Visitor Satisfaction in Columbus

Tim Fulton 0:09Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, on the occasion of Columbus being named the highest in visitor satisfaction in the Midwest by J.D. Power and Associates, I moderated a panel at the Columbus Metropolitan Club to discuss the study, its impact, and how Columbus can capitalize on it. Today's episode is a recording of that panel discussion. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Enjoy the discussion.

CMC Host 0:57Today, CMC is honored to host a look in the mirror, so to speak, as we get to review and discuss highlights of a recent survey by J.D. Power that Columbus ranked highest in visitor satisfaction in the Midwest on the 2016 Destination Experiences Satisfaction Study. First, let's thank our sponsor today, Fogarty Mortine, represented by their friends and associates who join us today. Thank you. Now, let's meet our speakers. Please welcome Senior Visitor Experience Manager at Experience Columbus, Robbie Banks, President and CEO of Experience Columbus, Brian Ross, host of Confluence Cast podcast on Columbus Underground, and our host today, Tim Fulton, and Associate Practice Lead at J.D. Power, Jennifer Corwin. Jennifer will start us off with opening remarks, and then Tim will take over, and then we'll let the audience ask questions. Jennifer?

Jennifer Corwin 2:04Thank you so much to the CMC for hosting us here. I'm so happy to be here to, uh, really explain to you what a great award this is and, and what a great achievement this is for the city of Columbus. So we're really excited to explain it to you, 'cause I'm sure, uh, many of you have seen J.D. Power awards. Probably seen them associated with cars, right? So I wanted to explain to you first what J.D. Power does, what the Destination Experience study is, and why it's important that Columbus won it, and, and what, what this really means for the city. So first of all, J.D. Power is the voice of the customer in terms of research, right? We do... All of our research is self-funded. When we talk about syndicated studies, you can't buy a J.D. Power award, so you have to earn it. And you earn it because we go out, we ask your customers what they think about you, and in this case, it'd be visitors to the city of Columbus. And we ask your competitors as well. And so we do all the research. We don't let any specific brand or c- destination contribute their own sample or say, "Hey, make sure you survey these people. I know they got a good experience." We don't do that. It's all random sampling, and we use third-party panel providers to do this research. So, um, you might see some of those panels online that ask you for surveys. We use a, a very select group of verified panels to do our research. So we work across industries, as you may have s- auto's the big one, right? But we have studies in insurance, healthcare, financial services. And I work in travel and hospitality. So in travel and hospitality, we cover destinations, of course, but we started with hotels 20 years ago. Um, so we do hotel brand satisfaction work. Uh, we do airlines, we do airports, and we do rental cars. So basically, we cover every piece of travel and hospitality that we could think of, and destination is just our newest piece to really close the loop. When we talk about our experience in travel and hospitality, like I said, it goes back 20 years. And what we do is we publish all of these studies to the public. So we, we collect the respondents, right? We get all these surveys, we rank all the brands, and we publish it to the public, and it's so the consumer knows ahead of time, before they're planning their trip, you know, if I wanna pick the best hotel, I wanna pick the best destination in the Midwest, I'm gonna look to J.D. Power and I'm gonna pick this off this list. But then what we do is we come back to the destinations or the brands and we, we share that information. Um, and we say, you know, "Here's where you are. Would you like to know about your competitors? Would you like to know how you can get better? Uh, would you like to know how other people are improving? What's going on in the industry?" And so that's, that's really how our studies work. We do the study, then we go out and we share it afterwards. So you can't say, "Oh, I wanna be in the study." You don't have a choice. If we're gonna put you in the study, we're gonna put you in the study. The way we did the tr- this destination study was we took the top 50 destination travel markets, so. And we used, um, room nights sold for hotels to, to define that top 50. So we say, "The top 50 destinations, you're in the study." And then we said, "Well, if we compare the top 50 studies, that, or 50 destinations, that's, that's not really fair, right?" It's not fair to say, "Is Columbus the same as Vegas or Orlando?" So we had to make it a regional award, right? When we think about what, when a traveler... We're, we do all of our awards from the consumer perspective. So when a traveler picks a destination, they're often going to pick it based on how far they're willing to travel, the weather, the sorts of things they're looking to experience. So that's really why we went with a regional award, to make sure that the comparisons we're making t- when we send it back out to the consumer are fair. So we have the best in the Midwest, right? Columbus. And the important piece of that is this is based on what your visitors to Columbus said compared to what visitors to Chicago said about their destination experience in Chicago, or Detroit, or Indianapolis, any of these Midwest cities. It's your visitors compared to their visitors, and it's just about their experience one time. And so it could be random. They could have a great experience, as they did this year. Hopefully, they always do. Um, but it, it could be that one-off, you know, they don't. So we ask a variety of questions also. Our study covers everything from trip planning So what sources did you use? Where did you find the information? How easy was it to find the information? All the way through your stay. Where'd you stay? What'd you do while you were there? And then we cover, we wrap it all up with how much did you pay for all of that, and do you feel like you got a good value? So our study's pretty comprehensive. We had, for our 50 destinations, we collected 26,000 respondents, uh, from February of 2016 through July of 2016. So we normally try to cover a year in the travel space, but this was our first year of the study, so we thought six months got a really good snapshot. We got winter travelers. We got summer travelers. We got a good snapshot, and going forward the study will be a full year of data, so we'll collect everybody. Some of the other important things about the study, we try to collect the same amount of sample for same size cities. So we collect at least 400 responses per city, and that's important to make sure, you know, it's not like we're not basing this Columbus's highest ranked based off of, you know, 20 people that came here. It's 400 people compared to 400 people from Detroit or 400 people from Indianapolis, right? And we want to make sure when we make this study that we can keep everything up and up, right? We're, we're above board. So again, we're collecting the sample. No one else is contributing, it, to it, and no one can tamper with those people ahead of time. They don't know what we're asking. So our survey itself has 130 questions on it, over 130 questions. It's very comprehensive, and it is a long survey. If you're taking a survey online, you probably don't wanna take this one. Um, but it's, it's really, unless you really do have a lot to say about your experience, we cover every piece, like I said, 130 individual questions through six major areas. And th- we have major factor areas we call them, and they are travel and arrival. So how did you get there? That's a big portion of the rating, right? How you get to a destination. Is it easy to get to once you're there? Uh, we also have the infrastructure section. So once you're there, how did you get around? Was it easy? Was it safe? Was it clean? Those things. We ask about lodging. We ask about food and beverage. We ask about the activities you experience. So while you're there, did you go to a museum? Did you go to a zoo? Did you go to a game? What did you do? And then at the end, again, we wrap it all up with ask- asking how do you feel about the cost you paid for the lodging? How do you feel about the cost you paid for all your activities and any other fees, you know, parking, food and beverage, those things at the city. So that's the study in a nutshell itself. When we get into Columbus, right, obviously you're highest ranked, right? So that's great. That's a great achievement, and there's certain areas where Columbus did particularly well to achieve that highest rank, uh, things like infrastructure. So Columbus was seen as particularly safe when compared to the Midwest, uh, so that's a really, really important piece. But Columbus was also seen as easy to get around, and the clarity of signage was good. The infrastructure piece was great overall. Uh, you also did quite well in food and beverage. So the food and beverage in Columbus was recognized as, as being highest in the Midwest in terms of quality and, uh, convenience of location, availability, things like that. And lastly, the p- piece that Columbus did particularly well was value. So you're good value for the money in the services and things that you offer. Uh, some of the things Columbus scored very well in but was just a little underutilized. So things like activities, we did notice that Columbus scores well, but they're a little underutilized compared to other cities in the Midwest. Not many people are doing as many things as they could be. And one of the findings of our study we found was the more things people do in a city, uh, the more attached to the city they become, and the more satisfied they are overall, right? So if you can get someone to experience all your city has to offer like a local, then they're gonna fall in love with your city. And we find that that drives satisfaction, but it also drives revenue and spend. So one of our findings for the overall study, uh, the industry level, was that if you can move a person from just scoring an eight or nine in overall satisfaction, so our sc- satisfaction's on a 10-point scale, help- helps to clarify that. So if they're an eight or nine, which is really good, uh, but if you move them from an eight or a nine to a 10, it's an extra $252 in spend per trip. So when you multiply that out by the number of visitors, this is a substantial source of revenue. And so it's really important to think about satisfaction for visitors in terms of the more satisfied the visitors, the more they're gonna spend, but it's also the more likely they are to come back, the more likely they are to recommend your destination to others. And we do find that people who come based on a recommendation are more satisfied as well. So it's just a, a cycle there. If you can get people to keep coming and keep recommending your destination, 'cause then they're gonna tell people about all the fun things they did in Columbus, and so those people are going to experience more activities. And it just keeps growing and growing. So while Columbus is great, you've already won the award, I'd love to come back in 2018 and keep telling you all of these great things. So I know everyone in this room has, has really contributed in some way to the visitor experience and in making Columbus great, and you should all be very proud of yourselves and very honored. And so again, I hope I can come back and tell you all this great stuff again. I hope you continue all the good work. With that, it's all yours.

Tim Fulton 11:32Great. That was great. A good summation. Once again, I'm Tim Fulton, host of the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground, asked here to moderate today. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for coming. Wanna start off with Brian. Tell us why this J.D. Power Award is so important to us and what you guys are gonna do at Experience Columbus to basically utilize it in your sales and marketing efforts.

Brian Ross 11:59Thank you. Uh, first of all, it's a J.D. Power Award, so I think everybody understands how, uh, respectable, uh, uh, J.D. Power is from a, a global- Uh, market resource organization. So with that alone, that raises awareness. Uh, and it's also very important because it's a great pride point for our community. Um, this is a visitor. This doesn't mean this is somebody that I was shaking hands with or the mayor or quite honestly, maybe even people in this room. These are people that are out visiting the whole, uh, metropolitan area, not just downtown. So it's great as a pride point for our, uh, community. So that's very important to understand, uh, because we all play a role. And as far as using it in our marketing, um, believe me, we're gonna saturate- ... as much as we can, uh, all of our different platforms, whether that's the social media, whether that's leisure campaign, that's- whether that's our, uh, uh, convention sales, uh, uh, campaigns that we have. But we're definitely gonna utilize that so when people hear Columbus, they know, oh, you won the J.D. Power Award for customer satisfaction. And, uh, it is great to win, but what's more important is we as a community, we don't like to lose what we have. So we want to make sure that when you come in '18, we are still number one- ... and hopefully we're increasing that gap.

Jennifer Corwin 13:23That'd be great, right? That's, that's the ultimate goal, is to keep driving satisfaction. So you don't wanna be just number one in the Midwest, right? Your ultimate goal should be to be the best version of Columbus to every visitor you can be, and ultimately number one in the study if possible, right?

Tim Fulton 13:40And other than, uh, you know, constantly touting the award, are there, is there ways to utilize this data to make us better and, you know, make sure that Jenny's back here in '18?

Brian Ross 13:51Absolutely. Uh, and as we found out, there are some things that we, uh, are best in class in, which we should be very excited about and continue to, uh, deploy resources to those. But there are also some gaps that, uh, were identified where, uh, even though some may be slight, uh, there's still areas for opportunity. So what it does is it helps us continue to shape from a strategy standpoint, to shape our message, to shape how we can, uh, outperform our competitors because it's not only one thing, as you mentioned, us getting better, Columbus getting better than Columbus did last time, but how do we continue to be a premier, uh, visitor destination. And we're just emerging right now. So as much data as we can get, particularly from the visitor, uh, because ultimately they're the ones that are gonna pay the price, uh, and, and have that experience, uh, it's so important for us to understand that and share with the community so that we all understand which areas that we interact with, uh, each and every visitor so that we can take pride in how we can move that needle. Because ultimately, it grows the economy and it raises the brand of Columbus.

Tim Fulton 15:03Great. Uh, Jenny, can you talk about why you guys started doing this study? It is the first year of it.

Jennifer Corwin 15:08Sure. So at J.D. Power, um, we have ratings for a lot of things, right? Uh, but our brand name is also very important to us, right? So we don't just throw our name on anything, right? We don't wanna go out and give an award for, for everything, right? There's certain things we don't do. Um, but also we wanna make sure that the awards we're giving are relevant to the industry and to the consumer, right? Ultimately, we're servicing the, the customer, the visitor, right? We wanna go back and tell them what, you know, which destination is the best. So, um, we work in the travel and hospitality space, as I mentioned, so I, I oversee hotel, airline, rental car, airport. And we noticed when we're looking at the visitor or the traveler experience, we're missing something, right? We're missing where are they going? Where are they using all of these things in terms of satisfaction? So we started socializing the, uh, idea of a destination experience satisfaction study in 2015, um, with some destination marketing organizations and, and we said, you know, "Is this, is this something you need? Do you have visitor satisfaction data?" And, and it was a real gap, so we decided that this was the appropriate time to start fielding this study. And, and we're hoping that, you know, by providing this data to the, to the destinations, that we're ultimately making the visitor experience better overall for everybody.

Tim Fulton 16:29Earlier you had mentioned not necessarily a, well, I'd like to think it's a causal link between satisfaction and money spent.

Jennifer Corwin 16:36Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 16:36Are there other insights specific to Columbus regarding that money spent?

Jennifer Corwin 16:40Absolutely. So, um, yes, I mentioned, you know, the, there's a... We see a link from moving people up the satisfaction scale, right? I talked about from moving people from an eight or a nine to a 10, right? But you can move them from, if, if an eight or a nine to a 10 is about $250, right? If you move them from a one to a 10, it's, it's, it's a greater spend, right? Uh, in terms of Columbus specifically, though, we see that about 18% of visitors are currently in that 10 range, right? 51% of visitors are at eight to a nine. So that's a great opportunity to move people who are already really satisfied to just a little bit more satisfied. And if you can do that, when you add in the actual spend for amongst cities of a similar size to Columbus, and then the number of visitors, the 39 million visitors that you guys have every year, it comes out to be about $780 million, just moving about five percentage points of people. So it's not saying, you know, you gotta move all those 51% into that 10. If you can move five percentage points just up the chain a little bit, so you move the ones and twos to threes and fours, and you move the threes and fours to fives and sixes. Just everybody gets a little more satisfied, $780 million.

Tim Fulton 17:53I think we'll take it.

Jennifer Corwin 17:54Yeah.

Brian Ross 17:56That would make our direct spend $7.1 billion.

Tim Fulton 18:00There you go. Robbie, hi. Uh, you're in charge of two programs at Experience Columbus that are specifically focused on enhancing visitor experience, the Experience Dedicated Destination program and the Certified Tourism Ambassador program. Can you, uh, give us an overview of those?

Robbie Banks 18:16So in 2012, which was, um, the city's 200th birthday, um, in the midst of our community celebrating that, um- The organizations of Experience Columbus and the Greater Columbus, uh, Sports Commission, which is our sister organization, decided they wanted to, um, launch a full-scale, sustainable, visitor-focused program so that it makes it very easy for everyone to love Columbus. So the first one being really the umbrella program, the Experience-Dedicated Destination program, and I'll just share with you briefly what that means. So, um, never before has our community been able to, um, get visitor feedback on a regular basis, uh, regarding their overall experience in our community. Well, in 2013 we launched this program, and I am happy to report, um, as the first destination, most importantly, to ever, um, embark on this, this journey, but we have received 45,000, over 45,000 visitor survey completions since 2013 when we launched this program. And that's information that we take, and we've never had this before. We take and make, uh, improvements based on this information. So we work with all the industries that make up the tourism and hospitality industry, including transportation, restaurants, facilities and venues, uh, local and civic government, um, hotels, motels, and we, um, and, and also attractions and activities. And we work with them and, um, figure out how we can improve. So we have conversations twice a year, and we all work together across all industries to figure out, okay, based on this information and this feedback we have from visitors through a five-question one-minute survey, um, we now know what we can do to improve. And if we don't know how we're doing, we're never gonna be able to maintain the number one status or to continue being focused on, um, the Columbus brand that we all, um, submit to.

Tim Fulton 20:14Can you talk about opportunities you've identified there for improvement?

Robbie Banks 20:18Absolutely. So one example, um, we actually learned from, um, our first year of research was the ease of getting around. While in your study, um, it seems that the visitors have ranked it very high, well, that we saw that as an opportunity. We saw that there were some folks that absolutely said it's very easy to navigate Columbus, um, through signage and, you know, just ways to get in and out of the area. However, we did see also verbatim visitor feedback that it wasn't so easy to get in and out of Columbus. Well, we're very fortunate that we also, um, around that same time had a lot of great alternative transportation options become available, including Car2Go, CoGo Bike Share. You know, we have a wonderful, uh, airport or a- two airports. Um, but we really saw that as opportunity to put that information, since we have all these great resources for transportation, in one place because oddly enough, it didn't exist in just one place. There was probably 20 different websites with variations of this content. So we created a PDF document that's two pages, we keep updated, and we share it all throughout the community so when our frontline folks are interacting with visitors, they understand, wow, it's really easy to get around Columbus, and they have all the information right there in front of them or online. So that's one example of how we've been able to take that information and make improvements. And again, that's very small, but really goes a long way, and maybe that's why we saw a rise in that, that area. Um, I'd like to think so, um, because-

Tim Fulton 21:52It was all Robbie

Robbie Banks 21:52... you know, let's take advantage of, of-

Tim Fulton 21:54You can think so.

Robbie Banks 21:54Yes, we can think so. Okay. Um, I'm glad you told me that. Uh, so that, that's really what the Experience-Dedicated Destination program is about, visitor feedback and making improvements as a community. And I'd like to give a shout-out to the leadership that helps us with this endeavor, um, our sector leaders that are present at-- that work across the destination to really make a, make a difference in our community, and we thank them for their leadership.

Brian Ross 22:17I just wanna jump in there as well. Uh, from the connectivity standpoint, I think everybody's familiar with Cbus. Well, this was also part of-

Robbie Banks 22:24Yeah

Brian Ross 22:24... the conversation with Cbus and then AirConnect out to the, uh, airport. So our partners at COTA really were able to take some of that feedback and those, uh, comments and understand how we could utilize that for, uh, better experiences.

Robbie Banks 22:38Absolutely. And then secondly, um, Tim pointed to his lovely Certified Tourism Ambassador pen. So the Certified Tourism Ambassador program is really the, the point at which residents, whether they're in the hospitality and tourism industry, really can get involved. So knowing the product or the, the, um, having knowledge about the entire destination, having the customer service skills so that when they interact with, uh, visitors and guests, they have a very positive experience. And then those folks go home and tell others what a great time they had in Columbus, and that results in more visitor spending, more return visits. So we're very proud of that program being the largest in the nation and in Bermuda here in Greater Columbus. We certified over 3,100 residents, many of you in the room, um, and we continue to grow and just really keep adding more and more to, um, our destination. So while we know we won't have, you know, all of our residents ever become CTAs, we certainly think there's a way to get involved and to really be prideful of your community.

Tim Fulton 23:41Great. Brian, you talk a lot about, and I think everybody in the room is aware of our pride of being a collaborative community. Do you think that that collaboration and the improvements that Experience Columbus is making in the community, is it fair to say that that contributed to the s- success in this survey? I think if maybe the survey had been around five years ago, do you think we would've hit the number one in the Midwest?

Brian Ross 24:05That I'm not sure of, but what I will say is the collaborative, uh, um- The nature that we have here in Columbus is, uh, was definitely a contributor to this because as we just shared with the sector leaders all working together. Uh, but this is larger than just the tourism, uh, industry. Um, this is the public-private sector. I mean, there's certain, uh, policies that, uh, should and shouldn't be enacted to really, uh, help with the visitor experience. So, um, there's development, there's, uh, continuing to develop your destination, uh, which we have, and we've been so fortunate. Even some of our annual groups that come here every year, quite honestly, and I know Don Brown's sitting over there with the CFA, and they have a tremendous building that they're going through, but every time they come back, they have something new in Columbus to experience. So it's almost like they're going to a new city each year. You don't get that everywhere. Um, so without that, um, really strong collaborative, uh, understanding of the greater good of Columbus, and this is what it comes out of, uh, we wouldn't be where we're at, uh, because there wouldn't be the same... And, and it's great that we have a, a wonderful industry. Um, you know, I continue to tout the how important it is to Central Ohio. I mean, it is thirty-nine point three million visitors annually, six point four billion dollars, seventy-five thousand jobs. In addition to that, this year, we just were over, uh, forty-four million dollars in bed tax. And I say that 'cause it's so very important for us to continue to sell and market the community, also for the convention facilities authority to continue to, uh, maintain and build, uh, tremendous, uh, uh, facilities for our, uh, uh, conventioneers and visitors. But also from our art standpoint, the Greater Columbus Arts Council receives some of that. Human services, the housing trust. So this is very important to a lot of people, even outside of our industry. So as we continue to grow that, it's very important. So as you can see, it's not just the tourism industry, it, it truly is a collaborative endeavor in the community.

Tim Fulton 26:15Great. Uh, in a few minutes, we will move to the audience questions. Uh, one final thought for all of you. Jenny, I'm gonna quote your press release here. Uh, I, I don't believe it was attributed to you, but one of your-- It was not attributed to you. Excuse me. One of your colleagues-

Brian Ross 26:31She was pretty definitive with that.

Tim Fulton 26:32Uh, in the press release stated, uh, "When we see cities like Austin and Columbus among the highest-ranked destinations, it certainly changes some preconceived ideas in the travel industry." Can you expound upon that just a little bit?

Jennifer Corwin 26:46Sure. Let me, let me start with saying he's a Chicago resident.

Tim Fulton 26:49Okay.

Jennifer Corwin 26:49Um, no, but honestly, so when you, you know, as good researchers, when we, you embark on new research, you obviously have a hypothesis, right? You start with, with a hypothesis. And so when we put together the study, you, you generally would think the destinations that have more money to spend, uh, on marketing or tourism activities or the destinations that attract the most visitors would, would be the most satisfying, right? How are they continuing to attract all of those visitors? So I think that's why when we put together the study, originally, your thought was, you know, th- there's certain cities that are seen as big cities for tourism, Vegas, New York, Orlando, Chicago. Um, those are the cities that, you know, have a lot of money to spend, a lot of residents that live there, and a, a lot of visitors. So, um, but I would say one of-- We were very-- I wouldn't say we were surprised, right? Once we started looking at the numbers, it all made sense, right? Once we started looking into the data, we see that there are certain destinations that have something special that they offer visitors or something different about their experience. Um, it's not just about the money spent. Obviously, money helps, right? Um, but it's-- Or the number of visitors you attract. It's, it's definitely quality over quantity. And so Austin and Columbus were really good examples of creating an experience for a visitor, um, that's impactful and satisfying without having some of those things that you-- all the bells and whistles of some of the other big, you know, you don't have-- You're not Vegas, right? It's, it's not. It's not ninety degrees outside. It is gray and, um, you know, I'm from the Midwest, so gray is, is normal. That's fine. Um, but you know what I'm saying. It's, it's, um, so it's really just attributing what you guys do well, and you are satisfying your visitors by doing what you do so well.

Tim Fulton 28:42Brian, is there anything else that you would sort of attribute that success to?

Brian Ross 28:46Well, I think, again, uh, the way we are challenging ourselves throughout our community. I know that Robert's down here, who's actually happens to be our board chair, and we have many conversations, and he's like, "We wanna be and need to be a Major League city." And, uh, we continue through everything we're doing in all the segments in our community. We're winning tremendous accolades. I mean, just with the Smart Cities, uh, uh, award itself. I mean, there's things that are putting our community on the map in different things. So, um, you know, I continue to say we're emerging. We're nowhere where we wanna be or should be, but we're heck of a lot better than where we were. So we are in that evolution process, particularly in our industry.

Tim Fulton 29:29Great. Robbie, here's your soapbox. How can everyone in this room, uh, become involved in making Columbus an even better destination for leisure visitors and convention attendees?

Jennifer Corwin 29:41Well, as you can guess, you can, first of all, become a DTA, of course, if you're not already one or tell a friend. Um, actually, there's-- To make it very easy, there's a handout you all have at your seat. So on the rev- reverse side of the Visitors Matters piece, um, we would love, if you're a business or an organization, link to experiencecolumbus.com. That way, people visiting your site can-

Robbie Banks 30:01know the resource to get visitor information, things to do, um, you know, events, calendar, anything and everything that's focused on the visitor, um, hopefully should be available if you link to our website. Um, also, if you're a business, you can participate in the Experience Dedicated Destination program because it is through those businesses that we get the visitor survey completions. They're asking their guests and visitors to respond to that one-minute, uh, five-question survey. And also volunteering. Uh, we have a wonderful volunteer program, um, that is available for festivals and, um, lots of fun things that visitors experience. Um, and you don't have to be, um, a CTA to volunteer. Anyone can volunteer, um, for any of these fun visitor, uh, focused events and activities throughout the area. So you can certainly do that. And lastly, we really, um, whether you're a CTA or not, uh, we need you to be vocal champions. And I say vocal, not just a champion, because, um, it's imperative to speak positively about our destination. You really shouldn't ever be talking negatively about our destination. Um, I will call you out if I hear you. Um-

Tim Fulton 31:14She will.

Robbie Banks 31:15'Cause we are ambassadors after all, right? And that's what we're trained to do. But, um, we want you to firsthand experience those festivals, events, um, the pulsy things of Columbus, the vibrancy, attractions, the local restaurants that really make our culinary scene what it is so that you can tell others. And when you have visiting friends and relatives come in, you can take them to those things so they can get a real authentic Columbus experience. So that's our call to action to you, really most importantly, be a vocal champion for Columbus.

Tim Fulton 31:48Great. It is CMC's tradition to take audience questions. Uh, we ask the questioners, please state their name, ask your question, and we thank you in advance for not making long editorial comments. Let's proceed with the first question.

CMC Host 32:03I'm Carol Looper, and I have been living in this town for more than half a century, although I'm not a native, and have been covering the city for many years. For all of those years, people promoting the city of Columbus have disdained the use of Columbus, Ohio, and we have been asked to just reference this city for branding purposes as Columbus. For those of you who are out of town and keeping track of visitors and so forth, are we Columbus or do you have to say Columbus, Ohio?

Tim Fulton 32:40It's on you, Jenny.

Robbie Banks 32:41So- In our study, we, we do list the s- the state. Um, one, to be proper, but also there are cities that, you know, like Jacksonville, uh, Florida, right? But there's s- s- so we have to be clear. We do list the state. So the award is what is listed to the visitor, and it is Columbus, Ohio. So yes, and I, uh, from being out of town, I don't-

Tim Fulton 33:07Well, does it say New York, New York?

Robbie Banks 33:08It does.

Tim Fulton 33:08Las Vegas, Nevada?

Robbie Banks 33:10It does. Yes.

Tim Fulton 33:10There you go.

Robbie Banks 33:11Yes. Every city is listed properly.

CMC Host 33:13Okay.

Robbie Banks 33:13So yes. Um, now, in our press release, they do follow... I, I'm not sure the stylistic format that they're using, but I don't know if they use, for large cities, I believe it's APA, they might not use, uh, the state name-

Tim Fulton 33:25Right

Robbie Banks 33:25... at, at the end. But on the award in the survey, what we're actually asking the visitors is, um, the full city and then the two-letter state abbreviation to be technical.

Tim Fulton 33:36That's, that's good to know.

Robbie Banks 33:38Yes.

Tim Fulton 33:38So we, we, we-

Robbie Banks 33:39You're Columbus O.

Tim Fulton 33:40We've reached our goal when we hit the AP style guide-

Robbie Banks 33:42Yeah.

Tim Fulton 33:42Yes. There you go ... as Columbus.

Robbie Banks 33:44Yes. Yes.

Tim Fulton 33:45Great.

Robbie Banks 33:45There you go. That's how you know.

Tim Fulton 33:47Great.

Robbie Banks 33:47And as residents, we should just drop it. I mean, that's- ... right? Just drop it.

Tim Fulton 33:52Uh, next question.

Charlie Warner 33:53Charlie Warner. Uh, question, Jenny. Uh, with respect to the arts, and particularly the performing arts, what factor does that play into the satisfaction survey?

Robbie Banks 34:03Uh, that's under the activities factor. So we have, the activities factor really covers cultural activities, which would encompass the arts. It encover, it covers sports and, and adventure activities, um, nature, and, and sightseeing was- is in there as well. So there's, the activities factor's pretty vast, and it's actually the most important factor in the study. We do some regression analysis to determine the importance weight of every piece of the study to every visitor, and the activities factor itself is about 32% of the total experience. So, uh, but yes, it's, it's in there in cultural.

Charlie Warner 34:37Let me ask a different questions 'cause some of us are in historical society boards. What factor does, uh, do historical societies play in the equation?

Robbie Banks 34:46I think that would be under activities as well because we have things like monuments and landmarks, um, are covered under sightseeing, and there's tours and things like that. So I think you would, you would impact that. But also there's, there's a lot of pieces that may be touched that may not be a direct factor. So things like availability of information is something we, we ask about. And, um, so that would be... It's not linked to any specific factor. It's more of an upfront question that we ask.

Tim Fulton 35:12Let me expound upon that just a little bit. Is there anything in terms of historical awareness or cultural significance that would influence the study?

Robbie Banks 35:21Trying to think of specifically how-

Tim Fulton 35:22And it's totally fair if it's not.

Robbie Banks 35:24I, yeah, I don't, I, I don't wanna say no, but I wouldn't say it's something we ask specifically about. There may be, uh, the way our studies work, right, we ask a simple question, and then it's up to the visitor to interpret it. So there are certain things we ask about. Did you experience any, um, did, did you go to see any sightseeing tours? Did you experience any monuments or any, uh, landmarks? Those types of things. But we don't i- ask about the historical society specifically.

Brian Ross 35:51And I, and I think that's important too, because that's a big part of what, uh, we've also coined sort of as-

Robert Shenson 35:57Mm

Brian Ross 35:57... our pulse, uh, in the community. It's activities with the, uh, J.D. Power, uh, study, with our GfK study we did, uh, three years ago. Uh, it was pulse, and, uh, those are the largest driver, uh, to individuals coming to our destination. And, uh, it is very important that we, uh, rate well, but it does not get down into the granular, you know, symphony versus something else. It is more that arts and culture.

Robert Shenson 36:25Next question.

Andy Campbell 36:26Hi, everybody. Andy Campbell. Thanks so much for being here. Jennifer, this is probably for you.

Jennifer Corwin 36:29Sure.

Andy Campbell 36:29I wonder if you could maybe share some of the inside shop talk, maybe some of the surprises that came out of the study, uh, from you guys' experience in the industry. And then maybe looking forward, I know it's the first year of the study, but some trends that you're seeing, uh, in the, uh, travel and tourism industry.

Jennifer Corwin 36:45Sure.

Brian Ross 36:45I think Andy just wants you to say regression analysis one more time.

Jennifer Corwin 36:48Okay. Yeah, yeah, that's fine.

Andy Campbell 36:50That's what got me going.

Brian Ross 36:51Great words.

Jennifer Corwin 36:51Right?

Andy Campbell 36:51I mean.

Jennifer Corwin 36:52We actually do it twice, so if that's really exciting to you, we do a regression analysis twice. Um, but, um, no, really, I would say, so for inside findings on the study, we published a lot of the really interesting stuff, right? We, we don't keep the, the interesting stuff to ourselves. That's the stuff we make public. So, but, you know, the, the biggest thing was we were definitively able to link spend to satisfaction. That's the big finding. That's the one that goes, you know, oh, this is important, right? Where, where the dollars go, that's, you know, that's really important stuff. So that was the big finding the, you know, aha. I would say some of the interesting things that we found with this study that fit with some of the other trends we see is, uh, business travelers are more satisfied than leisure travelers. When I started working with-

Andy Campbell 37:33In Columbus specifically?

Jennifer Corwin 37:35In Columbus, but in general also.

Andy Campbell 37:36Okay.

Jennifer Corwin 37:37Yeah, in both. Um, there are certain cities where that doesn't hold true, but overall, as an industry, visit, business travelers are more satisfied than leisure travelers, and it carries to other industries. We find that in the hotel industry, um, which is recent, that when I started at J.D. Power, leisure travelers were always the most satisfied. Um, it's a recent switch, and there's a couple reasons for that, right? I could probably talk for hours about it. But the biggest thing is, right, business travelers are more experienced travelers, and they're more discerning. So they always used to be more critical, and leisure travelers, you're on vacation, so you're, you're starting your trip with a pretty positive outlook. But now we're seeing people extending their business trips for leisure trips, and we're also seeing, you know, uh, people appreciating the value of being an experienced traveler. You get perks now for that that you didn't used to get. And in s- and when it comes to destination experience, we find that business travelers are more aware of what there is to do in a destination when they get there. They can get through the airport easier, and they're often traveling alone, which makes getting there a little easier, too, so.

Robert Shenson 38:43Thank you, Jennifer, and, uh, J.D. Power for being here. My name's Robert Shenson with Plante Moran, and also board chair for Experience Columbus, as Brian mentioned. We also look at numbers from Smith Travel Research-

Jennifer Corwin 38:53Mm-hmm

Robert Shenson 38:53... when we're benchmarking against our competitive set, and there's a few cities that aren't on the list here that we know that we compete with frequently, such as Pittsburgh or Nashville, uh, Cleveland certainly, and even Louisville. And so when we look at infrastructure that's built, whether it's convention centers, hotels, and so forth, how does that tend to play into, we'll say, decisions or satisfaction of a visitor experience, either the newness of it or the, the size of it and so forth? And Brian too, if you'd like to, to make any comments on that as well.

Jennifer Corwin 39:26Sure. So I, I can only comment on the things we ask about, right? So we don't ask how new was any of this, the infrastructure. Um, but when we talk about, like, lodging and things like that, we ask the quality. So I would assume a lot of people would assume quality, you know, if something is deteriorating, there's a quality issue, right? Um, so that quality is an important piece of when you act- we actually ask quality as part of lodging, as part of food and beverage. It's, quality, uh, is, it touches almost every factor area. We also ask convenience of location, so if you, if everything is clustered in the center or is spread out. So those pieces are important. We don't actually ask newness, though. But, you know, it can be implied that if things are, um, deteriorating or not in, uh, well-kept, then, then it would definitely affect satisfaction.

Brian Ross 40:16And as, as far as the competitive set, uh, it was interesting that both, uh, Cleveland and Louisville did not make the top 50-

Jennifer Corwin 40:24Mm-hmm

Brian Ross 40:25... for, uh, room nights sold in 2016, so they were not in the, uh, study from that standpoint. And then, uh, Pittsburgh was in, I think, the East or Atlantic. How was that?

Jennifer Corwin 40:36In the Northeast Mid, uh, Mid-Atlantic region.

Brian Ross 40:38Mid-Atlantic.

Jennifer Corwin 40:38Yeah.

Brian Ross 40:38And then Nashville was, uh, in-

Jennifer Corwin 40:40The South

Brian Ross 40:41... the South.

Jennifer Corwin 40:41Mm-hmm.

Brian Ross 40:42But we were able to take those out and still do a comparative analysis.

Jennifer Corwin 40:46Mm-hmm.

Brian Ross 40:47So we have those, again, data points to understand how we can shape both the leisure and the, uh, convention sales, uh, strategies.

Jennifer Corwin 40:56Yeah. And Cleveland will be in the next year's study.

Brian Ross 40:59That's what, uh, the NBA Finals, the RNC-

Jennifer Corwin 41:02Yeah.

Brian Ross 41:02... and the-

Jennifer Corwin 41:04Yeah

Brian Ross 41:04... World Series do for you.

Jennifer Corwin 41:05Right, right. You, and you get to 50 with that.

Brian Ross 41:08Right, and you get to 50 with that.

Jennifer Corwin 41:09Mm.

Robert Shenson 41:09Just barely.

Jennifer Corwin 41:10Great.

Robert Shenson 41:12Just barely.

Brian Ross 41:13They needed some help is all I'm saying.

Jennifer Corwin 41:16Yeah.

Robert Shenson 41:16We love our sister cities.

Jennifer Corwin 41:17Yeah.

Audience Member 41:18Okay. I, I guess this is a question for Brian. In terms of collaboration, um, are you thinking of inviting, asking, allowing other advertisers, like some of our restaurants, some of our hotels, uh, to put that J.D. Power's, uh, trophy in their advertising to stretch the marketing dollars more? Is that something that you guys do or would think about doing?

Brian Ross 41:43Well, I will, uh, I'll have to sort of defer to that. We are restricted, uh, quite a bit, but, uh, I can tell you that Amy and our marketing team has pushed as much as we can to, uh, definitely want to get everybody to be a part of this. And, uh, we've actually, uh, purchased, uh, additional trophies, awards, uh, that we're going to have at different strategic locations. So at the, uh, uh, airport, at the convention center, uh, we'll have one in our visi- visitor center. I know that the city council's getting one, commissioners are getting... We want to pass it around as much as possible to have those opportunities. Um, but as far as usually using the, uh, actual, uh, um-

Tim Fulton 42:28The logo

Brian Ross 42:28... verbiage and logo, uh, we are restricted, uh, to a certain extent. All of our, um, which represents the community, obviously, because we only are as su- successful as our community. But as much as we can push it, we're going to. We just don't want, you know, Jennifer and others coming in and-

Jennifer Corwin 42:43I, yeah, we're really, um... You know, we, we are very protective of our brand name.

Brian Ross 42:47Yeah.

Jennifer Corwin 42:47If we, if you use it too much, you wear it out, right? We feel it's got to be... It's got to hold a little bit. It's like Christmas, right? It's got to- You, you can't have too much.

Brian Ross 42:55Well, we're gonna wear it out. I can tell you that.

Jennifer Corwin 42:57Right. But, but what I-

Brian Ross 42:58That's gonna happen.

Jennifer Corwin 42:59What I can say, and, and we're working with Amy and the team to see what you can do. Um, but we can't stop you from talking, right?

Brian Ross 43:05Right.

Jennifer Corwin 43:06There's nothing we can do about you saying anything, right? So, you know, maybe be careful where it gets printed, what you're saying. But feel free to tell people. Tell your friends. Tell your relatives. Tell anybody who's visiting.

Brian Ross 43:17"Hey, where are you from?"

Jennifer Corwin 43:17Yeah. Yeah. So feel free to, uh, you know, talk about it. And then in, when it comes to actually putting it on paper, then we've, we've got to work out, uh, some, some details still.

Tim Fulton 43:29Yeah. I hope you all enjoyed today's forum. We encourage you to continue talking with coffee and cookies. Please let me thank, and join me, please, Fogler Martin, our s- Mortine, our sponsor today, and our speakers, Brian Ross, Jennifer Corwin, Robbie Banks, and Tim Fulton. And thanks to all of you for coming. I hope to see you next week. Thank you for listening to The Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Big thank you to the Columbus Metropolitan Club and Experience Columbus for having me at the panel. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of The Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite certified tourism ambassador. If you're interested in sponsoring The Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.