Marketing Navajo Nation Tourism
I was honored to create a nonprofit marketing program to support tourism development for the Navajo Nation. The program focused on driving demand for hospitality and recreational services in the remote and remarkably beautiful Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park and Lake Powell area.
Challenges
As I started working on this project, we were confronted with three daunting challenges:
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The houseboating marina under development was located in a totally unknown vacation destination.
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The marina was located a minimum of 100 miles from any potential feeder markets.
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There were no funds available for investment in a marketing program.
Research
I researched the possibility of obtaining federal or tribal grant funding and quickly determined that was not going to happen. Next, I contacted media in the marina’s likely feeder markets and (fortunately) found that local radio stations were interested in marketing partnerships that exchanged extensive advertising for houseboating vacation contest prizes. Several agreed to provide advertising and promotions in exchange for Monument Valley lodging and Lake Powell houseboat vacations.
Strategy
Our strategy for developing tourism to the Navajo Nation centered on the then in progress development of a Lake Powell houseboating marina
In addition to feeder market media partnerships, we also partnered with Goulding’s Lodge in Monument Valley, Utah Navajo Industries (the developer of the then under construction San Juan Marina), and the Economic Development office of the Navajo Nation
The San Juan Marina and Goulding’s Lodge provided our media partners with a vacation adventure package that included guest rooms at Goulding’s and houseboat vacations at the marina. Utah Navajo Industries and the Economic Development Office provided development and start-up funding. And, our media partners (in feeder markets) provided San Juan Marina with thousands of ads and on-air contests and special events.
Results
Our for-profit partnerships generated radio advertising and promotional activities valued at more than $400,000 during the first season. Driven by this advertising and promotion, the marketing program generated a year 1 operating profit for the marina and supported several dozen well-paying jobs for Navajo families.
Please Contact Me
Please do contact me if your organization needs a little (or maybe a lot of) help taking your marketing campaign to the top of the Internet.