancy reaching 74.3%, and August at 71.8%, the economic recovery unfolding across Virginia Beach has brought hospitality workers back to work and helped mitigate the disastrous economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are apparent explanations for this stellar performance, as well as the less obvious reasons.  First, the apparent explanations:  

Familiarity: Virginia Beach is a legacy destination familiar to countless families across the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic States. This has been invaluable during the pandemic as consumers have sought out traditional and comfortable destinations.

Notability: Rated as one of the best beach destinations in the United States, this designation proved to be of great importance as pandemic weary consumers searched for beaches and outdoor recreational opportunities.   

Cost: Virginia Beach’s position as a reasonably priced destination has helped in an environment where consumers are more price conscious than ever before based on the pandemic’s economic challenges.

Geographic Position: With uncertainty about flight and airports, American consumers have rediscovered the “Great American Road Trip”.  Virginia Beach is ideally situated to benefit from this emerging trend. Located within easy driving distance from major metropolitan populations this new craze has aided Virginia Beach’s economic recovery efforts.  

Safety: In multiple national surveys, Virginia Beach is considered one of the safest cities in America. Most rencently, AdvisorSmith (June 2020) released a new study naming Virginia Beach the #1 safest large city in America based on 3,000 city data findings. This reputation has better positioned Virginia Beach in the minds of consumers as a safe and clean destination, which are key factors driving vacation decisions.

Investment: The City of Virginia Beach government astutely decided to continue to fund the CVB’s marketing and communications efforts, even as tax revenues from hotels and restaurants dramatically declined in the early days of the pandemic.  The City’s decision to spend $10,000,000 in marketing resources over the next year was a major commitment to maintain the viability of the hospitality industry.   

Partnership: Prior to the pandemic, Virginia Beach had assembled an outstanding and well experienced group of marketing partners. These partners quickly executed flexible marketing strategies and delivered tactical data-driven adjustments, which delivered highly targeted economic recovery messages to audiences that were continuing to travel amidst COVID-19.

In-House Agency Resources: Over the last few years, Tiffany Russell, VP Marketing Communications, and 11-person team at the CVB had internalized a significant portion of its marketing and communications programs. This in-house approach afforded a capable, nimble staff the resources needed to quickly respond to a pandemic crisis.   

Creative Campaigns with Celebrity Collaboration with Pharrell Williams: The “We’re Open” advertising campaign, which was created before the pandemic surfaced, was a creative concept that resonated with locals and visitors from the beginning, but its relevance has been amplified even further by the pandemic. I Am Other, Pharrell’s creative agency which developed the campaign, has quickly adapted their original concepts to a pandemic-centric economic response. In addition to “We’re Open,” the CVB also released several new video assets promoting safety and cleanliness standards, as well as a Nostalgic video to spark feeling and remembrance in long-time beach goers.  

Transition to 100% Digital Advertising for Nimbleness: The CVB’s decision to primarily deploy digital advertising assets early-on in the crisis proved to be a successful blueprint. Using Orange142 out of Austin, Texas, as the experienced destination digital media partner, the CVB executed an innovative and aggressive digital advertising strategy. Orange142 utilized state-of-the-art data analytics and cutting-edge creative placements on Smart TVs, mobile devices, and other consumer technology, to target consumers with a multi-platform advertising approach. By using a number of data sources to determine the most engaged audiences, the Orange142 team was able to recreate media plans and audience optimizations weekly based on new government regulations, current COVID-19 hotspots, and highest performing demographic groups to push each consumer further down the customer journey.

Public Relations: The addition of Finn Partners, a New York based international PR firm with extensive tourism experience, provided Virginia Beach with another critical piece in the partner collaboration. Led by a highly regarded industry veteran with significant DMO experience, the agency hit the ground running in full-on crisis management mode. Finn, and its local partner, Brickell PR, rounded-out the integration of advertising, public relations, social and promotional activities by the partners. This consolidation of earned, shared, owned, and paid media efforts was the key part of a winning strategy.  

Executive Leadership: Another critical component was the decision by the City of Virginia Beach to engage a long-tenured industry veteran, Bill Hanbury, to manage the internal CVB administrative efforts. Hanbury served as CEO of Destination DC during the 9/11 as well as served as former chairman of Destination International and brought crisis management experience to the destination. This individual provided guidance to a talented internal staff, built community support for the innovative approaches developed, and assured private and public sector stakeholders that the significant investments committed to the marketing efforts were providing the appropriate return on investment. 

No Layoffs: Regrettably, many DMOs across the nation, particularly in urban areas, have had their financial and personnel resources significantly reduced due to the pandemic crisis. These circumstances have graciously afforded a fully funded and adequately staffed Virginia Beach CVB new opportunities based on the lack of competition in a marketplace, which is normally cluttered with compelling offers. Our ability to spend significant marketing assets and retain a talented CVB staff, plus external vendors has been a pathway to success.      

With three months of solid performance in the rearview mirror, Virginia Beach has now pivoted to the next phase of the economic recovery with the intention of sustaining the momentum built during the summer months. The internal team and external partners have refined the marketing and communications strategy with the rollout of a new program entitled, “Surf Sand and Study”. This initiative is meant to target families who are still at home with their children and parents who are able to work remotely, and will run through the fall and winter months, which is typically shoulder season in Virginia Beach.

The program is relying on the fact that millions of students from kindergarten through college are e-learning from home and their parents are still working remotely and looking for a change of pace and scenery. Focusing on these audiences, the CVB and its marketing partners are using pioneering creative, geofencing, retro-fencing, and persona identification in target markets to identify audiences with a propensity to consider Virginia Beach as a student/work vacation alternative, and even as an educational opportunity with much to offer in outdoor and indoor activities. The initial response to this promotion has been well received by the local tourism industry, and the results are now being evaluated.