Atlanta,
GA – October 2021 / Newsmaker Alert / At the recent Travel
South Ultimate Ad Challenge, southern state tourism offices gathered
to hear pitches from print and digital marketing companies, including Bandwango,
the Utah-based technology company. Bandwango presented a unique offering
for the state tourism offices gathered - a discounted license that would
enable the states to craft check-in challenge style passports built around
a theme or set of attractions.
“The
day of the Travel South Ad Challenge was one of the most exciting days
in Bandwango history,” Monir Parikh, CEO of Bandwango, said. “We have been
absolutely thrilled by the ideas these clients have brought to the table,
and we’re looking forward to long partnerships with each of them. These
passports are just the beginning!”
Alabama
Tourism, Kentucky Tourism, Louisiana Office of Tourism, Missouri Division
of Tourism, Tennessee Tourism, West Virginia Tourism, Visit North Carolina,
South Carolina Tourism Department, and Visit Mississippi, are planning
the most creative collection of passes I have ever seen, shared Liz Bittner,
President & CEO of Travel
South USA. These unlimited passes offer the consumer an easy digital
way to connect and receive info about the fascinating, quirky, beautiful,
remote, one-of-a-kind places and activities that make the South like nowhere
else in the world. This type of collaboration on programming offers state
tourism offices to co-op regional marketing promotions and leverage their
buying power with particular attention to small towns, undiscovered areas,
and off-the-beaten-path places.
Three
states have already launched their first passports with Bandwango:
Kentucky
Tourism, Louisiana Office of Tourism, and Tennessee Department of Tourist
Development.
Kentucky
Tourism’s Parks Pass launched in August 2021 and features 44 state
parks and 8 National Park properties. The pass is gamified and encourages
all pass holders to check in to win various prizes! Passholders who check
in to 5 parks will receive a koozie or pair of sunglasses, while those
who check-in at all locations will receive a branded t-shirt and be entered
in to win the Ultimate Park Prize package. This package includes a Kentucky
State Park Overnight, a $100 State Parks Gift Card, plus an adventure prize
package including a kayak, paddle, and life jacket.
Louisiana’s
Office of Tourism crafted their “The
Unusual is Our Usual Pass” to support their existing brand campaign
by the same name. The passport features check-in points that celebrate
the weird, kooky and out-there places Louisiana is best known for - including
the Castle Tree and the Haunted Gothic Hanging Jail. Passholders who check
in to 8 locations win a mystery prize!
Tennessee’s
Department of Tourist Development is using the Bandwango platform to take
their Ken
Burns’ Country Music Passport | TN Vacation digital. In previous years,
the initiative leveraged paper passports to guide visitors along the pathway.
West
Virginia’s Department of Tourism will be utilizing Bandwango to spotlight
the state’s 20+ waterfalls. Alabama is curating their state-wide attraction
pass. Both states along with passes for the Missouri Division of Tourism,
Visit Mississippi, Visit North Carolina, and South Carolina Tourism are
expected to launch in Winter and early Spring 2022.
About
Bandwango
Bandwango
(Bandwango.com) is a technology
company based out of Murray, Utah, with more than 250 Destination Marketing
Organization (DMO), Convention & Visitor Bureau (CVB) and other clients
across the United States and Canada. Bandwango’s signature product, the
Destination Experience Engine
(DXE), enables clients to curate free and paid experiences into passports,
trails, and marketplaces designed to deliver the best tickets, tours, and
savings to locals and visitors alike. DXE is an end-to-end solution that
combines anywhere, merchant and inventory management, redemption technology,
white-labeled mobile web application delivery, customer service, managed
accounting, and true economic impact data to provide a seamless solution
to destination marketing organizations, associations, and other industry
partners.
About
Travel South USA
Travel
South USA is America’s oldest and largest regional travel promotion
organization, formed in 1965. The long-standing regional collaboration
of the state tourism offices of Alabama,
Arkansas,
Georgia,
Kentucky,
Louisiana,
Mississippi,
Missouri,
North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee,
Virginia
and West Virginia provides a foundation
to positively position tourism as a vital and dynamic element in the region’s
economic development. In 2019, tourism ranked throughout the region as
one of the top three industries, behind manufacturing and agriculture,
and was responsible for $133 billion in spending by visitors, generating
1.4 million direct jobs, $30 billion in worker paychecks, and almost $16
billion in state and local taxes. Visit
TravelSouthUSA.com
for consumer information and TravelSouthUSA.org
for travel industry information.
Contact:
Angelica
De Stefano
Travel
South USA
Manager,
Communications & Events
404-231-1790
ext. 106
Travel
South USA: Facebook
/ Twitter / YouTube |