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ECC UGENE ITY OUNCIL AIS GENDA TEM UMMARY Work Session: Tourism Update Meeting Date: March 11, 2009 Agenda Item Number: C Department: Central Services/City Manager’s Office Staff Contact: Jan Bohman www.eugene-or.gov Contact Telephone Number: 682-5587 ISSUE STATEMENT Representatives from the Convention and Visitors Association of Lane County Oregon (CVALCO), (recently renamed Travel Lane County) will present information on their new organizational name and marketing brand for Lane County. BACKGROUND The tourism industry is a vital component of Lane County’s economy. Annually, Lane County’s visitor industry generates more than $573 million dollars for the local economy and supports 7,570 jobs. CVALCO is the City’s lead partner in marketing the area to visitors. CVALCO needs to remain competitive in the marketplace to garner the greatest return from the county’s investment in tourism marketing. Under its current branding, CVALCO faced challenges with its organizational name, as well as its county-focused marketing strategy and consequently embarked on developing a new brand identity for its countywide tourism marketing efforts. The results include a new organizational name, slogan and an overall marketing focus that centers on Eugene’s name recognition as a key part of the identity. Kari Westlund, president and CEO of CVALCO, will present information on this new direction. As of March 2, 2009, the association is now called Travel Lane County and will market the destination as Eugene, Cascades & Coast, with the slogan "Real Adventures. Real Close." Following the culmination of nearly a year of research and planning, the new brand and logo design focuses on key findings. The brand name of Eugene, Cascades & Coast centers on the area's most recognizable community and county territories from a visitor's perspective. The new brand further emphasizes research results indicating Lane County’s strength in offering travelers easily accessible adventures within authentic, natural settings. Meanwhile, CVALCO’s name change to Travel Lane County reflects a growing alignment that convention and visitor associations are making across the state, including Travel Oregon, Travel Portland and Travel Salem. The new brand strategy will also be explored in the form of a new adventure-focused visitor center located in Springfield’s Gateway area near I-5, increasing efforts to connect with thousands more travelers. Development of the visitor and tourism industry relates closely to the City Council’s goal to strengthen and promote Eugene’s unique combination of arts and outdoors assets as a community-wide sustainable economic development strategy. The action plan for the council’s Arts and Outdoors goal outlines two Z:\CMO\2009 Council Agendas\M090311\S090311C.doc