Guest Commentary

By LORELEI WEIMER

What do you call combining resources to cost-effectively attract tourists to Indiana’s northern region and county-specific attractions?

I call that brilliant marketing and the reasoning behind the formation of Northern Indiana Tourism Development Commission (NITDC).

As president of NITDC, it is my goal to increase employment and economic development throughout Northern Indiana by focusing on the needs of visitors.

Created almost 20 years ago, NITDC includes Porter, LaPorte, St. Joseph, Marshall, Kosciusko, Elkhart and LaGrange counties. Additionally, outside of NITDC, Porter and LaPorte Counties work with the Lake County Convention and Visitors Bureau on tri-county projects that benefit the region.

NITDC’s sole purpose is to promote Northern Indiana through strategic, collaborative community relations and marketing that drives tourism into the region. Our motto is, “What can we do together, that we cannot do on our own?”

The secret to NITDC’s regional success is allowing individual Northern Indiana Convention & Visitor Bureaus (CVBs) to work together collaboratively when it makes sense, while maintaining our distinctive identities and individual promotional initiatives aimed at attracting tourists to our respective counties.

The member CVBs work together to provide credible on-demand travel information, promoting distinct visitor experiences based on travelers needs and providing an overall positive image of Northern Indiana.

NITDC has a unique partnership with the Indiana Office of Tourism Development and Indiana Toll Road. The Indiana Office of Tourism serves as our key strategic planner and helps us reach out to the Chicago, Indianapolis and Detroit markets, all of which are within a three-hour drive of our counties and offer over 32 million potential tourists combined. For the Indiana Toll Road, which is traveled by over 100 million motorists per year, NITDC provides and manages travel information at 10 travel plazas, both east and westbound, visited by over 15 million guests annually.

To leverage each county’s promotional dollars as much as possible, NITDC combines some of its resources to purchases 30 ads in five issues of Midwest Living magazine and 26 weeks of ads in the travel section of The Chicago Tribune each year. Thanks to the pooling of member contributions, our funds are leveraged 15 times annually, generating over $1 million dollars in advertising placements directed at bringing tourists to Northern Indiana.

We have found the successful formula to significantly enhance our marketing power and tourism draw. In fact, by partnering with NITDC, tourism in Porter County has grown by an average of 10 percent each year since 2004 and LaPorte County saves each household $1,148 on their taxes annually.

We achieved regional success without giving up our individual CVB promotional efforts, driving tourists to each county’s unique attractions and amenities.

For more information on NITDC’s efforts, go to: www.northernindianagetaways.com

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Lorelei Weimer, Executive Director, Porter County Convention, Recreation & Visitor Commission, is serving as president of the Northern Indiana Tourism Development Commission. She can be reached at Lorelei@IndianaDunes.com

Posted 10/11/2007