Research finds GoToLouisville.com stimulates local economy

Just-released study says tourism site helping to generate revenue

In 2008, the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau (LCVB) contracted with Destination Analysts, Inc., a research firm specializing in web site conversion studies to conduct an eight-month conversion study on the LCVB’s primary web site – www.GoToLouisville.com. The goal was to evaluate the performance and economic impact of the tourism site. Is the site influencing travel to Louisville? Are people getting what they want from the site? Is it having any impact on length of stays on visitors? What features do our web site visitors want that we aren’t currently providing? Etc. 

In early August the LCVB will be launching a new design to our web site so the timing was right to determine what was important to visitors and what may need to be added in the redesign of our web site. The complete findings of the report will be posted shortly on our business web site www.lcvb.info but in the interim let me provide a brief summary from this very detailed report.

Methodology
The findings in the study are based on two surveys conducted specifically for the project from October 2008 through May 2009. These surveys were designed to develop the data needed to prepare ROI estimates for this very important marketing tool. The web site ROI research was comprised of two surveys conducted among persons who visited the LCVB’s Web site. The surveys included a Web site Visitor Intercept Survey and a Web site Visitor Follow-up Conversion Survey sent after the web site visitor had a chance to visit Louisville. The information from the report is very compelling. But here are few quick facts from the survey:

Highlights Include:
• Roughly 70% of the LCVB’s web site audience is from the non-professional segment. Of this segment (leisure) 77% reside outside of 50 miles from Louisville.
• Based on the study’s finding, the estimated rate of visitation after using Gotolouisville.com is 80.6% for leisure travelers and 88.5% for business/conference travelers.
• The web site enjoys strong incremental trip generation potential. An incremental trip is one in which the visitor decided to visit Louisville based significantly on their experience with the web site. These are trips to the city that would not have happened if the web site did not exist.
• Gotolouisville.com is influencing its audience’s decision to visit Louisville at an effective rate. The study’s findings tell us 60.1% of potential incremental visitors agreed the web site indeed influenced their ultimate decision to take a trip to Louisville.
• For every 1,000 unique visitors to the web site, 39 incremental trips were generated for the City of Louisville.
• The web site also had significant potential to inspire users to spend additional days in Louisville.
• Content on the Gotolouisville.com influences approximately one-in-five non-incremental visitors to lengthen their stay in Louisville.

Quick Facts...
Trips to Louisville generated by Web site (i.e. incremental trips): 48,738
Average visitor spending per day on incremental trips to Louisville: $176.60
Total visitor spending on incremental trips to Louisville: $24.96M
Days spent in Louisville on trips extended by Web site: 49,891
Total visitor spending on trips extended by Web site: $11.4 M
Total economic impact/ROI of the web site: $36.36M

The ROI from the LCVB’s web site is a strong indicator that partnering with the Bureau is a sound business decision. And we are proud to say that our web site is delivering! We are also thrilled about the new look our web site is set to take. One of our goals is to drive as much traffic to the web site as possible as we have seen from the study that GoToLouisville.com is generating dollars for Louisville’s hospitality community and its LCVB partners.