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Quick Snapshot of 2008 Information Requests about Auburn and Cayuga County
-Courtesy of Cayuga County Office of Tourism (CCOOT)
75% of all 14,532 inquiries received broke down in this way:
NY was the top state that requested information about the County, totaling approximately 34% of the total number of inquiries received. PA was the second totaling 14%, closing followed by NJ at 13%. CT and OH were tied at 8%, NC was 5% and MD was 4%.
A more specific breakout for just the NYS requests:
Staten Island was the top location in the state that asked for information about Cayuga County, closely followed by NYC, then Brooklyn, the Bronx, Rochester, Flushing and Webster. The total number of cities, towns and villages that requested information within NYS was 67.
These stats can be connected to where the CCOOT advertises:
A sampling included AAA Car & Travel and Going Places magazines with metro NYC circulation, newspapers such as Hartford Courant and the New York Times, and national magazines such as National Geographic Traveler, Ladies Home Journal plus Time Warner Cable Rochester viewership markets for day trippers.
As for top referral numbers, the highest numbers of requests (4719) were generated from ads in Great Vacation Getaways, a newspaper insert that ran in a dozen newspapers in the Northeast, then AAA publications, Going Places and Car & Travel were next totaling 3044 requests.
An ad in Collinson, another Northeast newspaper insert brought in 1665 requests, followed by the New York Times at 1495. National Geographic Traveler magazine ad generated 1389 requests, followed by the Tourism Office’s own website www.TourCayuga.com with 1062 requests.
Marketing efforts of Auburn’s Historic & Cultural Sites Commission offers another look at visitor inquiries with a bit of variation:
NY continued to lead, totaling 15% of all information requests, PA comprised 10%, OH was 6%, IL and NJ were 5%, and TX, MI, FL and CA were all 4%. Inquiries for information about Auburn came from 47 different states in the US, plus several Canadian and European locations.
As for the Commission’s referrals, an ad placed in Family Circle generated the highest number of requests at 2835, closely followed by Ladies Home Journal with 2192. A Better Homes & Gardens ad brought in 1851 leads, followed by Country Home with 1800 and Midwest Living with 1512. A Traditional Home ad was next with 794, and then Greater Philadelphia News with 237 and More magazine brought in 301 requests.
Currently, Auburn’s Historic & Cultural Sites Commission is the only City-funded entity marketing Auburn as a destination for visitors. This is done by placing magazine, newspaper, radio and TV advertisements, fulfilling requests for information, publishing a 4-color brochure that’s distributed at regional and state information centers, and maintaining content on the 0message, with much success, for the past 8 years.
A conversion rate can be used to calculate the economic value of the Commission’s marketing efforts:
2008 Economic Impact Figures
2008 Commission Inquiries: 11,900
(People that requested the Auburn brochure)
37% conversion rate: 4403
(People that actually visited after requesting the brochure)
Average length of stay: 2 nights
(’07 Cayuga County marketing statistics)
Average daily spending: $388
(’07 Cayuga County marketing statistics)
Total annual economic impact: $3,416,728
These statistics show that the money visitors spend during their stay is 68 times more than the Commission’s City budget line of $50,000.
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