EPR has created dozens of media relations campaigns designed to drive visitors to its clients who represent top hotels, attractions and cities. In addition, it has developed programs targeting meeting planners and influencers.
We can assist with:
- Hotel, distillery and attraction grand openings
- Group and individual press trips
- Foster ticket sales by working with influencer groups
- Support event bookings by tapping into EPR’s extensive network of meeting and event planners.
- Position key stakeholder as industry expert by generating interviews.
- Visitor Campaigns
Travel & Tourism Experience
Examples: Estes crafted a media and meeting planner event in Chicago for Louisville Tourism centered around bourbon. We enlisted the help of Wild Turkey master distillery Jimmy Russell to create a special evening featuring a Louisville chef, Kentucky cuisine, bourbon tastings and entertainment. Regional meeting planners and media were invited to attend this reception-style event.
The city of Hilton Head Island enlisted EPR to create awareness of its culinary community among the James Beard Foundation and its members. EPR created a low country evening featuring chefs, spirits and ingredients from Hilton Head Island at the prestigious James Beard Foundation’s culinary center in New York. In addition, they set up deskside media appointments.
The B-Line
Although Northern Kentucky is the official gateway to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, the Northern Kentucky Convention & Visitors Bureau (meetNKY) created “The B-Line” to help bring additional recognition to the region. The B-Line is a self-guided bourbon trail highlighting more than two dozen restaurants, bars, distilleries, shops and other bourbon-centric attractions throughout Covington, Newport, Independence, Burlington, Sparta, Augusta, and Maysville.
In 2022, on behalf of meetNKY, Estes Public Relations launched a six-month campaign to build brand awareness around The B-Line as a bourbon-centric destination for consumers interested in culinary and bourbon travel. EPR’s campaign included crafting successful pitches, curating three-day itineraries for media attending, booking travel and coordinating logistics, and providing additional information and assets needed.
As the result of this campaign, Estes Public Relations generated more than 40 articles with a UVM of 205,858,104 and an estimated ad value equivalency of $1.9 million.
According to the findings of Zartico, in 2022, 75.9 million travelers (about twice the population of California) visited Kentucky, spending $8.9 billion across Kentucky with the Northern Kentucky region representing the second-largest impact region in the state at $1.95 million. This was an 18% increase from 2021 with the growing interest in bourbon being cited as a top reason visitors are coming to Kentucky.