1-BPM006069_Attachment_9_-_Offeror_Questionnaire.pdf

Request for Proposal BPM006069 Media Relations and Travel Trade/Consumer

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism 1110 W Washington St. Ste. 155

Phoenix, AZ 85007

Solicitation Attachment – Offeror Questionnaire | Revision No. 1 | Revised 03-24 Page 1 of 23

Attachment 9 – Offeror Questionnaire

THE STATE MAY DETERMINE YOUR PROPOSAL NON-RESPONSIVE IF YOU DO NOT FULLY RESPOND.

The Offeror shall provide a narrative response to each section that demonstrates their understanding of the Scope of Work requirements and describes the company’s overall experience, capacity, and approach in providing the Services stated in this Solicitation. If there is a section that is not applicable to the Services required by the Scope of Work, you may mark it “N/A”.

Offeror shall provide a response either after each section or in a separate document entitled: “Attachment – Offeror Questionnaire.” If a separate document is used, please clearly designate each section and double-check to ensure that each question has been answered. If any information provided is considered CONFIDENTIAL by Offeror, the information must be specifically included in the Confidential Information Designation Attachment and related documentation to be assessed for confidential treatment under A.A.C. R2-7-103.

1. What service(s) are you submitting an offer for? Check AT LEAST one box. If submitting an offer for Media

Relations AND Travel Trade/Consumer Marketing Services, check both boxes.

Offeror Response:

☐ Media Relations

Offeror Response:

X Travel Trade/Consumer Marketing Services

2. Company Profile (Mandatory Section)

2.1. Provide a brief overview of business operations, with an emphasis on experience in regards to the Scope of

Work:

Offeror Response:

TravelMarketing Romberg TMR GmbH (hereinafter referred to as „TMR“) was founded in 1992 by Gabi Romberg.

Since then, TMR has successfully represented international travel destinations in the German-speaking markets.

After Gabi‘s well-deserved retirement in 2023, Thomas Vogler took over as Managing Director. We are well-known for being an efficient and reliable full-service agency and enjoy tremendous respect in the German tourism market.

We do not only offer marketing and PR – with TMR you get the benefit of a one-stop-shop. Knowing about the importance of creativity and technology, we are able to create promotional and collateral material like brochures and flyers, advertisements, newsletters, etc. in-house in a quick and uncomplicated manner. Additionally, we offer social media as well as fulfillment services. We can store any promotional material at extremely reasonable rates and to take care for our clients’ fulfillment in-house, which saves time and money alike.

We are experienced in developing and implementing tailor-made strategies and campaigns according to our client’s specifications and needs. Our wide range of skills in these sectors enables us to implement creative integrated campaigns. Therefore, working with us means a more efficient use of funds as we do not rely on external service providers that attract additional costs. Our one-stop-shop strategy allows us to work faster, adapt to changes quicker and to simply perform better. This can be considered a typical “win-win”-situation as this enables us to achieve higher client satisfaction at lower costs and less time and effort.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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TMR is subdivided into the following areas of business, all cooperating with each other closely:

MARKETING & SALES

Optimized ROI through classical and innovative marketing

COMMUNICATIONS

High media values and a strong image through professional PR work

MULTIMEDIA

Fast and cost-efficient multimedia solutions - created in-house

LOGISTICS

Reliable handling of consumer requests and mailings

EVENTS

Organization of successful events in carefully chosen locations

SOCIAL MEDIA

Authentic social media marketing by tourism experts

Our team of industry experts provides our clients with the benefit of our combined expertise to generate measurable results. All 11 members of our team have an academic background and comprehensive knowledge within the travel industry. We benefit from close contacts to key players in the travel trade, airline and media business.

Due to 30+ years in the tourism sector, we have in-depth knowledge of trends and developments in the German-speaking markets. Although in the business for so long, we constantly take new and innovative approaches. Through workshops and seminars, we keep up to date with the latest trends and techniques inside and outside of the world of tourism. Our working standards are high and everything we deliver bears our signature of quality – with guaranteed results.

2.2. Provide the Location in which the Offeror is incorporated and address of “Main Office” (e.g. Corporate Headquarters) and any satellite offices responsible for performance of proposed tasks:

Our loft office is in an urban co-working community, Factory Campus, in downtown Düsseldorf with a lot of industrial and start-up charm.

Düsseldorf is the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, the federal state with the highest population in Germany.

630,000 people call the city of fashion and art their home.

We are located in the heart of Europe. Eighteen million people live in a catchment area of 100 kilometers around our office. The demographic nature of the region is similar to London or Paris and enjoys tremendous market potential for businesses.

Germany’s 3rd largest airport, Düsseldorf International, is located only 15 minutes away. From Düsseldorf almost all major European cities are within 1 ½ hours flying time. Frankfurt airport can be reached by train in only 80 minutes.

Full address:

TravelMarketing Romberg TMR GmbH c/o Factory Campus Erkrather Straße 401, 40231 Düsseldorf, Germany

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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2.3. Provide the Offeror's organizational chart relevant to the Contract, specifically identifying the key point of contact for all questions related to the submitted Offer:

= Arizona Team

(F) = Freelancer

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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2.4. Provide a full disclosure of any potential conflict of interest between the Offeror and any State employee who functions or has responsibilities in the review or approval of the undertaking or carrying out of the Contract:

There are no (potential) conflicts of interest.

2.5. Provide a statement of whether, in the last five (5) years, the Offeror has filed (or had filed against it) any bankruptcy or insolvency proceeding, whether voluntary or involuntary, or undergone the appointment of a receiver, trustee, or assignee for the benefit of creditors, and if so, an explanation providing relevant details and current status:

TMR has never – not in the last five years or ever before – filed any bankruptcy or insolvency proceeding, neither voluntary not involuntary. Likewise, we never underwent the appointment of a receiver, trustee, or assignee for the benefit of creditors.

2.6. Provide a Statement of whether there are any pending Securities Exchange Commission investigations involving the Offeror, and if such are pending or in progress, an explanation providing relevant details and an attached opinion of counsel as to whether the pending investigation(s) may impair the Offeror’s performance in a Contract under this Solicitation:

There are no pending Securities Exchange Commission investigations involving TMR.

2.7. Provide a Statement documenting all open or pending litigation initiated by Offeror or where Offeror is a defendant or party in any litigation that may have a material impact on Offeror’s ability to deliver the contracted Services:

There are no open or pending litigations initiated by TMR. Also, TMR is not a defendant or party in any litigation that may have a material impact on TMR’s ability to deliver the contracted services.

2.8. Provide a Statement documenting all open or pending litigation initiated by Offeror or where Offeror is a defendant or party in any litigation with a public sector client:

There are no open or pending litigations initiated by TMR. Also, TMR is not a defendant or party in any litigation with a public sector client.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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2.9. In the past five years, have any of your clients canceled their contract with your company? If yes, why?

Provide as much detail as possible.

As a result of the Covid pandemic, the Guyana Tourism Authority stopped their engagement in the German market.

Whenever they need experts in the market, e.g. for events or webinars, we are the first to ask and we work on project base for them ever since.

Our smallest client, Aranui Cruises from French Polynesia, changed their marketing and PR approach and started working with a non-tourism PR-only company this year.

2.10. Does the Offeror have sufficient funds to meet obligations on time under the Contract while awaiting reimbursement from the State? If No, please explain.

Yes, we have sufficient funds to meet our obligations.

2.11. Provide a full disclosure of any criminal or civil offense:

There are no cases of criminal or civil offense.

2.12. Provide evidence of any Arizona required business license to provide these Services:

n.a.

Our US Tax Payer Identification Number (TIN) is 98 122 36 36.

2.13. Provide copies of any professional or industry certifications that represent the Services detailed in this Solicitation:

Please see the company’s registration on the following pages.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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2.14. What markets are your current clients primarily in?

We represent destinations from North America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe in Germany or the German-speaking markets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GAS region). We only represent destinations.

2.15. What is the range in size of your current clients?

The range is $50,000 - $500,000.

2.16. Describe your company’s experience and involvement in travel trade, media relations, or destination marketing organizations in Germany and German-speaking regions.

Travel Trade

Ever since we started our business, we have known about the importance of a close relationship with the travel trade.

Through co-operations with the travel trade, we are profiting from synergies and create strong partnerships in order to promote our destinations for a mutual benefit. We have always incorporated tour operators, airlines, travel agents and other tourism stakeholders into our activities, including road shows, fam trips, sales missions, events, or joint marketing campaigns if possible.

The best way to foster existing and to establish new relationships with the travel trade are B2B trade shows and sales missions. TMR has managed presences at different trade shows, with the most relevant ones for the AOT being ITB Berlin in the past and IPW in the US recently. But we also organized a very successful sales mission in fall 2023 for AOT with several partners from Arizona, to strengthen the destination’s awareness in the market.

TravelMarketing Romberg has been very successful in launching innovative travel trade co-op initiatives and campaigns for many clients over the past 30+ years. The success was ensured by involving major tour operator partners and identifying not only innovative, but also durable opportunities. We can therefore develop new and creative campaigns in co-operation with tour operators and/or airlines which combine offline and online marketing, media, non-traditional and tour operator components. All campaign efforts and all marketing and PR activities must target the right consumer segments and match the branding strategy. Activating and combining as many adequate promotion channels as possible towards effective multi-integrated campaigns will maximize the campaign output, strong call-to-actions guarantee measurability and a great ROI. We thoroughly evaluate all tour operators regarding value for money.

To increase sales to a destination it is important that travel agents personally gain destination knowledge. Our decade-long experience in the tourism business and our broad network of contacts within the industry allow us to organize efficient and effective familiarization trips for groups ranging from 5-250. We regularly integrate airline partners into our activities, and we will continue our close business relationships with most important airlines to win their support and to collaborate on specific trade fam trips as well as on possible joint promotions. We co-operate with many major airlines on a regular basis.

To increase destination knowledge on a broader scale, we recommend conducting in-market training sessions. These can be either in-person during road shows or travel agent training events or even virtual through webinars. We have extensive experience in identifying opportunities for effective and efficient destination trainings through our partner or organized by ourselves.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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Among many more, TMR has organized numerous travel agent road shows and sales missions for the destinations Arizona, Nova Scotia, Great Lakes USA, Michigan, Jamaica and the BVI in major cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Central Europe. Industry partners such as airlines and hotels are usually integrated and present their product portfolio during the travel agent trainings. For our road shows we make all the necessary arrangements with suppliers (transfers, location, catering, accommodation), schedule appointments and the participants ourselves.

We hosted events from 20 to 200 travel agents during these road shows. Besides organizing our own road shows, we will frequently co-operate with leading tour operators and join their road shows if they fit to our pre-defined strategies.

Destination Marketing Organizations

Working with other DMOs often is beneficial for both sides. Resources and knowledge can be bundled together, and synergies can be created that that can transform initiatives from good to great ones. Arizona is a state that is often visited as part of a road trip that also includes other states. Joint marketing initiatives, fam trips or consumer promotions can put a destination on top of mind as part of a whole region. We have frequently used this strategy in the past: Michigan is part of the bigger Great Lakes region, and travelers often only consider Chicago as a travel destination in that area. By cooperating with Choose Chicago on several occasions, we were able to present Michigan as a great destination worth the road trip beyond the big city. Similar efforts have worked for our client Nova Scotia, being part of Atlantic Canada. In some cases, individual destinations just do not draw enough attention, but when partnering with surrounding DMOs, individual regions can be marketed as one enticing tourism destination, while keeping every region’s own identity.

Consumer Marketing

To utilize synergies and spread our marketing message to extended target groups, we regularly conduct cross-marketing activities and strategic brand partnerships for our clients with both tourism-related or non-traditional trade partners. Through our combined expertise and creativity, we have developed numerous ideas that were successfully implemented in collaboration with various partners.

Whenever it makes sense, we include social media components in all our campaigns. All our team members are well trained in the field of social media, and we dedicatedly handle the social media presences of our clients. We have created, implemented, and moderated successful stand-alone social media campaigns.

TMR has profound experience in consumer advertising, ranging from classical print advertisements for niche and mass markets to out-of-home advertising and online banners, from radio promotions to point-of-sale advertising in cooperation with non-tourism partners that share similar target groups with our clients.

All our B2C campaigns are driven by maximizing the reach and impact in our predefined target groups.

All design of advertisements can be done in our in-house multimedia department in close consultation with the relevant account team, which develops detailed media plans and the appropriate marketing mix according to our clients’ needs.

Please see a letter of recommendation by Condor, reflecting our close business relationship with the airline, on the following page.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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2.17. Identify the number of contacts in your tourism database (referred to in the Scope of Work Sections 2.8. and 2.9.) broken down into the travel industry (tour operators, travel agents, wholesalers and receptive operators) and/or media (editors, journalists, freelancers and influential bloggers) for Germany and German-speaking regions.

TOURISM TRADE

Our contact database consists of approx. 200 tour operators - around 75 of them are specialized in North America - as well as 15 receptive operators.

More than 800 tourism trade contacts have actively subscribed to our bi-monthly trade newsletter for Arizona since December 2020. We will continue to promote the newsletter during events and webinars as well as in our daily work for Arizona.

22,500 travel agents, tour operator staff and travel trade stakeholders from Germany can be reached through our own and the database of Visit USA Committee Germany.

MEDIA

Our growing database consists of more than 1,600 active journalist contacts from both trade and consumer media in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (10 % editors, 45 % journalists, 45 % freelancers).

We have a separate blogger and influencer database which consists of approx. 200 contacts, “big names” as well as smaller niche bloggers. Through our “Post & Toast” event at ITB we are well-connected with a lot of bloggers and influencers and know most of them personally. Because of these excellent connections, we can run blogger co-operations (individual and group trips as well as conferences) for our clients in a cost-efficient way.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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2.18. Provide a maximum of two detailed examples of how your organization leveraged a strategic brand partnership for a client; include specific results.

Super Bowl VIP Event – USA-Reisen.de

During Super Bowl LVII, TMR participated as main presenter in a VIP client event in Berlin in February 2023.

The purpose of the event planned by the German North America specialist USA- Reisen.de was to educate their clients and share first-hand information about the 2023 Super Bowl destination. Only top clients of the tour operator were invited.

We held three presentation blogs of 25 minutes each to give a general overview (part 1) feature Arizona’s Dude Ranches (part 2) and Hidden Gems (part 3). Additionally, the tour operator introduced their Arizona website content and itinerary suggestions.

After the presentations TMR had lots of one-on-one conversations with the guests, who had individual questions. Some of them even started planning their 2023/24 vacation right at the event.

The event was booked out with a total of 70 guests + 3 tour operator staff members and their CEO. All guests received a follow up email with information about AOT’s website, “AppreciateAZ”, and TMR’s contact information.

As free promotional activity USA-Reisen.de added an Arizona banner linked to Arizona content and product on their website.

A few days after the event, the tour operator informed TMR that some of the guests had already requested an offer for a trip to Arizona or even booked a tour.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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America Unlimited Streetcar Branding Campaign

As main activity of a B2C marketing campaign with the North America specialist America Unlimited, five streetcars with Arizona branding ran for a duration of three month in winter 2023/24 in Hanover, Germany.

The layout featured the great diversity of Arizona with canyons and nature, Route 66, saguaros etc. and the streetcars ran daily on different lines to guarantee a great reach throughout the city. AOT’s and the tour operator’s logo and websites as CTA were also featured.

The purpose was to raise huge awareness for Arizona among a wide target audience, inspire people and address potentially new clients to book a trip to Arizona.

This awareness campaign was supported by several additional promotional activities:

• Social Media posts and stories (Facebook & Instagram)

• Consumer newsletter article with Arizona travel offer (150,000 subscribers)

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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2.19. With what relevant trade and/or professional associations are you involved? How does this participation give you an advantage over your competition?

TravelMarketing Romberg is a member of various associations, be it as the company directly or through some of our several clients. The agency TMR is a member of the German Travel Association (Deutscher Reiseverband, DRV) as well as a part of the international agency network Lotus.

These memberships not only give TMR regular insights in the latest trends and figures of the German travel industry, but also give us the advantage of being able to compare our market to international developments. Further, TMR can make use of synergy effects among the German travel industry and from international agencies, using best practices and learning from each other.

Our US clients (Great Lakes USA and Travel Michigan), as well as our project clients (e.g. Visit Detroit) are all members of the Visit USA Committee Germany Germany as well as the Visit USA Committee Austria and Switzerland and therefore also of Brand USA, while our clients in the Caribbean (The British Virgin Islands and the Jamaica Tourism Board) are members of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Karibik, AGK. Both associations are membership-based organizations with the goal to promote travel into the respective regions through joint events, campaigns and through networking among the members. These associations provide us with great networks of tour operators, airlines, rental car companies, DMOs, hoteliers, etc. in the US and Caribbean travel industry of the German-speaking markets. Our Managing Director is a board member of the Visit USA Committee Germany.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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3. Media Relations (only complete this section is submitting an offer for Media Relations)

We will not hand in an offer for Media Relations as we have worked very successfully in partnership with Kaus Media Services for AOT in the past years. Please find below a reference letter by Axel Kaus, Managing Director of Kaus Media Service.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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3.1. Provide a narrative response of how the Media Relations-specific sections of the Scope of Work will be accomplished.

Offeror Response: n.a.

3.2. Name three (3) of Arizona's biggest challenges in German-speaking markets. What media relations tactics would you implement to overcome each challenge? Please be specific by including your rationale for selecting these tactics and if these are different by country (i.e., Germany vs. Austria vs. Switzerland).

3.3. What are Arizona's three (3) biggest strengths that should be capitalized on when promoting Arizona to German-speaking travelers? What strategies would you use to capitalize on these strengths? Please outline specific strategies for each German-speaking region and develop a pitch for a freelance travel writer that you would use to highlight one of these strengths.

3.4. AOT is interested in your evaluation and insight into German-speaking regions’ market potential as it relates specifically to Arizona.Identify at least two key opportunities, one in Germany and a second in another German-speaking region, and how you would take advantage of these from a media relations perspective.

Outline key competitive or environmental factors of potential concern.

3.5. Develop a one-year media relations plan to promote Arizona in German-speaking regions with a total budget not to exceed $100,000. This amount shall include representation fees for the monthly retainer and all optional projects as outlined on the price sheet as well as any hard costs associated with trade shows, media missions and press trips as well as other expenses including, but not limited to, social media marketing, promotional items, shipping, travel expenses, etc.

The narrative response can include, at minimum the following details:

● Target market - who will be targeted?

● Product - what unique compelling Arizona products will be promoted to the target market?

● Objectives - what do we plan to achieve through this one-year marketing plan?

● Strategies - what tactics will be employed to achieve the objectives?

● Measurable Results - how will the tactics be measured for success?

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

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4. Travel Trade/Consumer Marketing Services (only complete this section is submitting an offer for Travel Trade/Consumer Marketing Services)

4.1. Provide a narrative response of how the Travel Trade/Consumer Marketing Services-specific sections of the

Scope of Work will be accomplished.

To fulfill the SOW in a diversified way, TMR will build the Travel Trade/Consumer Marketing Services on different pillars.

An important aspect will be the close cooperation with tour operators from the German-speaking markets to identify trade and consumer marketing opportunities that create awareness, increase visitation, visitor spending and length of stay.

This close cooperation goes along with attending trade shows in-market (ITB) and in the US (IPW) to meet with these partners and discuss product development and extension of their portfolios, which is the base for identifying effective marketing campaigns that maximize ROI.

As the actual sellers of any Arizona product are the travel agents, it is essential to educate them regularly and offer resources enabling them to successfully sell the destination. Besides organizing and attending own trade events, the Visit USA Committee is a key partner to reach agents all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland through their regular roadshows, webinars, newsletters, and with the Visit USA Germany website, where TMR will maintain the Arizona landing page and share news and first-hand information regularly. The website is not only accessible for trade and media, but also for consumers. The Visit USA Committee Germany is also a valuable partner to cost-effectively attend consumer shows and ITB.

Another important educational tool to market and sell Arizona will be FAM trips with selected tour operators and travel agents. TMR will identify opportunities throughout the year and use the relationship to airlines to plan and execute varied and cost-efficient FAM tours together with AOT.

The focus of our day-to-day work will be to create brand awareness and uniquely position and promote Arizona in our market.

4.2. Name three (3) of Arizona's biggest challenges in the German-speaking market for the travel trade industry and how you would address them.

One challenge is getting to Arizona from the German-speaking markets. There are no direct flights from Austria and Switzerland, only connecting flights within Europe, for example via Germany. A comfortable and easy journey is often an important decision criterion for many travelers from the German-speaking markets when choosing a vacation destination. With Condor, at least one airline offers direct flights from Frankfurt, Germany to Phoenix, Arizona.

However, the service is currently only seasonal from mid-May to mid-September and Condor just flies three days a week. The flight capacities can therefore still be expanded to offer travelers from Germany as well as Austria and Switzerland more flexibility.

We would continue to maintain our very good partnership with Condor and recommend, as in the past, to fill the existing seasonal direct flight in the best possible way through a joint marketing campaign. In addition, we are in constant contact with many airline partners who also serve other destinations in the USA from the German-speaking markets and are always ready to position Arizona as a potential new destination.

Many travel agencies and tour operators often only include a detour through Northern Arizona as part of a round trip through other US states such as California, Utah, or Nevada. Therefore, another main challenge we see is to

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

Solicitation Attachment – Offeror Questionnaire | Revision No. 1 | Revised 03-24 Page 18 of 23 convince travel agents and travelers alike to increase the time spent in Arizona during a typical itinerary through the Southwest.

Although we have significantly increased Arizona knowledge in the German-speaking markets in recent years, we see the need to continue to train travel trade about Arizona on an ongoing basis. Through our work, various tour operators have already expanded their product range. Nevertheless, we believe it is particularly important to keep focusing on education and creating awareness for all trade and consumer related activities. We would continue highlighting the variety of experiences available in all of Arizona by using images and introducing places that are not in everyone's mind when thinking of Arizona. This relates to any destination training, newsletter content as well as ads and other campaign components.

This leads us to the third challenge we identified. In the most popular tourist highlights in Northern Arizona such as Grand Canyon National Park, Antelope Canyon, and Sedona there are more and more capacity issues. Therefore accommodation, tours, etc. are booked out far in advance, which makes it difficult for many tour operators to send customers to Arizona at their desired travel time.

Through product development and destination training, we want to ensure that as many travel agents as possible have solutions for these challenges at hand. In case of unavailability of certain regions/attractions, they should immediately have an alternative in mind. Or preferably, they would suggest a different route with more unknown, off-the-beaten-track locations in the first place. In this context, we would continue explaining the principles of Appreciate AZ, as Arizona’s nature in particular is an important selling point for travel agencies.

4.3. How would you prioritize the following tactics if given a limited budget: trade shows, destination trainings, sales missions and/or FAM tours? Please rank them in order of importance and provide justification for your order of importance.

• Priority 1: Destination trainings (including webinars) – Educating travel trade regularly and developing them to destination experts is the key to successfully sell Arizona. In-person events as well as virtual functions guarantee a broad reach to share first-hand information at relatively low cost. This is why the ROI of destination trainings is quite high. Additionally, it offers TMR the opportunity to continuously developing our (Arizona) network by building up new relationships to travel trade and maintaining existing ones.

• Priority 2: FAM Tours – Personal experiences are the best way to learn about a destination in-depth, put theoretical knowledge into pictures and create positive and lasting memories. With diversified FAM trip itineraries that cover well-known attractions as well as hidden gems (indoors and outdoors, National and State Parks), hotel product, and showcase Arizona’s meaningful history and culture including tribal nations, trade partners will understand the great diversity and receive first-hand information, which is a significant resource for their daily business. We will make sure to pick the travel agents that have the biggest potential to selling (even more) Arizona product.

• Priority 3: Sales missions – Sales missions are essential to share first-hand information and for AOT and other

Arizona partners to meet our markets’ trade partners in person. The reason for this being our third priority is that sales missions are quite time-consuming in the planning process and require high budgets, especially for travel expenses. Having said that, sales missions are a great way to combine destination trainings and in-depth product and marketing meetings with the tour operators and also with airlines. Therefore, we recommend not to do a sales mission annually, but every second year. The involvement of additional Arizona partners helps to give travel trade a better understanding of Arizona’s diversity and more in-depth knowledge about the different regions of the state.

• Priority 4: Trade shows – Trade shows are another valuable opportunity for trade partners to meet with AOT in person and discuss product extension and marketing plans for upcoming fiscal years or follow up on previously

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

Solicitation Attachment – Offeror Questionnaire | Revision No. 1 | Revised 03-24 Page 19 of 23 discussed plans and results of recently completed campaigns. As meeting time at trade shows is always very limited and participation requires high budgets, we would evaluate the scope of participation every year anew, especially for ITB in Germany, where different options of participating can be considered depending on the available budget. Questions to discuss would be: How many additional Arizona partners are planning to attend?

Does AOT want to participate with own booth or would a buy-in at the big Visit USA Germany booth make more sense? At the Visit USA booth, would AOT attend in person, or should the German rep take part of behalf of AOT to save travel expenses?

Our key will be to create the perfect mix of activities and continuously identify effective opportunities to exhaust the trade and consumer marketing budget in the most efficient way.

4.4. Describe the most unique campaign or project you have conducted to educate the travel trade about a destination. Provide details including budget, objectives, strategies, partners, implementation tactics, ROI and other measurable results, etc.

The Canada Specialist Program (CSP) was our most successful and complex tool to continuously educate the travel trade. With a total budget of 100,000 CAD (approx. 75,000 USD) the program consisted of several components, whereby we introduced and based it on an online training course. Only successful graduates were able to take advantage of additional training opportunities. A crucial part of our strategy was to require travel agents to complete additional modules annually to renew their title as Canada Specialist. The second important part of the strategy was the creation of our „CSP Elite level“ providing more in-depths Canada knowledge by offering additional training opportunities.

Our implementation tactics consisted of the following components: Annual expansion of the online training; sending out frequent newsletters with updates and news; creation and moderation of a designated closed CSP Facebook group for additional news; design and production of give-aways and shop window decoration that could be ordered free of charge; conducting numerous webinars with various Canadian partners, coordination of special industry rates of service providers from Canada, which only Canada Specialists had access to; planning and conducting several fam trips per year; organization of a large all-day training event with workshops by Canadian partners in three knowledge levels (beginner, advanced and expert); planning and conduction of a bi-annual international CSP Mega Fam Trip with 12 groups travelling at the same time to different provinces and territories of Canada and more than 150 participants from 12 countries. All the activities listed above, except the CSP Mega Fam Trip, were also carried out exclusively for Canada Specialist Elite.

Our main objective was the creation of an active, well-educated, and interconnected community of German travel agents that is in frequent exchange amongst each other and with Canadian industry partners. Another objective was to give as many industry partners as possible the opportunity to educate the travel trade and be visible in the German market. The partners we engaged in the CSP ranged from national organizations such as Parks Canada or Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, provincial and territorial marketing organizations, regional partners such as CVBs to a broad variety of private sector partners like airlines, car and RV rental companies, accommodation, etc.

To achieve this goal, we have carried out almost 30 CSP fam trips including exclusive CSP Elite fam trips and 3 CSP Mega fam trips as well as more than 50 CSP webinars.

The overall targeted result of increasing the number of Canada experts as sales force in Germany was achieved by the continuous growth in the number of Canada Specialist agents. Destination Canada's program metric of increasing the number of accredited agents by 5% was exceeded every year by TMR with a total of 1,500 Canada Specialists from Germany as most recent number.

4.5. How will you leverage your tourism database (referred to in Sections 2.8. and 2.9.) to create new bookable itineraries and scale existing consumer travel products?

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

Solicitation Attachment – Offeror Questionnaire | Revision No. 1 | Revised 03-24 Page 20 of 23

TMR has close relationships with all travel trade partners relevant to AOT in the German-speaking markets. As a result, we are in constant exchange and contact with various tour operators and, as in the past, we will obtain specific feedback from the product managers on the existing Arizona product and the interests of their USA customers. Based on the input on possible focal points for new round trips and the topics that appeal to their customer group, we would develop respective itinerary examples in consultation with AOT.

TMR has already conducted various exclusive Arizona webinars for many different tour operators in recent years with precisely this goal in mind. We have discussed route options directly with the relevant contacts from the product as well as sales teams each time. After consultation with AOT, we then developed these as new Arizona round trip suggestions.

We would also continue using the fam trips we would carry out to present new itinerary options. As a result of the trip, new Arizona product suggestions can be developed together with us and AOT and made bookable by the participating tour operators. A possible measurable objective of every fam trip would therefore be the number of bookings of the newly created itineraries after one year.

As our tour operator partners in Germany, Austria and Switzerland cover a wide range of travellers and we would of course continue to work with all relevant partners on product expansion, this automatically means for AOT covering diverse target groups in terms of demographic criteria as well as geography. Thanks to our network within the industry, we are also in contact with tour operators who have not yet sold the USA, or only to a limited extent. If partners are considering a potential USA product launch, we would always suggest Arizona as a destination and train the relevant contact or provide any helpful product information to assist with the implementation of Arizona product.

TMR has already supported a number of tour operators in this regard in recent years.

We would also suggest including a category in the bi-monthly Trade Newsletter in which new trade-ready products are presented each time. In consultation with AOT, existing products that are not yet or hardly ever in the program of German-speaking tour operators could be highlighted. These products would of course be communicated to all relevant trade partners in addition to the newsletter notification.

TMR is also in close contact with Brand USA and therefore receives a lot of background information and feedback on their projects in the German-speaking markets. In terms of product development and expansion of the Arizona product, TMR sees potential in the new Brand USA Travel Exchange Program, as it could give lesser-known regions from Arizona the opportunity to position themselves in international markets such as the German-speaking markets.

We would research and evaluate the benefits of the program in more depth as AOT would need to partner with Brand USA to buy into it.

4.6. Please describe your most successful marketing campaign (trade or consumer) that cost up to $25,000.What were the guidelines and expectations? What were the deliverables and how did your company determine measurable tactics/benchmark and gauge the success/accomplishment of objective(s)? Were there lessons learned that will be integrated into future projects?

● Target market - who was your demographic?

● Product - what unique compelling product was the focus of the campaign?

● Objectives - what was your goal to achieve in this campaign?

● Strategies - what tactics did you employ to achieve your objective(s)?

● Measurable Results - how did you measure your tactics / ROI to determine success?

Offeror Response:

The campaign we would like to present as successful example of our marketing efforts is a $20,000 package with North America specialist CANUSA Touristik, which included B2C and B2B components and composed an individual approach to reach the target markets.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

Solicitation Attachment – Offeror Questionnaire | Revision No. 1 | Revised 03-24 Page 21 of 23

The activities aimed at 22,000 travel agencies all over Germany on the one side, and a approx. 400,000 consumers on the other side. The target market included CANUSA’s entire FIT customer base: couples / families / singles aged 25 to 65 with medium- to high-level income (not very price-sensitive) and interested in nature and outdoors, adventurers, history, culture, and road trips.

Components of the 3-months campaign:

• Arizona-themed article in CANUSA newsletter (B2C) with link to a Arizona web content and travel offer

• Online promotion (B2C): individual “scratch ad” in well-known content discovery networks promoting a travel package and linked tour operator’s website – explanation: scratch layouts use two media assets layered one on top of the other, where the top layer features a CTA and acts as scratchable surface to be removed by rubbing the screen)

• Social media activities on CANUSA’s accounts (B2C): Facebook posts, Instagram posts, stories and reels, Pinterest ads – the posts were linked to different Arizona content pages on CANIUSA’s website.

• Creation of an “Arizona Top List” (B2C) with SEO-optimized texts featuring the Top 7 things to do and see – serving as recommendations for a trip to Arizona – promotion of top list on social media and in a consumer newsletter.

• Exclusive mini newsletter featuring Arizona only (B2C)

• Exclusive travel agency newsletter (B2B) including editorial about Arizona and two travel packages.

• Web banners (B2B) linked to the Arizona content and product on the CANUSA website.

Product promoted with the activities listed above:

• 9-days self-drive to Arizona’s state parks and including hotels

• 2-weeks RV tour through Arizona

Although pre-defined travel packages were promoted, CANUSA offers tailored itineraries and all packages could be customized according to individual needs of their clients, which ensures sales far beyond the product offers that were featured in the marketing campaigns.

The objectives were on one hand to draw attention to Arizona across all steps of the customer journey, which starts with creating awareness, arousing interest, and inspiring potentially new customers, and on the other hand to ensure performance and generate room nights in Arizona. These objectives led us successfully to the overall goal of exceeding previous year’s booking numbers by 5-10%.

Our strategies comprised the combination of awareness activities and performance campaigns. Awareness activities like the “Top List” helped to reach first-timers and repeaters, who have been to Arizona already, as we had the chance to featuring all different facets of Arizona and present well-known places as well as hidden gems and off-the-beaten-path experiences. The performance activities of the marketing package did all include a CTA with direct booking option.

After the run time of the campaign, TMR received a comprehensive reporting of all activities. Measurable results comprised reach on all different channels, KPIs of the online campaigns (opening rates, click rates, impressions) and the number of inquiries/quotes sent out by CANUSA throughout the promotion period as well as actual room nights sold. While in 2022 (before this campaign) CANUSA had recorded 4,836 room nights in Arizona, 5,462 room nights were reached in 2023, which is a 12.9% increase. This result exceeded our expectations and brought us back to pre-pandemic level from 2019, which was a record year in terms of tourism sales.

The marketing coop serves as great basis for future activities with CANUSA Touristik that can be built on recently created content and product to further increase booking numbers.

Marketing Services - Germany

Arizona Office of Tourism

Solicitation Attachment – Offeror Questionnaire | Revision No. 1 | Revised 03-24 Page 22 of 23

4.7. Develop a one-year marketing plan to promote Arizona in Germany and German-speaking regions without exceeding $100,000. This amount shall include representation fees for the monthly retainer and all optional total budget, not total projects as outlined on the price sheet. The plan shall include as well as any hard costs associated with trade shows, sales missions, and familiarization tours as well as other expenses including but not limited to website development, promotional items, shipping, travel expenses, etc.

● Target market - who will be targeted?

● Product - what unique compelling Arizona products will be promoted to the target market?

● Objectives - what do we plan to achieve through this one-year marketing plan?

● Strategies - what tactics will be employed to achieve the objectives?

● Measurable Results - how will the tactics be measured for success?

Offeror Response:

As AOT’s in-market representation, we will increase the awareness for the state, especially for lesser-known regions and attractions, to create a complete and diversified image of Arizona. We will be the face in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and carefully observe the dynamics of the ever-changing German-speaking travel market. Working in the tourism industry for many years, we know how important and crucial relationships are. Therefore, we will compile and manage trade databases conscientiously.

Due to Arizona’s diversity, we do not only want to focus on a particular target market but address different interest and age groups. As previously mentioned, the multi-faceted tourism product attracts a wide range of demographics and it will be our task to target them all: Outdoor lovers and active explorers, road trippers and USA fans as well as travelers looking for recreation of age groups Generation X, Y (Millennials), and Z.

Regarding product, we would like to add more hotels and tours from the entire state to the tour operators’ portfolios, as it is often narrowed down to just the well-known attractions and cities. With more hotel properties and tour offers, there will be more opportunities for travelers to increase their length of stay in Arizona, especially during multi-state tours, where some tour operators just have 2-4 nights in their itineraries. With more Arizona product and a longer stay in the state in the first step, the next step would be to create new Arizona-only itineraries, which would be another significant extension of the tour operators’ Arizona portfolios.

This product development explains our objective of expanding Arizona product portfolios year by year, which will be reflected in the annual product inventory report, and thereby reach a sales increase of 5-10% more room nights per year.

Thus, tour operators are an essential player in our marketing strategy – they create new product and itineraries together with TMR and are also a crucial partner for efficient marketing activities, which is the reason for us to allocate large parts of the budget (23.3%) to trade shows (ITB and IPW) and a sales mission, where TMR can present the destination to and discuss marketing campaigns…