Greater Rochester Visitors Association Inc

Tourism/Leisure Marketing: Tourism marketing and development attracts out-of-town leisure visitors who spend time and money at Monroe County attractions, cultural institutions, festivals and events, and in recreational pursuits. The leisure market creates the most personal impressions of the area because of how visitors spend their time and what they experience while here. Monroe County has significant appeal to leisure travelers and is geographically located to capitalize on its internationally known attractions.(Continued on Schedule O)GRVA's tourism and marketing division develops and implements advertising programs, collateral distribution systems, resource enhancement programs, market promotions, and travel-trade partnerships that reach broad tourism markets and special interest groups. Many programs are developed in collaboration with GRVA member organizations and with regional destination marketing partners including entities in the Finger Lakes region and Erie Canal Corridor.Target markets include:- A major focus for year-round visitation encompassing markets within a 250-mile radius including Canadian populations, attracted through digital, print, connected tv, and ooh tactics. - Family travelers from the downstate region of New York state, I-81 corridor in Pennsylvania, and surrounding drive-in markets including western Massachusetts, Vermont, and Cleveland, Ohio. These visitors are attracted through a major campaign that includes digital, print, and connect tv.- Travelers who are already in, or planning visits to nearby regions with an ability to include our county in their travels- International visitors who are traveling by ground transportation from New York City to Niagara Falls, attracted through a program called Wine, Water, and Wonders of New York State in conjunction with Corning Museum of Glass, Finger Lakes Tourism Alliance, Destination Niagara USA, Visit Ithaca, Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, Hudson Valley Tourism, Discover Long Island, and Delta Air Lines- Group tour/travel trade, attracted through direct sales programs and with the help of packaged visits that include nearby attractions, wineries, etc.- Encouraging local residents to invite their families and friendsGRVA estimates that a combined 2 million visitors came from at least 50 miles away, across all tourism segments (leisure, business-conventions and sporting event, and international) in 2024. Specific tracking of programs is difficult and research is generally accomplished with regional and state partners. Locally, anecdotal information provided by attractions, weekend and holiday hotel occupancy, comparative event attendance, and industry data tools is largely the source used to measure tourism and related expenditures. Activity indexes are used as a reliable source to help determine leisure interest and resulting business

Rochester NY Sports Commission:The Sports Commission initiates the direct sales contact with event holders throughout the United States, who can choose Monroe County as a location for a future event. All sales, marketing and administrative tasks are the full responsibility of the Visit Rochester sales department. This department works diligently to promote Monroe County through its sports marketing efforts. Programs include working with local facilities, tradeshows, direct marketing, familiarization tours and sales missions. The department highlights the important impact athletics have on our community's economic vitality and quality of life.(Continued on Schedule O)An important component to the success of our events is our relationship with the facilities and universities, that are able to host a sporting event. There is a very heavy lift involved in hosting events and with Visit Rochester's resources, we are able to work together to bring sports events to Monroe County. The local/regional residents, who run events and/or are affiliated with targeted sport events are also an important component on our success. These individuals can extend the sales efforts by cultivating their support for the bid process for Monroe County.In 2025, the Sports Commission: - Booked tournament and sports-related event business that collectively resulted in 168,606 delegates - Created 57,366 trackable room nights worth of future business for Monroe County lodging facilities