Tool #5: Bringing tourists to the arts
One of the two requirements for utilizing HOT is that the activity “may be used only to promote tourism and the convention and hotel industry.” This tool will provide suggestions on ways you can both promote the arts and directly impact tourism and the hotel and convention industry in your city.
Connect with your local visitors bureau to gain a better understanding of the interests and demographics of the tourists visiting your town.
Develop an advertising and promotion plan that reaches an audience outside of the local market including regional, statewide, and national outlets, as well as social media. This promotion should advertise your arts event specifically, but also your town and the venue more generally: “Come for the symphony, stay for [YOUR TOWN HERE]’s beautiful location and charming downtown!” Add appropriate links to hotels, restaurants, and other businesses when you are promoting online, and be sure to mention any negotiated special rates (like discounted hotel nights) that might further incentivize visitors.
Book a venue that is easily accessed by both locals and tourists such as a hotel or convention center in addition to local arts venues. If your event is one day only, consider hosting an opening reception the evening prior to encourage attendees to book an overnight stay. Or, schedule a special breakfast event to follow an evening program.
Schedule your arts event during your community’s slow season to bring valuable tourist dollars to town when many hotels, restaurants, and retail businesses are anxious to fill rooms, tables and stores. This can also be advantageous for you when you are negotiating rental and other costs. A win-win!
Negotiate a block of rooms at a special rate for overnight stays associated with your program or event. Tool #7 will expand on the many ways you can partner with a local hotel that benefits both parties.
Toolkit Tip:
You’re likely going to hear the phrase 'heads in beds' from your elected officials and elsewhere as you move through this process. This refers to the idea of measuring impact based on the number of overnight stays in a local hotel, B&B, etc. (literally, how many heads are in how many beds).
It’s important to know that while arts organizations receiving HOT funds must show a direct impact on tourism, overnight stays are not the only eligible means for directly impacting tourism and the hotel and convention industry. This toolkit includes a myriad of ways arts organizations/ artists/ sponsored projects may capture evidence of a direct impact on tourism and the convention and hotel industry. This list can be accessed with the TFA/THLA Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) (see resources below).
Additionally, each municipality has local discretion to impose their own HOT reporting requirements, and therefore it’s possible your local HOT funds may be tied in some way to this concept of measuring impact by a requirement to count overnight hotel stays. Take a look at the language, and reach out to Texans for the Arts Foundation should you find that overnight hotel stays are the only measurement being required in HOT fund reporting.
Remember: In discussions with elected officials, it’s always a good idea to discuss how the arts not only enrich the community, but also boost the local economy and improve tourism. This is why it’s important to expand the discussion to the many ways that arts related programs can directly impact tourism and the hotel and convention industry.
