Marketing Plan Stresses Community, Positivity of Tourism

The Board of Directors and Executive Leadership of Visit Jackson, Jackson’s destination marketing organization, has presented its fiscal year 2021 marketing plan to its stakeholder and partner community.

The presentation, which stressed the need for community buy-in and rebuilding meeting business post-COVID-19, was made virtually on February 10, 2021.

Following a recap of fiscal year 2020 successes and challenges, Visit Jackson executive staff members laid out objectives for the current fiscal year, which runs October 2020 through September 2021, and identified strategies to further position Jackson as a contender to earn its share of the travel market.

“We are grateful for the strong partnerships that have been established throughout the year,” said Visit Jackson President and CEO Rickey Thigpen of strengthened ties with the City of Jackson, Downtown Jackson Partners, the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership and countless others. “These relationships enhance our ability to provide more comprehensive and collective resources to our industry specifically and our destination stakeholders in general.”

Overall Strategy

Visit Jackson will focus on destination and tourism development projects, monitoring consumer behavior through research, aggressive marketing campaigns to promote safer travel and a refashioning of itself to be more impactful to locals.

Additional non-traditional tactical focus areas for Visit Jackson are social justice, government relations, tourism industry workforce development and human rights issues.

Bring Back Meetings

Amidst all the convention and meeting cancellations, postponements, and budget adjustments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Visit Jackson remains supportive and relevant with meeting planners., locally and nationally.

Sales efforts to prospect clients include in-person and virtual visits, tradeshow attendance, organized client events, site inspections and familiarization tours,

Strengthening Brand Awareness and Destination Pride

Now, more so than ever, stakeholders and their constituent base need to see positive impacts of tourism promotion and sales efforts.

A Longwoods International consumer sentiment study found that locals overwhelmingly view tourism in Jackson positively and are ready to welcome visitors back to the area.

Visit Jackson has launched local initiatives through its City With Soul and MY CITY brands to produce more community exposure. Both brands, but primarily City With Soul, will be more prominent in Jackson’s venues, attractions, & public facilities. The aim is to have locals embrace those brands and understand the economic impact tourists bring to the city.

Watch the full marketing plan presentation | View the organization’s Annual Report

About Visit Jackson

Visit Jackson is the official destination leadership organization for the city of Jackson. The bureau serves Jackson by positively impacting the city’s economy through recruitment and procurement of meetings and tourism activities.

Created in 1983, Visit Jackson acts as a quasi-independent government agency reauthorized by the state legislature and governed by an independently appointed board of directors with members representing the hotel, restaurant, attraction, art, and education sectors.

Media Contact: Kim Lewis – klewis@visitjackson.com or 601.354.2553 for interviews, statements and story ideas.