Santa Monica Travel & Tourism Trade and Public Relations Teams Head to ILTM
SMTT Director of Business Development, Brian Wright, SMTT Public Relations Manager, Lauren Salisbury, and destination partner Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows traveled with Visit California to participate in the trade and media tracks of the International Luxury Travel Market (ITLM) held in Cannes, France. The leading global event for the luxury travel industry, ILTM brings more than 1,500 of the world’s most well known and influential luxury travel buyers to France for three days of back-to-back, one-on-one appointments, providing a unique platform to showcase all the properties, attractions, and restaurants that Santa Monica has to offer.
SMTT attended the show as an exhibitor with Visit California, highlighting the “Golden State of Luxury.” California is the only state that participates in ILTM, bringing even more global attention to the destinations within the Golden State. At the kickoff event, Visit California also announced that Santa Monica will be the host city for its newest luxury event, Connections California Luxury, bringing in 40 of the worlds top producing luxury travel operators and bespoke travel arrangers in March of this year.
Additionally, SMTT’s Public Relations team met with 35 media across three events at ILTM Cannes, including Forbes Travel Guide, the Wall Street Journal, AFAR Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar Brazil. The PR track then continued to Milan for two days of media events to connect with more than 50 representatives of the Italian media industry, exposing journalists and digital influencers with the luxury offerings throughout the state. Key outlets in attendance included the Italian editions of Elle, Vogue and Vanity Fair online. A luxury briefing with marketing representatives from The Leading Hotels of the World and Ferragamo, a luxury fashion brand, also revealed insights into the Italian luxury sector.
Dashboard Update: FY 18/19 Mid-Year Recap
July 1, 2018 marked the beginning of Santa Monica Travel & Tourism’s (SMTT) new fiscal year, and the launch of its FY 18-19 international sales and marketing plan. SMTT implemented various trade, consumer, and public relations campaigns in its target markets of Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States. SMTT expanded its international portfolio securing official trade and public relations representation in India and continuing its exploration of the China market.
Core tactics employed include sales calls, travel agent/tour operator trainings, trade shows, familiarization tours, marketing campaigns to drive hotel bookings and heighten brand awareness, partner engagements, and public relations/media events. In addition, SMTT has leveraged digital technology with the implementation of social media & influencer campaigns, virtual reality and a reporting dashboard system.
Quick Facts:
During the first half of FY 18-19, Santa Monica Travel & Tourism…
- Has engaged in a total of over 555 activities, impacting 4,996 participants
- Has hosted 16 Familiarization (FAM) tours, impacting 192 participants
- 44% of FAM participants stayed in a Santa Monica hotel
- 60% were Media/PR FAMs; 40% Trade FAMs
- Attended 10 Trade shows including IPW, Luxperience, ILTM, and Active America
- Garnered media coverage in over 169 publications with a combined media value of $2.1 million and reaching over 188 million people across the globe.
- Conducted 432 sales calls, 51 sales trainings, 4 sales missions, 48 events, 3 partner engagements
- Launched 3 campaigns aligning with top brands such as 7 Travel, Miles Attack, and Excite Holidays with a combined reach of over 11,600 people
- 97.58% of activities are Trade; 2.23% MICE; 0.19% PR
- Chinese social media platforms Weibo and WeChat average of over 127,400 page views per month
- United Kingdom is the #1 market for international traffic received to the SMTT website, followed by Australia and India
- New York City is the #1 market for domestic traffic received to the SMTT website, followed by Chicago and Phoenix
How to Work with SMTT
Want to improve your tourism business? Santa Monica Travel & Tourism can assist to increase your tourism revenues through a number of marketing, advertising (Official Visitor Guide & Map) public relations and sales opportunities.
For more information, please find contacts for each department below or visit Santa Monica Travel & Tourism’s Business Opportunities page.
Marketing & Interactive: marketing@santamonica.com
Public & Community Relations: media@santamonica.com
Partnership Opportunities: Visit santamonica.com/partnership-opportunities for more information
