Tourism in Virginia
16:03:41 Perfect. So thank you for joining us today. My name is Savannah Amor Kappeler and I chair our Transportation You program for the Central Virginia chapter of the women's transportation seminar. 16:03:52 This program works to make a difference in the lives of young girls to spark their interest in programs and activities. 16:03:58 That entertain all modes of transportation and encourage them to take courses in math, science, and technology. Which are the
stepping stones to exciting careers that can change the face of the transportation industry. 16:04:11 Our webinar today will discuss tourism in Virginia in honor of national tourism week. And we are joined today by Summer Holiday. 16:04:21 And Patriksha Bhattarai. And they both will be speaking on the Natural Bridge State Park. 16:04:31 As well as Virginia Tourism Corporation.
So just to cover our agenda for the day. A brief overview will begin with our house rules. 16:04:42 And then we'll be followed by our presentation with Summer. Followed by a QA session. And then our next presentation will be with Pratiksha. 16:04:51 Followed by another Q&A session. And after both presentations, we will raffle off a $25 gift card. 16:04:59 As a thank you for attending,
prior to our closing remarks. 16:05:05 So just to go over our house rules really quickly for the webinar. Before we get started, please remain muted throughout the webinar. 16:05:14 If you have any questions, please pose them in the chat box. Using the banner
at the top or bottom of your screen. 16:05:22 And if you have any issues, you can message myself directly, the moderator. In the chat box and I will do my best to help you navigate through any issues. 16:05:32 Captions have been enabled, so if you choose to have them. On your screen. You can select it in using your settings at the bottom. 16:05:43 And then this session is recorded and will be posted on our chapter YouTube page. And all of our pre recorded webinars are also included on the YouTube page. 16:05:53 And lastly, please type your name and your school or organization in the chat. So we know who is joining us today. 16:06:08 Okay. Today for our presentation,
as I mentioned, will be talking about tourism in Virginia. 1st up, I wanted to introduce Summer Holiday. 16:06:21 Summer is entering her 3rd year with the Natural Bridge State Park and is an interpretative ranger. 16:06:28 And has been since March, 2022. She is originally from Florida and moved to Virginia in August of 2,021. 16:06:36 And the natural bridge state park was actually one of the 1st places summer visited. When she moved to
Virginia and she instantly fell in love. 16:06:44 Luckily, a position opened up shortly after her visit at the park. And the rest is history. 16:06:50 And also today we are joined with Pratiksha. Who joined the Virginia Tourism Corporation in 2017. 16:06:59 As the senior research manager.
She manages, evaluates, and executes the core programs. Of the VTC research department and provides research support. 16:07:09 To VTC team members across all departments. Before her 10 year at VTC. She worked in a Kentucky based market research firm analyzing data relating to customer interactions and employee perception. 16:07:22 Pratiksha holds a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Louisville. And has a background in architecture. 16:07:29 She lives in return with her husband, 2 kids, and a cherished Labrador. Thank you again to both of you for joining us today.
16:07:38 And we're excited to hear more. About your presentations. Summer, I'll let you go ahead and start first.st 16:07:47 Very much. Here. 16:07:54 Okay. 16:07:59 That's showing for everybody everybody can see. 16:08:02 It is perfect. 16:08:03 Alright. Well, hello everybody. My name is, summer holiday and I'm an interpretative ranger at National Bridge State Park here in Virginia.
16:08:13 A lot of times when people see that position title, they ask me what language I speak. You know, what kind of language am I interpreting? 16:08:24 In our case, just like the lorax, we speak for the trees. So for the natural areas in our park that can't speak for themselves, we can't tell their story. 16:08:36 And the goal is to have visitors
leave with stories about our natural and cultural history, but the ultimate goal of Maybe they'll want to come back with their families in the future. 16:08:49 Maybe they're looking to look at into more natural areas near their homes if they don't live near here. 16:08:55 And really the ultimate ultimate goal is to get people involved in conservation, whether that be with our Park or within natural areas near to them. 16:09:09 That's the ultimate goal. And in our position, we get to talk to a lot of people about where they're visiting from and why they're here. 16:09:17 So. Good question. Why do
people visit Natural State Park? Most of our visitors are here to visit the park to see one thing, the natural bridge. 16:09:29 And it makes sense, you know, it's in our name not to Virginia Park. It's also where our county name comes from. 16:09:35 Rockbridge County. The natural bridge was included in a lot of natural wonders of the world lists. 16:09:43 And it's right off of 81 with a lot of signs for the state park directing you straight to the state park. 16:09:51 It's also right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. So it just makes sense.
People are here to see the natural bridge. 16:09:57 Now, what, what is the natural bridge? The natural bridge itself is 200 feet tall, which is taller than Niagara Falls and actually taller also than the Statue of Liberty if she were to step off of her pedestal. 16:10:13 So pretty astonishingly tall. It also weighs 36,000 tons, which is equivalent to 2,500 school buses. 16:10:23 And the limestone that it encompasses that encompasses the national bridge is 500 million years old, which is even older than the dinosaurs. 16:10:32 So all of these are just fun little facts
that are included in a lot of our field trips with kids that are visiting from all over the country. 16:10:41 And a lot of, you know, people start to wonder, how does this? Geological marvel, this natural wonder, how did it become a state park? 16:10:52 Well, it actually dates back to 1774 when Thomas Jefferson purchased the the land. And you can even go a little bit further back to 1767 when he 1st visited the park. 16:11:07 Now he was actually on top of the natural bridge when he visited the park and even though he was scared of heights.
16:11:13 He still appreciated and saw the potential for that. That space to be enjoyed by, many in the future. 16:11:22 So he decided to purchase it from King George the 3rd in 1774 to preserve it for future generations. 16:11:30 And this was during a time when no one really wanted to land because it wasn't farmable.
16:11:38 In that time, if it wasn't farmable, it wasn't valuable. But Thomas Jefferson saw past that and we have him to thank for us being here today. 16:11:44 After a Jefferson passed It was privately owned up until 2013 when the land was put up for auction. 16:11:53 Public auction and Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund luckily scooped it up and purchased it with the intention of eventually turning it over to state parks. 16:12:05 State parks began management in 2016. And then since 2016 we've been working off of we've been working on paying off that loan and officially as of last year we have paid it off in full so natural wood state park is officially state-owned which is Very exciting. 16:12:23 That means that, a lot of changes and
improvements can happen a lot easier for us. And one of those changes involves, rerouting route 11. 16:12:34 Now, Route 11 currently goes over the natural bridge. Absolutely after becoming managed by the by Virginia State Parks, 16:12:45 VDOT came and 2017 to do a few tests. And with those tests they determine that no data have emerged indicating the road is unsafe for traffic, which is great news because the rerouting of a road that 2,000 commuter commuters and travelers use every single day is no easy feat. 16:13:05 However, now that the bridge is owned by owned and managed by Virginia State Parks, 16:13:13 VDOT and Virginia State Parks are working together to hopefully reroute that in the future. And looking at this picture in particular, you might start to wonder how on earth does the natural bridge happen? 16:13:27 How did it come to be? What made the natural bridge and how is it able to support all of these cars driving over it every day? 16:13:35 Great question and it all goes back to Cedar Creek. So in our park, you won't find a trail called Natural Bridge Trail.
16:13:46 We only have Cedar Creek Trail and that's because Cedar Creek is responsible for making the natural bridge. 16:13:54 Early long time ago, Cedar Creek was an underground river and it found this really nice chunk of limestone. 16:14:00 It started to erode its way through this limestone, making its way towards the James River where the James River is now and started to create a small little cave. 16:14:10 And over time that cave got deeper and deeper as Cedar Creek continued to erode. And eventually the roof of the cave couldn't support its own way anymore and it collapsed.
16:14:21 Leaving only the natural bridge so the natural bridge is the remaining part of that underground cave. And not only would we not have the natural bridge without Cedar Creek, we also wouldn't have the beautiful vegetation and the wonderful wildlife that we have because of how deep the Cedar Creek Gorges. 16:14:41 The walls of the gorge are able to protect the ground from harsh winds and harsh sunlight and it's also a lot cooler and a lot more humid. 16:14:51 I'm at the bottom of the gorge than it is, above gorge. And, this will allows a lot of vegetation that wouldn't normally be able to grow in this area to, thrive. 16:15:02 In one of those an example of one of those One of the vegetation is Northern White Cedar.
16:15:11 Northern White Cedar doesn't really occur naturally in Virginia anymore, not since the Ice Age. 16:15:16 But there's a lot of. Specimens that are over a hundred or hundreds of years old that have been here and must still like it here because of how nice and cool it is. 16:15:27 And it's also where Cedar Creek gets its name and all those that you'll find down there. 16:15:31 Now along Cedar Creek Trail, you'll find Salt Peter Cave or past the natural bridge you'll find Salt Peter Cave lost river both of both that were discovered when Jefferson still owns the property and then lace falls as the very end of Cedar Creek Trail and Lace Falls itself marks the edge of Jefferson's property. 16:15:53 When he initially owned the bridge. And Cedar Creek Trail is most
definitely our most trafficked trail. 16:16:02 It's where people are, again, people are here to see the bridge. So we get a lot of people on this trail, but if we just had one trail, we get a lot of people on this trail. But if we just had one trail, we wouldn't be a very good state park. 16:16:13 So we do have 3 other trails available. My personal favorite is Skyline Trail. Skyland Trail, is a really good spot to admire the mountain range that surrounds our valley. 16:16:27 Mountain range. And From the parking lot,
it's just a short hike up a hill. And then once you press that hill, you turn around, you get this beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 16:16:40 And then if you wish to continue on to Jefferson Point, the view just expands, you get to see even more of the Bluetooth range, or Bluetooth, and range. 16:16:49 It's a really good spot
to be at the sunset or at the sunrise. And on your hike to Jefferson Point, you might come across some, eastern bluebirds or tree swallows that are nesting in any one of the 10, nest boxes along Skyline Trail. 16:17:07 So Skyline Trail is popular for for the views. It's also a lot of, families like to go to the CDA, which is the children's discovery area. 16:17:19 They'll often visit that after. Visiting the bridge to get some wiggles out, maybe to have lunch at one of our picnic tables and the children's discovery area has places for kids to play music. 16:17:33 There's a rustic little general store with tools to sort of let your creativity go crazy.
16:17:41 You can also use the views as maybe inspiration on one of our chalkboards. It's just a really good spot for families and we do see a lot of folks using that. 16:17:52 Now Blue Ridge Trail is a longer trail. More, more kind of what you think about when you think of a State Park trail. 16:18:00 It's a really great spot to go in the fall. Full colors. During that time of year in our newest addition to Blue Ridge Trail is the Thistle Ridge disc golf course. 16:18:14 This golf has become very
very popular over the years I'm it might have already been popular but I've been noticed it's really been picking up. 16:18:22 And we see a lot of people come to this disc golf course, even people that haven't visited the natural bridge and they are continuing to visit. 16:18:33 Afterwards it's we get a lot of repeat folks that really like to play the disc golf play disc golf, really enjoy that course.
16:18:42 So that's been really cool to see because it sort of, it combines people's favorite. 16:18:48 Sport with the park so hopefully that creates that connection that was maybe some locals that, create that connection with the park for them. 16:19:00 And then book hill trail is another really nice trail. It's about 2 miles round trip. 16:19:05 There is still part of it that is privately owned. You have to use access the trail using the caverns parking lot, which is still privately owned.
16:19:15 You have to use access the, trail using the caverns parking lot, which is still privately owned. 16:19:16 But it is a really nice trail overall. And going back to Skyline Trail. 16:19:21 Skyline trails also where we do a lot of our nighttime programs. As of April, 2021 we are in international dark sky park which
is really awesome because then we're able to be on the dark sky website which there's a lot of people that are wanting to get out at night and enjoy enjoy the stars. 16:19:43 If there's a meteor shower, they, they want to find a spot that's easy to access, for them to look at the sky. 16:19:51 And again, because of our convenient location right off of ID one and our. Plus being on this website has, we get tons and tons of people from all over. 16:20:05 Regularly we have people drive over 3 hour just to visit us for our dark sky programs. And those guided programs involve, there's a range of led talks, ranger led a guided tour of the night sky.
16:20:21 We have telescopes up there that we find stuff in and we are up on a hill a little bit so we do offer wagon rides for those that might have issues with that hill or just one sort of a, easy way to get up to the observation point. 16:20:37 And those, those are again really great programs. We have Our attendance is, you know, anywhere from 60 to 80 on any normal night and then sometimes a hundred or more when there is a special event like a, like a meteor shower or something of that nature. 16:20:54 And again, we, have people come from all over and Our goal with these programs is to encourage people to bring back the night and fight like pollution from wherever they're coming from. 16:21:06 And it's really cool that we're able to
spread that message far and wide. It's not just concentrated towards our local area. 16:21:15 And then we're really excited. Starting tomorrow for the 1st time. So, Skyline Trail will be open 7 days a week and until 2 a. 16:21:26 M. Which is very exciting
because before, before we didn't really have a spot for people to be because the park closed at desk. 16:21:36 So this allows people to enjoy our dark sky park and. Be more encouraged to again bring back the night. 16:21:45 And it doesn't need to be on one of our guided program nights which is usually just once or twice a month. 16:21:52 So this opens up the door for a lot more visitors to enjoy our dark skies. And, with the success of our Dark Sky programs, we've also started to offer other night time programs. 16:22:04 Such as sunset hikes or lightning bug tours. Excuse me. And we do fall hay rides which are really popular And this brings in a lot
of local folks that are looking for something to do in the evenings with their families or. 16:22:23 A lot of the times we have people that are looking for, something to do. While they're staying in Lynchburg or Roanoke, excuse me. 16:22:39 So this is also increased our
visitation beyond just the bridge and that's the goal with a lot of these programs. 16:22:50 Now this is our attendance within the past few years. You would think that our attendance would have. 16:22:59 In 2020 with the pandemic but it
didn't really. That didn't really happen and it's probably because we're an outdoor park. 16:23:09 People are able to distance themselves safely. But then the the jump from 2020 to 2021 is just astounding. 16:23:15 You could sort of tell from these numbers. How anxious people were to get back outside and enjoy the great outdoors and. 16:23:24 I feel lucky that, we were able to be there for a lot of people and hopefully gave them some solace during it. 16:23:33 Otherwise, difficult time. So all that being said. But we what we what we do with especially my department and really just all
State Park departments is we want people to have enjoyable time no matter where they're coming from or how far they've traveled. 16:23:53 We want to cater to everybody and make it the most memorable experience that they can have there. 16:24:01 So that's my presentation. Thank you all so much for. Listen to me again. My name is Summer Holiday and I'm from Natasha Bridge State Park. 16:24:16 Thank you. I appreciate that and at this time if anyone has any questions. Regarding summer's presentation.
16:24:27 Feel free to enter them into the chat. 16:24:38 And if you think of a question as we're moving along with the next presentation by all means, we can still come back and go ahead and cover those again. 16:24:48 We have one question from Carolyn. How do you handle the big crowds? Do you ever have to turn people away? 16:24:54 Good question because we during the heat of the summer we have our parking lot is full. Excuse me. We do have overflow parking and already a huge parking lot to begin with. 16:25:08 So. Thankfully, we've never run into the issue of having to turn people away. But that is a good question. 16:25:15 We do get a lot of people. Okay.
16:25:17 Awesome. And then I guess I certainly had a follow up question. I saw because you mentioned the International Dark Skies program. 16:25:28 What's the difference? I didn't realize that is there a difference at like the state level versus international for dark skies. 16:25:40 There's just one. 16:25:36 So I don't think that they're international dark sky park is like the standard on all of the dark sky parks that you do see are typically registered with them. 16:25:50 Before we became a state park, we did do some dark sky events. We just weren't a Dark Sky Park quite yet, so, but yeah, that's,
that is the standard and to be accredited with them means that you're on their website and. 16:26:07 Like I said, that gets a lot of a lot of people to us. From all over the state, which is really, really special. 16:26:19 Okay, a pleasure.
16:26:16 Awesome. Well, thank you so much, and we appreciate it. And as I see more questions come through, I'll make sure to point them in your direction. 16:26:25 Sounds good. 16:26:25 Alright, and as I mentioned before,
next step is Pratiksha Bhattarai. And she will be talking about the Virginia transportation corporate or Virginia tourism corporation. 16:26:38 Alright, can you all see my screen? Hold on. Can you see my screen? 16:26:46 We see your screen, we're on the
full. Slide deck. Yes. 16:26:54 Yes. 16:26:51 Do you see the slide deck, right? Okay, awesome. So I'm gonna hit the slide show mode and. 16:27:00 Okay, I, yeah. Now I have. I have slides so on so and you I won't be able to see you but it's it should be okay let me know if you have any issues with listening to me or anything like that. 16:27:21 We're good. 16:27:21 Alright, alright, thank you, Summer, for having, sorry, thank you. Nice to see, meet you, Summer, but thank you.
16:27:30 Savannah for having me. I'm excited to be here and I am from Virginia Tourism Corporation and today I'll, you know, talk about, a little bit of what our agency does and, and then share some of the, overview of, tourism industry at large for Virginia and what the impact looks like. 16:27:54 And then share some career prospects. With VTC for you know those who want to come work with us. 16:28:02 In future. So this is our research team. As you can see, we are small. It's just the 2 of us. 16:28:09 Dan is our VPF research and strategy and I have been working with VTC since 2017 almost 7 and a half years now. 16:28:21 Yeah but it's just we're small
and we just do a lot of work internally and externally and we just do a lot of work internally and externally and I'll share that with you as I move through 16:28:34 So I don't know if you have seen our logo, Virginia is for lovers, that is our brand. 16:28:44 Version is essentially a marketing agency and we promote Virginia as a laser travel destination to stimulate Virginia's economy and also enhance the quality of life of all Virginians. 16:28:55 So VTC operates as 5 major divisions. We have marketing team who work primarily to build our brand and promote Virginia as a laser destination to consumers. 16:29:08 Within the country and also internationally. We have partnership marketing team that works really closely with the localities
and local tourism partners across the state. 16:29:18 We have representation and field teams. In different parts of the state and they work prior to build and empower communities, they do a lot of advocacy work, they do industry initiatives and also product development. 16:29:34 Along with our partners. And like I said, I'm representing our research
team. Our job is really like in 2 folds. 16:29:43 So one is to provide analytical insights and data. Resources to our internal team across VTC and then also to provide support that are industry partners will need for with data, insights and tools, you know, for them to be successful in their own marketing efforts. 16:30:03 So some of these partners, we work with
are very small and they have very tiny budgets and they really rely on us for some of the key data that they use in their marketing efforts. 16:30:18 So we we aim to really provide all the support that they need and then the next division we have is our film office. 16:30:27 Our film office works to bring in film projects. Series, like connecting all these different motion picture projects with various locations in Virginia. 16:30:38 And film in tourism really have a large impact in Virginia's tourism industry and also economy overall because you know when we think about this film crew series crew they're coming to our localities and they're staying there for extended period of time, you know, they are spending money in lodging their spending money when they eat or they visit some attractions while they're here and also the employment impact. 16:31:08 A lot of these. You know, friends and, program programs and series they do, you know, hire a lot of local people in, you know, to, to help with certain, it could be actors, it could be production team, whatever it might be, so it helps with employment also. 16:31:28 So, so there is a lot of impact
coming from that division and then we finally we have our operations and finance team which really takes care of all the you know regal everyday administrative task and then also help and manage and oversee our visitor welcome centers. 16:31:48 We have about 13 across the state. 16:31:52 So I just wanted to share, you know, a little bit of detail of how we as a research team work with our internal marketing team. 16:32:04 As I mentioned, we provide research to drive, you know, VTC. As I mentioned, we provide a research to drive, you know, VTCs marketing decision, in a nutshell. 16:32:14 Really, we, we are here to, you know, we, support and provide information to our marketing team like research to our marketing team so they so they have an idea on what to produce as ads. 16:32:28 So the process really looks like, you know, we do research on 1st finding the, you know, what the image of Virginia is to our travelers. 16:32:39 What do Virginia think about what the
travelers think about Virginia, what do they like about our state, what what is Virginia's offerings that really risen it with this travelers. 16:32:49 So we find this information about, you know, image of our state and then we also do further research to identify who our poor audience is. 16:33:00 So like who are these people who are put into a traveler visiting Virginia? What are their behaviors? 16:33:06 What do they like? You know, where should we do in our ads? Where the where do they live and and information and audience? 16:33:16 So with this information, our marketing team then, you know, will work with our ad agency and create ad campaigns and serve ads of our destination that is Virginia to these potential travelers. 16:33:30 And once the, you know, the campaign is finally done and over we miss we also you know measure how our ads did and and what worked what didn't work we do an assessment of that and to understand how we can do better. 16:33:45 Next time and then start over
with another ad with another ad campaign in another year. So if that's a process like 1st we do research to understand travelers, we do to understand where they are where we can run our ads and then finally do, you know, like, measurement towards the end of the end, ad campaign and then understand what we did bit what works for us as a in terms of marketing 16:34:14 what doesn't work all that kind of stuff and then run the ads for you know do another add another year another season and things like that so it's really fun it's fun to see virginity for lowers as as an ad and to see that what we do really brings in people and have that impact in our overall economy. 16:34:36 So from this overview, I'd like to move slightly to, some of the data. 16:34:43 So what does, in terms of impact,
what does Virginia, tourism industry looks like? You know, I know this chart, this slide here has a lot of numbers and they're big. 16:34:55 So I'll break it down. For you guys. So, you know, in 2,022 and that's the most recent data we have. 16:35:03 We welcomed I'm in Virginia really welcomed 108 million visitors and out of which 42 million stayed overnight in our state. 16:35:13 And, and usually, you know, we are happy to welcome any visitor whether they are day visitors, whether they are overnight visitors, right? 16:35:22 But our main focus is to bring that. Bring a hide, bring up the share of overnight visitors because they tend to stay long, they tend to stay spend more money when they're here and that's what we want right for people to come and spend their dollars here in Virginia and with the 108 million people who came they directly spent 30 billion dollars in Virginia and to break that number down it's really 83 16:35:52 1 million every day for an entire year. So, so that's the impact that tourism industry in
Virginia has and and the visitor economy like this one generates thousands of jobs and billions in state and local taxes, income for this employment. 16:36:11 So really in the screen you can see in 2022 the 30 billion dollar that the visitors spent in Virginia really translated into creating 210,000 jobs like putting 10,000 version 210,000 Virginians employed. 16:36:30 You know, when we talk about 42 million overnight visitors, that, is again, like how much is it, right? 16:36:42 To put that in context. The overall population of the state. The overall population of the state is about 8.6 million I'd say so the 42.2 million visitor overnight visitors come in coming in just one
year that is equivalent to roughly translating to 5 times the entire population of the state. 16:37:02 So that many people coming to visit Virginia in just a year, I think, that, that's, huge and, and the, as these visitors come in and spend money, they pay taxes, right? 16:37:15 When they pay taxes that the tax amount that they pay taxes, right? When they pay taxes that the tax amount that they pay taxes that the tax amount that they pay that will total 2.2 billion dollar for state and for in state and local taxes for Virginia. 16:37:26 And 2 billion and that's a large sum of money to put that in context. 2.2 billion dollars generated in state and local taxes for Virginia that is really equivalent to the salaries of more than 35,000 teachers in Virginia. 16:37:42 So, so this is this really you know helps
us understand how big the tourism industry for Virginia is and why this is so important for us because it really, you know, helps the economy, the improve with employment, makes our community be vibrant because, you know, people tend to to come to those locations which are vibrant and you know the ones that you'd want to live and work and play. 16:38:12 Really helps in creating vibrant communities as well. So the the benefit of the industry is to fold as well. 16:38:20 So this slide here, it's just an example of, you know, how to understand like how you know people's like how do people spend money and how and what's the impact the 30 billion dollar impact that is as a result of tourism how does that look like like what does it mean and how does you know like every community or locality benefit from it so just imagine like. 16:38:48 A friend, someone, Liza. She is from
Charlotte. She flew to Richmond, and she took an Uber to her hotel. 16:38:59 She checked checked in the Jefferson Hotel for a night and and and she went to eat dinner at the Cancan restaurant. 16:39:06 Next day let's imagine she went to watch a show at Altria Theatre here in Downton Richmond and then also went to rooster's coffee afterwards to buy some coffee and some gifts. 16:39:18 So finally she'll take an Uber back.
To the airport and then flies back to her home. 16:39:24 So in this example you can see that Liza is really spending money in every single tourism category, tourism spending categories. 16:39:32 She's spending money in transportation, lodging, food and beverages, recreation, retail, and back again transport. 16:39:39 And so So every
single dollar that she spends in all these categories, enrichment, that comes to account towards that 30 billion dollar. 16:39:50 Now think of all the 108 million people who travel to Virginia in 2,022 every single dollar all this visitors spent during the year that total, to 30, 30 billion dollars. 16:40:03 So that's how the tourism, you know, works and how it feels every virgin industry and community. 16:40:12 Across the state. 16:40:15 And, again, looking at the spending by categories, transportation and food in by risk sector really captures the largest amount of dollars. 16:40:25 When we think about Virginia, it's like it's primarily a drive market. People are traveling,
you know, driving in their cars from states like New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, also North Carolina and even Florida. 16:40:39 So it's a it's a drive market and then we also have airports international airports Dulles and Ronald Dragon group and others across the state that really captures that transportation spending. 16:40:54 And then rest lots of restaurants like when people travel we have to eat right so put in beverage early captures a large share of tourism dollar as well. 16:41:05 So, I, really wanted to talk about how outdoor recreation is such an important aspect of for Virginia and and with summers presentation early earlier talking about natural page I add that's it's It's so important for us to understand the importance of outdoors because we have a lot of products like that that really works with our consumers or travelers that they want to come and see and do. 16:41:34 In Virginia. So, you know, our research have really shown that a large segment of visitors identify outdoors as their main reason for visiting Virginia. 16:41:47 We have, you know, we have a lot of outer products that appeal to travelers think about the natural bridge state part, for example, or the Shenandoah National Park or Pocahontas National Booker Hunter State Park, you know, and, and Louisa Mountains and there's so many outdoor products that we have to offer that appeal to these travelers. 16:42:09 And in 2022 Virginia received over 3
million overnight visitors who had like, who said like outdoors was their primary reason to visit Virginia and they engaged in outdoor activities while they were here. 16:42:25 So and and among these outer specific travelers, 74% of these travelers are really traveling from out of state. 16:42:34 Again, outdoor recreation is, you know, really the driver. One of the important driver of tourism for the Virginia's economy because it is really working to bring that out of state dollars from tourists like 74% coming from out of state the money flowing in Virginia's economy is from out of state. 16:43:00 So that adds a lot of benefit to our economy and and therefore outdoors and its impact is huge for Virginia and the state really benefits from the money flowing in from other states. 16:43:12 So when we ask, you know, what they like about, you know, with outdoors for Virginia, we really see that people enjoy our beautiful scenery, natural areas and outdoor recreation opportunities. 16:43:26 People are interested in both adventurous
activities and also relaxed outdoor activities. So primarily, you know, we all know Virginia is has a very strong history and history always ranks. 16:43:40 As a number one activity for people to do or see or learn about when they're here but outer is also very close in terms of how it ranks. 16:43:55 With the travelers and really, works towards, our tourism industry like helps with bringing in more people spending more money here. 16:44:08 And then moving on, I really wanted to
touch on about, you know, what the possible career, you know, prospects could be for you when you are ready to join workforce. 16:44:22 I should I should say. I did talk about our different division earlier like marketing, partnership marketing, research, film and operation and finance, within those there are several ways you can become part of our team. 16:44:38 Tourism is really a very multi-disciplinary industry. So you can have education background in hospitality industry or economics or social science or. 16:44:52 Mass communications whatever it might be you can have very diverse education base and you can still be working in this industry. 16:44:59 There are so many paths you can
take and for one if you like analyzing data or if you want to be you know in the data and trying to solve some critical questions you may join our research team. 16:45:16 Under marketing division itself, there are so many different ways you can take. If you are creative and like to work with photography or videoography, want to work with creating ads in that type of creative situation, you can join our brand team. 16:45:31 We have social media team and also someone who write blogs for us. So if you like something in content, you can join our content team. 16:45:41 Digital marketing is so huge and is in demand right now and there are so many opportunities within our digital department with and you know online tools that you can look towards working on. 16:45:56 And then we also have communications
in PR. Our office really works very closely with the governor's office given because we are a state-funded agency. 16:46:05 So there is a lot of opportunities to have joint press religious with the governor's office and sometimes we just published things from our own channels and we so with that you know you can work in communications and PR too and if you're looking You know, you can join our partnership marketing team if you really like, works relating to advocacy or if you like, to work very closely with the communities and local tourism 16:46:33 partners. There is so many ways you can
you can work in that type of setting like very closely with the community partners. 16:46:39 And, and our partnership marketing team does just that. We, we like to support young talents and also work with college interns, you know, as well and in we have recently started working with. 16:46:57 You know, students who, I'll want to have that, firsthand, professional experience before they really graduate and go work and out in the field. 16:47:13 So in we did start internship program
with in virgin a tourism last year we had an interim join for the summer. 16:47:23 Welcome another intern. He'll be joining us in May. I mean in June, sorry, in June, so we are excited about that. 16:47:33 To share that there is so many avenues and opportunities that you have to work in Virginia tourism industry and it is so diverse and it is so you know like intimate and really works towards bringing so much value to the overall. 16:47:52 You know, state economy. So I am so excited to be part of this team and you
are more than welcome to reach out to us. 16:48:02 With any questions or if you're interested in turning with us in a few years down the line, whatever it may be, just feel free to reach out and I hope I hope my presentation today really help you have that perspective on. 16:48:18 You know in terms of what the tourism industry is what our agency does towards it. And that's all I have. 16:48:26 Thank you. 16:48:28 Thank you, Patricia. Thank you, thank you so much.
16:48:34 Yeah, and if you'll have questions, feel free to, you know, ask or reach out later, whatever. 16:48:39 Yes, I was going to say if you have any questions, feel free to go ahead and put them in the chat at this time. 16:48:44 While everyone is thinking about the questions, I was going to ask you How do you, how does your research team? 16:48:54 Basically compile all this data. To
go ahead and make it digestible for us so that we know where those dollars are being spent and where all these individuals are going. 16:49:06 Yeah, we so like I said, so many bit numbers and what does it mean? And so with presentations like this, sometimes we try to put numbers in context but we really work with a lot of vendors. 16:49:20 Tourism partners like other you know consultant consulting firm who helps us put all the numbers in perspective like how are we doing in terms of in running our ads or how effective with our ads and and really help us also. 16:49:41 And how effective with our ads
and and really help us also break down some of the key points that that come out from this and really help us also, break down some of the key points that, come out from this, study. 16:49:53 And with, so one of the most important part of job is like being able to, you know, translate all the information. 16:49:57 We have to our partners and, and our, when I say our partners, I mean all 133 localities, cities countries across the state, sometimes towns too. 16:50:07 And we really like sometimes do one and
ones and just sit down and talk through the data we have a lot of you know like bullet points talking points that we share and and beforehand before we you know provide our data to them and before we you know provide our data to them and are always available if they you know provide our data to them and are always available if they have any questions. 16:50:28 As, they go in and dissect the data themselves. So there is a lot of stepped process that we do. 16:50:34 And, It's been, it's really interesting part of the job. Like one, I am passionate about this job is because We are able to help with the, you know, information that we can provide and that really, you know, the, we say clients service or customer service. 16:50:53 I see that as a part of our job and
that's, you know, we just talk and communicate and, and try and explain what the number is saying. 16:51:02 Love that. Yes, thank you so much. And I haven't seen any questions come through, but if anything pops up as I'm still going through, I'll make sure to direct them both to you. 16:51:13 And if anyone has any questions that they think about after the presentation. Please feel free to send them to us and I will make sure
that they get to both Summer and Pratiksha. 16:51:22 Sounds good. 16:51:23 But thank you both again. For taking the time to join us this afternoon and discussing tourism in Virginia with us. 16:51:31 And as I mentioned, if you have any
specific questions, please feel free to send them to our Gmail. 16:51:38 Address it's wtscentralva.transportation you@gmail.com. And I will make sure that those questions get directed where they need to. 16:51:48 Summer and Pratiksha, I appreciate
you both taking the time. I am actually going to stop our recording at this time.
2024-06-06 11:12
