Annual Meeting Celebrates New Marketing Assets, Tourism Awards

Special to 1812Blockhouse

More than 150 members of the Richland County tourism industry filed into Kingwood Center Gardens last week through a tunnel of dramatic new images of the area’s many assets. Attendees were treated to an immersive show of the diversity of the county’s destination marketing organization latest marketing assets. Three screens splashed a never-before-seen gallery of photos and video that bring the region’s new tourism brand to life.

“No one has captured our region in the way that we have in the past year,” Destination Mansfield-Richland County President Lee Tasseff told the crowd. “Our goal was to frame our story in ways no one’s ever thought of with images and messaging that inspire the imagination of potential visitors and can stand up to any destination.”

In the wake of the pandemic, Destination Mansfield-Richland County spent 2022 building up its arsenal of effective new marketing tools that tell branded stories of Richland County’s many engaging communities and tourism experiences. Those efforts included capturing a wealth of rich community assets in engaging video and stunning photography. They’ll be used in traditional and social media, content development, paid marketing campaigns, DestinationMansfield.com and future visitor guides. Investments also included a fully-branded welcome sign complete with QR Code, to welcome new aviation travelers to Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport. It was a part of an aviation tourism awareness campaign to tap a new market – aviation travelers – for the region.

“By rebuilding key assets that will last, we now have dynamic new ways to introduce our area to visitors as well as potential residents,” said Tasseff. “By shining a light on the many unforgettable experiences that await visitors, the entire region benefits from increased visitor spending and economic development.”

Thanks in part to these new tools, 2022 marketing successes included generating significant national and regional publicity to drive tourism in the county. Public relations efforts generated 22.2 billion impressions that told Mansfield & Richland County’s story to travelers across the state, the US and beyond by reaching media outlets across the US, as well as global audiences.

The meeting capped off with Destination Mansfield’s annual Tourism Awards of Excellence, which recognize 15 industry members who developed, improved or materially transformed their attraction or business since the start of the pandemic.

“These individuals and businesses not only transformed themselves, but their efforts have transformed our community, when looked at together,” Tasseff said. “We wanted to recognize the vision and perseverance during the pandemic that made us better as a community as well as a tourism destination.”