From 2012-2020, the Travel South USA region moved onto the global stage in a big way! Not only did we report year-over-year increases for nine years straight in a row, but we also captured market share, often beating the national averages significantly. While many of our competitors were better funded with bigger marketing war chests, together, we focused on leveraging our pennies to make dollars in the places where we could deliver high-value returns. We often say we were an overnight success that took ten years!

In 2019 alone, the region reported $10 Billion in spending from the international market, with travelers visiting multiple states, staying longer, and seeking out the unique and quirky hidden gems in the South – then the pandemic hit.

This past year has been exceedingly difficult for all of us in the travel industry. State tourism offices were called on to do many projects and programs that are typically not part of our work. That’s why I especially want to thank my fellow Board members for how they rose to the challenge.

We supported our Governors on Corona Task forces, coordinated providing lunches to school-age children at state parks, held virtual concerts to raise money for struggling gig-based musicians and worked with our vendors to outfit school buses with wifi routers in rural communities to assure virtual school was possible. All of us worked to advocate from the federal and state governments with our local industry associations to secure funds to keep the industry afloat. CARES monies, PPP, EDA, grants – it was an alphabet soup of programs!

And during all of this – Travel South USA was laser-focused on supporting state tourism offices, ramping up research and insights specific for the region and states, inspiring and training thousands of sales ambassadors across the world, deploying the One Day Closer campaign, and working with U.S. Travel on the Let's Make Plans campaign, both for a domestic and international consumer audience.

This newsletter contains a list of the partnerships, campaigns, and programs for FY22. We invite southern DMOs, hotels, attractions, outfitters, tour companies, and journalists to join us as we invite back international travelers and gain market share from those valuable repeat visitors.

As I conclude my time as chair, I am thankful for the collaborative spirit of our region, and I am confident we have the exciting destinations and experiences to win back our share of the global market – and then some.

We are Travel South USA & we’re ready to recover and thrive on the global stage – come join us!

Sincerely,