Every year, Kentucky invites visitors from across the country and around the world to experience its attractions, including bourbon country, horse farms, bluegrass music, natural parks and historic sites.
Travel plays an essential role in stimulating Kentucky’s economic growth, cultivating vibrant communities, creating quality job opportunities and inspiring new businesses. In 2023, visitor-supported jobs accounted for more than 3.5% of all jobs in the state.
In their continuing effort to attract even more guests to Kentucky communities, the Kentucky Department of Tourism, the official travel and tourism entity for the state of Kentucky, has developed a cooperative marketing program for local convention and visitor bureaus that offers a strategic mix of channels, creative services, negotiated rates and detailed reporting.
Multiplier effect in communities
The Department of Tourism is riding high on two straight record-breaking years, generating $13.8 billion in economic impact in 2023 (up from $7.9 billion in 2019) and supporting over 95,000 jobs.
The Kentucky Tourism co-op marketing program serves as an opportunity for local tourism offices to increase awareness and attract qualified audiences through print and digital marketing placements. Local and regional DMOs (destination marketing organizations) such as Louisville Tourism, Paducah Tourism or VisitLex rely on its annual publication when purchasing advertising media.
“We put in marketing options for every budget level, no matter the size of the tourism commission or their budget,” said Mike Mangeot, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Tourism. “We don’t want this to be exclusive to only folks or organizations with large budgets. A lot of our partners (DMOs) want to be associated with the Department of Tourism, so being able to go in jointly in marketing gives everybody a bite of the apple, if you will.”
Funding for the co-op marketing program is generated through the 1% statewide transit tax, the transient room tax, as is the bulk of the Tourism Commission’s budget. The reimbursement formula for DMOs is at the 90% level when they are marketing in what is considered an owned asset of Kentucky Tourism like the Official Visitor’s Guide, the Kentucky Tourism website, and some targeted newsletters.
“Anything outside of that is reimbursed at the 50% level, which is still very, very generous compared to other programs that I’ve seen around the country,” Mangeot said. “Tourism has such a multiplier effect in communities. So, we try to track everything for economic impact versus the marketing dollars we’re putting out. If the ROI (return on investment) is not working, we switch it out the next year.”
“In addition, we take input from the DMO partners on what they might like to see in the future,” Mangeot said. “So, it really is not just a cooperative relationship, it’s also a very collaborative relationship with our partners.”
Expanding media opportunities
Every year, DMOs like Somerset-Pulaski County Tourism take advantage of the state’s co-op marketing program.
“It’s an opportunity to use different media outlets at discounted rates. It allows us to use media that we may not know about, introducing us to more advertising opportunities like digital media or paid social,” said Michelle Allen, executive director of Somerset-Pulaski County Tourism.
“Our economic impact figures for 2023 stood at $150.9 million, the highest Somerset-Pulaski County has ever had,” said Allen. American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds accessed through Kentucky Tourism has allowed Somerset-Pulaski Tourism to work with other destinations and organizations, broadening their visibility even more.
Notably, the Lake Cumberland Wayfinding project is a five-county project that drew on the resources of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“All new signage along Lake Cumberland would not be possible without their expertise and labor,” Allen said. “A project like this has not been done in the Lake Cumberland region and wouldn’t have been possible without our state legislators and the Kentucky Department of Tourism. This project has made Lake Cumberland more aesthetically pleasing, making the lake more navigable and creating a safety component for our locals and visitors.”
In-state vs. out-of-state reach
Tourism Commissioner Mangeot sees educating those outside of Kentucky to the wonders of Kentucky as one of the state’s biggest hurdles, but lessons learned from the pandemic helped crystallize his strategy.
“Pre-pandemic, I was a very big believer that the state’s money should be used out-of-state to drive new visitors into Kentucky,” Mangeot said. “There are a lot of reasons for this, including the higher ROI for dollars spent when people come from out of state or out of the country. And our biggest challenge is that we’re unknown as a travel destination. People don’t know what we have to offer, but once we get them here, our research shows not only do they all in love with Kentucky, they also become repeat visitors and advocates for us to other folks to visit.
“But during the pandemic, when we couldn’t really advertise out of state, we changed tack and started advertising in-state and telling people, ‘Hey, why not visit your own backyard?’” Mangeot said. “Maybe you’ve been to My Old Kentucky Home State Park when you were a kid, but have you seen it lately? We saw very positive growth from that strategy, so now we keep a good portion or a bigger portion of our media budget in-state. But overall, the majority of our focus is out of state. I would say 75 to 80% is out of state.”
Garden & Gun partnership
Larger tourism offices like Louisville Tourism find greater value in Kentucky Tourism’s advertising offerings with national reach that target out-of-state travelers over the co-op marketing program.
“We strategically choose not to utilize these programs as they are geared toward smaller destination marketing organizations that likely have limited marketing resources,” said Rosanne Mastin, communications and public affairs manager for Louisville Tourism. “Using these shared resources and programming is beneficial to them, and we don’t want to take any financial support away from smaller organizations.
“When Kentucky’s state tourism advertising campaigns tout Louisville brand pillars, they bring more awareness and attention to Louisville’s iconic attractions, culinary, bourbon and ‘Southern-ness’ to help us stand out against the competition,” Mastin added.
“Considering Louisville competes with every other travel destination, we know cutting through the noise to reach potential visitors and getting them to put Louisville on their consideration list is our primary challenge,” Mastin said. “A prime example is Chicago, which is our biggest market and where a myriad of other DMOs are also spending advertising dollars, making it difficult to stand out.”
A recent success story is Bourbon Country Distilled, a program that came from aligning several counties together for a common goal: to drive more awareness and visitation to Kentucky, but more specifically, “Bourbon Country.”
The program partnered with Garden & Gun magazine to craft an exclusive journey through Bourbon Country, spanning five counties (Jefferson, Oldham, Fayette, Bullitt and Nelson) and showcasing a remarkable array of personalities, arts, cuisine, libations and, naturally, bourbon. There were over 60 Kentucky personalities who participated, from Ed Lee, Ouita Michel and John Carloftis to Fred Noe and Rob Samuels. There were also nine local bands and musicians.
The events were held at both new and historic locations like Castle & Key Distillery, Keeneland Racecourse, Garden Court and Clayton & Crume. It was billed as a six-day event with unique experiences curated by Garden & Gun showcasing Kentucky’s Bourbon Country.
Courting luxury and international markets
When developing marketing to break into new geographic and demographic area, it’s all about building a story and letting people know about Kentucky, says Tourism Commissioner Mangeot.
“We were very intentional a couple of years ago to look at three markets that we really hadn’t focused on, and those were the LGBTQ+ market, the Black travel market and Hispanic travelers,” Mangeot said. “We saw some great engagement and have continued those marketing efforts.”
“Until 10 or 15 years ago, Kentucky couldn’t really market to the luxury segment,” Mangeot said. “But today, with private barrel picks at most of the distilleries, the new hotel properties that have come on, the curated experiences, the glamping and these uber-cool and luxurious tree houses in Eastern Kentucky, that gives us another segment to focus on.
“And from an international standpoint, there’s a lot of opportunity there,” Mangeot said. “The gateways like United Kingdom, Germany, France. Canada is our No. 1 international market visiting here. The key for international is how much they spend — almost seven times more per capita on a daily basis than a domestic traveler. So, we’re ramping up there.”
