The Forgotten Audience: Your Residents

As marketers and communicators in the travel industry, we are laser focused on our client's messaging and audiences with the goal to generate visitors to the area. As the pandemic spread across the world in early 2020, it eventually hit close to all our homes and visitation stopped. Public relations and earned media efforts went into overdrive. And the need to be more localized in creating content become evident. While local residents have not been a primary audience for our two Nevada rural communities, the need for DMOs to promote the local businesses to those closest became a priority - especially in the face of closures and ever-changing guidelines. The pandemic made it clear that all audiences are vital to the communications mix, and even more important to the survival of small communities. This presentation discusses how to identify and speak to your local audience to build trust and understanding so that residents can better understand the value and impact of tourism in their communities.