Key Strategies to Increase Your Destinations Music Tourism

Music TourismWhen I started in the tourism industry 10 years ago, at the first conference that I attended, I heard Bill Geist talk about music tourism. Throughout my years in the industry, I heard him talk about this topic numerous times. Music is a powerful means of connecting people. It bridges linguistic and cultural divides, and is a vehicle for identity and expression like no other. As a tourism marketer this seemed to resonate with me. I started to think about my own experiences with music and how it affected me when I work conferences. It really came to light when I attended a conference in Indianapolis and at night a lot of the attendees where at a dauling piano bar with a ton a locals on Thursday night, and the place was packed. It is widely known that music and travel go hand in hand with each other.

Read more

A Behind the Scenes look at the Visit Lake County Song Search

You are only as good as your last month, or in this case your last year. A year ago, I was thinking of was to generate and create more awareness before our summer season and I got it stuck in my head that I could pull off a lip dup. At the time, it was probably my favorite this to work on. We created a music video tailored to Lake County, Illinois to the song, Best Day of My life by American Authors – https://youtu.be/iphhBSYiE44

Visit Lake County Song Search
Dylan Kroll and friends around a bonfire filming a scene for the music video.

Flash forward a year, well I definitely out did myself and launched a “music video that has gone viral with 74,000 views on Facebook and YouTube”, according to Bill Geist. Well, it was not as easy as that. It started out like any other passing water cooler talk in the office, “What are you going to do now to top Best Day?” I did not know at the time and wasn’t sure how to take that concept to the next step. I attended eTourism Summit last October and decided to sit in a music video session.  Speakers from other destination spoke about what they did and how they used music to sell their destination. I took notes and wrote down some ideas that came to me. When I returned to the office, I told my boss I came up with idea to top ‘Best Day’, that included a way to generate website views during out off-season and increase the music section on our website. The idea sat with my until January, I then talked to my boss again, and this time I had the while idea flushed out. Granted there were some obstacles and hurdles along the way, otherwise, I thought it was a great idea.  Read more