State steps up tourism marketing

A summertime promotion by the Nevada Commission on Tourism marks the first time the agency has sold packages directly to visitors.

It appears to be paying off.

The commission this month kicked off an advertising campaign in which it's selling vacation packages including hotel rooms, golf, shop-and-dine experiences, ATV adventures and the like directly to visitors.

It's a departure from the state's usual tourism advertising, which has been brand-oriented and left the direct selling to individual properties.

"In this economy, we can't just tell people how great Nevada is," says Bethany Drysdale, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Commission on Tourism. "We have to offer them something of value."

About 150 hotel properties have signed on. All of the packages they offer aren't available on other Web sites such as Expedia, and some of them are offered exclusively through the Nevada Commission on Tourism Web site, www.TravelNevada.com.

Packages that were developed exclusively for the state program also are listed on the tourism agency's new mobile Web site, http://NV.mobi. Five of the exclusive packages are featured each day on the trimmed down sites for users of mobile devices.

Northern Nevada packages range from wilderness pack trips at Jarbridge to a Shakespeare-and-golf offering developed by Grand Sierra Resort, Lakeridge Golf Course, the Resort at Red Hawk and the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival.

The commission also is supporting the direct-sales campaign with advertising at Bay Area Rapid Transit stations in San Francisco and inside BART cars.

Drysdale says traffic at www.TravelNevada.com doubled within the first couple of days after the campaign was rolled out. Traffic at the mobile Web site, which had been slow to gain traction, now runs at about 2,500 hits a day.