LTVA Bulletin – November

Welcome to the November edition of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority’s South Shore Bulletin. Our aim is to highlight tourism trends, strategies, initiatives, and programs that increase visitor awareness, support our community and environment, and strengthen our economy.

2022/2023 Year in Review – Video

The LTVA was represented at the City of SLT Council meeting on Tuesday, November 7th. The South Lake Tahoe Tourism Improvement District Annual Report and Year in Review video was presented and well received. Watch our Year in Review video here.

Heavenly Holidays

Heavenly Holidays Family Festival is returning to South Lake Tahoe for another year of holiday fun for adults and children alike. This year we will have new activities and locations. The event will run from November 24th to December 31st in the Heavenly Village and features a variety of holiday activities. There’s a daily tree-lighting ceremony, an ice sculpture contest, breakfast with Santa, a chance to meet your favorite Disney characters, a winter film festival, Ferris wheel, and more. All of this leads up to a New Year’s Eve celebration featuring an awesome fireworks show with great live music.

Marketing Update – Fall Campaign

Fall creative was launched across all media channels in September. Target markets included Los Angeles, Phoenix, AZ, San Diego, Las Vegas, Seattle/Portland (for the sustainable audience), San Francisco, and Sacramento. In addition, we deployed print ads via GQ, Travel + Leisure, and Conde Nast magazines.

Since launching the Fall creative, all campaigns have seen an average click through rate (CTR) increase of +8% and conversion rate +31%. The affluent audience saw the largest increase in CTR +23% and conversion rate +429%.

Examples of fall creative:

Sales Update

Visit Lake Tahoe hosted two international FAMs in the month of October in cooperation with Visit California.

• The U.K. FAM had both travel trade and media components, bridging a total of 12 participants to experience Lake Tahoe as a part of the promoted Northern California fly/drive itinerary.
• The Australia FAM was supported by United Airlines, bringing the top 7 agents from Helloworld in support of the newly announced daily flight between Brisbane and San Francisco.

Did You Know?

• Nearly half of Americans (48%) intend to travel over the holiday season, up from 31% last year.
• Of those planning to travel, six in 10 plan to take a vacation including paid lodging while the remainder plan to only travel to visit friends and family.
• The duration and frequency of holiday travel this year is expected to be slightly shorter than last.