The Capital City/Lake Murray Country (CCLMC) Regional Tourism Board’s Annual Meeting was held August 6. The Annual Meeting provides the organization an opportunity for the community and political allies to learn what the organization does each year to promote tourism and economic development.
“Capital City/Lake Murray Country has not missed a beat. In fact, we have created some pretty big waves during what some may have used for downtime. Our staff and our region remains tourism strong and Lake Murray strong,” said Miriam Atria, President/CEO of the organization.
Last year, the regional tourism board created a new tourism marketing campaign, STAYcation. This year, the campaign promoted both a STAYcation offer for locals and included PLAYcation packages for potential visitors. The campaign was heavily marketed on social media and produced 7500 direct signups for interested and potential visitors to the region.
The organization’s marketing investment for the year was $592,762. This amount was significantly cut due to Covid-19. This marketing investment represents 47 percent of the budget and provided a return on investment with an estimated advertising value of $99,486,679. In addition, forty articles were published about the region since March 2002, on area attractions, virtual tours and social distancing on outside adventures. The strongest article featured Congaree National Park, providing over 2 billion media impressions.
Although many fishing events on Lake Murray were postponed, they have all been rescheduled for 2020/2021. CCLMC will host the World Bass USA event in November 2021 as well as the National Collegiate Bass Pro Shop Tournament. Also, the FLW Bass Pro Circuit and Big Bass Tour by Oakley arrive in April/May to Lake Murray. These three events will generate more than 2800 room nights. The organization also announced there is more to come with major events in the process of being booked. Stay tuned for those announcements.
The regional tourism office also spent downtime during the COVID-19 crisis remodeling and updating the museum at the Lake Murray Country Visitor Center. Stop by and see the renovations and learn about the region. The center is open to the public Monday through Thursday, 9 am – 5 pm; Friday, 9 am – 4 pm and Saturday, 10 am – 2 pm.
Photo: Reopening of the Visitors Center.
