Fiscal Year 2023/24 Year End Report by Explore Tualatin Valley

Explore Tualatin Valley is funded by 2.33% of transient lodging tax (TLT) generated and collected in Washington County executed through an agreement with Washington County, Oregon. As stewards of tax revenues, Explore Tualatin Valley operates a ﬁscally responsible organization, while implementing programs based on research, partnership development and performance accountability.

In addition to receiving a portion of TLT, Explore Tualatin Valley also receives a share of funds from the Regional Cooperative Tourism Program (RCTP), which are allocated by Travel Oregon from the 1.5% state TLT collections.

FY23-24REVENUE$5,073,921

TLTRCTPInvestment

FY23-24EXPENSES$5,019,106

PartnerEngagement-0.09%

Insurance-0.16%

Training-0.35%

Research-0.56%

Tours&SiteVisits-0.64%

Supplies-0.65%

Travel-0.75%

PromotionalMaterials-0.75%

EventHosting-0.85%

VisitorFulfillment-1.29%

TradeShows&Memberships1.31%

Website&Software-1.63%

Rent-1.92%

ProfessionalServices-9.98%

Wages-16.26%

Advertising&Promotion-62.82%

FY23-24 GRANTS & STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS

$3,155,600

SECTION 2 – ECONOMIC IMPACT OF TOURISM IN WASHINGTON COUNTY

Tualatin Valley’s hotels, motels and other lodging properties are integral to the region’s economy. In addition to providing employment to locals, the Transient Lodging Taxes they generate also beneﬁt our communities.

These taxes, a 9% county tax on the cost to rent accommodation in Washington County, fund tourism promotion, support Washington County tourism assets and are shared back to the communities within the county to support community tourism promotion to generate additional impact from visitors.

ABOUT TRANSIENT LODGING TAXES

Transient lodging taxes (TLT) are collected from any person occupying a hotel, motel, dwelling unit used for temporary overnight occupancy (such as Airbnb), or recreational vehicle (RV) spaces.

SECTION 3 – HOTEL & LODGING PERFORMANCE

Our lodging partners lead the ﬁve-county region and outpaced both Oregon and the United States in hotel performance in FY23-24, including signiﬁcant gains from July-December 2023.

HOTEL PERFORMANCE

$131 $189.7MM 69.4% 119.8M

Source:

SHORT-TERM RENTAL PERFORMANCE

Explore Tualatin Valley monitors how short-term rentals via (AirDNA) and how they impact tourism by tracking occupancy trends, average pricing and visitor demographics. Armed with this data, ETV advocates for policies or collaborations that increase tourism revenue, including encouraging more short-term rentals, improving regulatory frameworks, or highlighting underutilized areas.

$23MM $181 59% 815 9,050

SECTION 4 – STRATEGIC PLAN DEVELOPMENT

FY25-27 STRATEGIC PLAN

After months of development, we were thrilled to share Explore Tualatin Valley’s Three-year Strategic Plan, a shared vision for our destination. We were delighted by the active engagement and thoughtful insights that we received from our partners, as we developed our plan through a process that included questionnaires, focus groups, interviews and an interactive town hall presentation, as well as collaboration with our sta and board of directors to curate stakeholder input.

Moving forward – our e orts will be benchmarked against this plan of commitment to advance economic vitality, foster a thriving local economy, elevate tourism through a community-ﬁrst approach, and fortify our organization’s stability and organizational excellence. See the Appendix for the complete FY25-27 Strategic Plan.

SECTION 5 – A NEW BRAND & POSITION

EXPLORE TUALATIN VALLEY BRAND DEVELOPMENT

Our team has worked tirelessly in in FY23-24 to refresh all collateral to reﬂect the new Explore Tualatin Valley brand. We are proud of the new name and brand – and remain excited to continue sharing it across all of our consumer, trade, and stakeholder touchpoints.

WEBSITE REFRESH

Following the launch of our new website in Fall 2023, we have worked to align the website experience with the assets and the brand creative that we are achieving with the“Near & Dear”campaign to o er a uniﬁed brand experience for our visitors and stakeholders on all our media platforms.

ASSET DEVELOMENT - PHOTOSHOOTS

Working with our agency partners at Sparkloft, we executed two photoshoots to generate the assets and imagery needed to express our campaign visually. The two photoshoots happened at properties across Tualatin Valley – demonstrating the variety and appeal of all the destination has to o er.

SECTION 6 – ADVERTISING, CAMPAIGNS, & RESULTS

“NEAR & DEAR”CONSUMER CAMPAIGN

The “Near & Dear” campaign was created to promote Tualatin Valley as a travel destination by highlighting the region’s wineries, outdoor activities and cultural experiences by showcasing Washington County as more than just the“Portland suburbs,”but a vibrant destination in its own right. The campaign launched in August 2023 with messaging and assets focused on Tualatin Valley’s proximity to Portland – and being the closest wine destination to PDX.

AWARD-WINNING CAMPAIGN MARKETING - NEAR & DEAR CONSUMER CAMPAIGN

After a successful launch in August 2023 the Near & Dear consumer campaign immediately garnered noticeable results in its ﬁrst month (as compared to the same month in 2022):

3-FOLD

Increase in direct home page website visits

2-FOLD

Increase in home page visits from organic search

48%

Increase in overall website tra ic

NEW & DEAR CAMPAIGN GARNERED IMMEDIATE INDUSTRY RECOGNITION

In addition, the campaign gained recognition for its performance and was named a Silver Award Winner at the Cascadia Creative Awards. This recognition fuels our passion and commitment to continually highlight the beauty and charm of Tualatin Valley with unwavering excellence.

TAP SEASON – SEASONAL PROMOTION OF OUR CRAFT BEER SCENE

FY23-24 included Explore Tualatin Valley’s ﬁrst annual Tap Season promotion. Built around Oregon’s Craft Beer month, which begins in February, Tap Season focused on promoting and attracting visitors to Tualatin Valley’s breweries, cideries, and taprooms. From February through April, Tap Season promotion included robust print, digital, broadcast, social media and outof-home advertising, enhanced PR e orts as well as special events.

• 1859 Magazine

• AAA Via

• Northwest Travel & Life

• Oregon Business

• Oregon Wine Press

• Hillsboro Hops-Hillsboro Stadium

• Oregon Live

• Pamplin Media

• PDX Pipeline

• Travel Oregon

• Willamette Week

PUBLIC RELATIONS MEDIA RESULTS

• OPB radio live reads

• KXL and KINK (Alpha Media) radio spots

• KOIN 6 Tap Season segments on AM Extra and Everyday Northwest

• 9 Digital billboards in Portland Metro Region

• Bus Tail ads on 90 TriMet buses

Explore Tualatin Valley’s public relations and media outreach e orts included pitching stories to local news and beer outlets about Tap Season and the special events/activations ETV held throughout the region. As a result, Tap Season earned more than 22 media placements including articles and mentions in the following outlets:

Beaverton Valley Times

Bizjournals.com

Forest Grove News Times

Hillsboro News Times

KPTV, Fox 12 News

New School Beer

Northwest Beer Guide OregonLive

Oregonian Brews and News Youroregonnews.com

OWNED MEDIA: SOCIAL MEDIA AND WEBSITE

In addition to the paid and earned media e orts outlined, Explore Tualatin Valley also used its own channels (or“owned media”) — Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and tualatinvalley.org — to promote Tap Season.

TAP SEASON SPECIAL EVENTS

As part of Tap Season, Explore Tualatin Valley launched four activations. The events were widely attended, exposing consumers to Tualatin Valley’s unique craft beverage scene.

March 16

“Tap Season Sip + Shop” at Bridgeport Village

ALE TRAIL PASSPORT

Tap Season also promoted the Tualatin Valley Ale Trail Mobile Passport –driving check-ins at cideries and taprooms via gamiﬁcation and prizes, encouraging visitors to experience and enjoy our ﬁnest breweries, taprooms and cideries.

On January 3, 2023, Explore Tualatin Valley launched the Tualatin Valley Ale Trail Mobile Passport. This passport was updated February 2024—adding cideries and taprooms— and ran until April 30, 2024.

The success of the passport encouraged visitors to experience and enjoy Tualatin Valley’s ﬁnest breweries, taprooms and cideries.

April 4

“THE DRAFT: Beer. Baseball. Fun” at Breakside Brewery

April 13

Two “Alpaca Happy Hours” at Hillsboro Downtown Station and Stickmen Brewing’s Tualatin Beer Hall

SPRING SIPS – OUR ANNUAL PROMOTION DURING OREGON WINE MONTH

Being situated directly next to the Willamette Valley wine country, Tualatin Valley has the unique challenge of positioning itself as a trip-worthy, standalone wine destination. Our Near & Dear campaign message heavily focused on the proximity of Tualatin Valley’s wine country to Portland and PDX international airport. To build on this focus, Explore Tualatin Valley’s launched its inaugural Spring Sips promotion in FY23-24. Planned as a month-long celebration of Tualatin Valley’s wineries during Oregon Wine Month, the promotion included a series of events to promote Tualatin Valley’s wine and culinary o erings and culminated with the 3rd annual Pink Rosé Festival at Hillsboro Ballpark.

Explore Tualatin Valley hired Emily Crowley Consulting, Sparkloft Media and Lawrence PR to put together a robust marketing campaign which included media and inﬂuencer outreach and paid advertising and social media plan with a total budget of $120,000. Additionally, a special site was created for the event, Spring-Sips.com, and a newsletter was distributed to attendees of previous Pink! Rosé Festivals.

MAY

MEDIA SOIRÉE AT SOSTA HOUSE

Explore Tualatin Valley’s Media Soirée was a kicko event for local media and social inﬂuencers. The event, which was held at Sosta House, included light bites from local restaurants and wineries. This invitationonly event was designed to introduce local food and wine writers to Tualatin Valley’s culinary scene.

31 media/inﬂuencer attendees

7 ETV guests and stakeholders

MAY 10-19

Flight Week was a collaboration between wineries and local restaurants–facilitated by Explore Tualatin Valley–to provide ﬂights of three Tualatin Valley wines from May 10-19.

10-19

On the o icial Spring Sips website, local winerelated events, including events held at Tualatin Valley wineries, were highlighted and included in the overall monthlong promotion.

FESTIVAL

Spring Sips culminated in the annual Pink! Rosé Festival, which is now one of Explore Tualatin Valley’s signature events. This grand tasting event featured Tualatin Valley wineries pouring tastes (and selling bottles) of their newest rosé releases.

17 total restaurant partners

24 total listings on Spring Sips website

17 participating wineries

4 local wine walks

648 total attendees

25 participating wineries

PAID ADVERTISING: Explore Tualatin Valley supported Spring Sips with a robust advertising campaign, which included a mix of print, digital and out-of-home advertising.

ADVERTISING DIGITAL ADVERTISING BROADCAST OUT OF HOME

• Oregon Business

• Oregon Wine Press

• Willamette Week

• Oregon Live

• Portland Mercury

• SIP Northwest

• KOIN

• OPB

• Consul TV

• Digital Billboards

• TriMet Bus Tails

Explore Tualatin Valley also promoted Spring Sips via the dedicated website, as well as through its local media outreach e orts.

SPRING SIPS CHANNELS

Spring-Sips.com 22,951 visitors

54% Oregon

34% Washington (18% from Seattle)

7% California

2% Georgia

1% Texas

Spring Sips Newsletter 93 subscribers

• 4 campaigns sent

• 50-75% open rate

• 6-30% click-through rate

PUBLIC RELATIONS / MEDIA RESULTS

Distributed a press release to local media in mid-April

• 27 total placements

• 46 million impressions

Hosted a Media Soirée at Sosta House May 9 for media and inﬂuencers

• 31 media/inﬂuencer attendees

• 16 placements (Instagram posts by attendees)

• 52,627 impressions

WINE ENTHUSIAST PARTNERSHIP

Explore Tualatin Valley entered a partnership with Wine Enthusiast to generate awareness for Tualatin Valley, Oregon’s friendliest wine country. Digital elements strategically targeted engaged consumers through various channels including but not limited to the Wine Enthusiast podcast, inﬂuencer marketing, content marketing and highly impactful custom infographic, as well as bonus digital elements not included on the insertion order.

Over the course of the program and across the deliverables included in the partnership,

Wine Enthusiast’s Tualatin Valley content delivered over 4.4 million impressions.

Tualatin

was featured on two episodes of the Wine Enthusiast podcast –reaching over 15,000 downloads!

The custom infographic was distributed on Facebook as two separate pieces of content. Both delivered impressive resultsresultingin higher metrics across exposure, reach and engagement.

Valley

Two wine inﬂuencers featured Tualatin Valley wines during the Wine Enthusiast partnership, generating a combined 18,000 impressions and 1,000 engagements on their posts.

VALENTINE’S DAY WINE LOOP

Throughout the month of February, we welcomed our audience to visit one of the 19 participating wineries to collect stamps for the chance to gift baskets for wine lovers.

CANINES UNCORKED

The annual dog-friendly wine tasting event of the year, Canines Uncorked, returned to Tualatin Valley in early August. Guests were encouraged to bring their pups and take self-guided tours of three groups of four participating wineries, where dogs are among the guests of honor. Net proceeds from ticket sales beneﬁted the Oregon Humane Society.

ARTS PROMOTION – PUBLIC ARTS TRAIL

Dozens of murals, sculptures, and metal and glassworks are on display in cities across Oregon’s Tualatin Valley – in partnership with local arts organizations, we developed a printed public arts guide partnered with a mobile passport to help visitors and residents discover them. These diverse works of art explore the area’s history and heritage, honor its natural areas and show hope for the future. The cities in Tualatin Valley have been fostering substantial public art programs over the years and are now home to many pieces by diverse artists. 1,940

Our public arts mobile passport is a curated collection of public art to explore in Tualatin Valley and is instantly delivered to a user’s phone via text and email for immediate use! The pass can be saved to a phone’s home screen for easy one-tap access.

When visiting a participating location, users simply checked-in via GPS and count towards points!

INTERNATIONAL VISITOR MARKETING GENERATING OVERNIGHT STAYS

Following the COVID pandemic and its impact on international travel, we reintroduced Tualatin Valley to the Canadian visitor. Leveraging the Travel Oregon RCTP investment, Explore Tualatin Valley ran a digital program via Expedia in Canada to advertise and generate room bookings in the destination.

DOMESTIC HOTEL MARKETING GENERATING OVERNIGHT HOTEL STAYS

Also on Expedia is our domestic Brand USA program. To fund this e ort, Explore Tualatin Valley leveraged direct and Travel OR co-op buying for the domestic hotel booking channel marketing, which more than doubled our investment into international advertising.

The Expedia campaign received $72,140 in paid advertising between July ’23 and May ’24, with the following results:

3,022,436 IMPRESSIONS

3,557 CLICKS

24,158 ROOM NIGHTS

$3,498,000 GROSS BOOKINGS

In launching the campaigns, and throughout the year, we will ensure e ective tracking and measurement tools are in place. Each channel will have deﬁned metrics so that performance can be assessed for each campaign pulse, as well as for the year overall. Our tracking tools include:

Website Results

Compared to FY22-23, our website tra ic increased 73% with over 347,00 visits over the year.

Paid Search Results

To drive tra ic to our website, we run paid search through Google AdWords. Paid search helps generate high-quality leads, increased website tra ic, and ultimately more visitors to our destination. With the right targeting, calls to action, and landing pages, paid search has provided a signiﬁcant boost to our website tra ic and quality of said tra ic.

1,334,455 $0.82

31,868

42,873 4,82%

Explore Tualatin Valley’s social channels all play a special role in reaching our di erent audience segments at di erent points of their travel planning journeys. Through a thoughtful combination of content, platforms, and data science, we worked to execute a social strategy that would complement our overall marketing and organizational goals. Impressions

30,866,121 88,346 $152,051 185,170 2.91%*

*Average, not total. Totals include Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

*Source: 35+ Stats on How Social Media A ects Travel [2023]. July 12th, 2024. https://passport-photo.online/blog

Facebook

Facebook is a proactive paid media platform with an organic focus on branding and is a good channel for event promotion, group discussion and general updates. It is also a key player in our social platform mix because over half of future travelers (52%) have liked a Facebook page associated with their destination.*

Because of its paid capabilities, Facebook is able to provide robust audience insights and reporting to inform future campaigns and content. Following our rebrand and with support of $110,713 in paid promotion, in Fall ’23 our Facebook proﬁle showed a sizeable growth in visits while remaining strong across other key measurements:

19,290,688 54,725 453,095 168,073 4.11%

In FY23-24, our focus on Instagram was to build a inity based on shared values and interests for the destination. From our Always-on content to Influencer partnerships, and event promotion, Instagram was an important tool to share what the destination has to o er season over season and entice visitors to join in on the experience. Compared to the prior fiscal year, Explore Tualatin Valley’s Instagram profile saw an increase in profile visits, overall follower growth, and solid performance across the board.

2,932,242 16,035

Pinterest is a visual discovery engine in which users ﬁnd inspiration, plan and buy products for meaningful moments in their lives. In a recent report, it was shown that 50 MILLION people engage with travel content on Pinterest.

Pinterest provides destinations with a valuable opportunity to inspire and inﬂuence planning and booking decisions by showing up early. Explore Tualatin Valley has had a presence on Pinterest for several years, but in the second half of FY23-24, it was utilized within our social platform mix to reach travel planners early and inspire visitors to consider Tualatin Valley in their travel plans from the start.

SECTION 7 – MEDIA, PUBLIC RELATIONS, INFLUENCERS

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Explore Tualatin Valley values the power of a planned and strategic public relations e ort. We also recognize the specialized e ort needed to gain local and travel media attention through story planting and pitch activities. To that end, we engaged the regional professional agency LawrencePR to aid us in having successful earned media, and garner coverage for the region as a premier destination, as well as for the region’s marquee events and industry initiatives.

Over the past year, Lawrence PR has conducted media outreach, not only pitching the overall region but also coordinating interviews around speciﬁc initiatives. The outreach has resulted in multiple local features, including The Oregonian, Eater PDX, Willamette Week, Portland Business Journal, Portland Monthly, KGW, KPTV, KOIN and KATU, as well as regional publications such as Northwest Travel & Life and 1859.

During this year’s engagement with Tualatin Valley, the team has secured 167 placements, totaling more than 364M+ impressions, and a CPM (cost per thousand impressions, or how many people have seen the story) of $0.23 (industry standard benchmark is $5.00).

Pitch Summary

Our goal was to bring brand awareness to the traveling public by securing media placement in print and online publications. We also charged our agency to increase our visibility with residents, partners, and the day visitor by working on stories with local broadcast media.

Press Release Summary

Each month, ETV provides a story at no cost to the publishers of the Beaverton Resource Guide, a full-color, monthly newspaper that is distributed at the Beaverton Farmers Market, major grocery retailers, restaurants, libraries and more. With its monthly column, ETV can use the space to showcase the entire destination, including seasonal activities, upcoming events and content that supports ETV’s promotional campaigns. During FY23-24, ETV was able to promote its seasonal campaigns and provide information to encourage Beaverton residents and visitors to the city to visit businesses in Tualatin Valley during the holidays, Tap Season and Spring Sips.

Beaverton Resource Guide

Travel and Media Professionals

An additional tactic is working directly with travel and media professionals. During FY23-24, we attended media marketplaces and hosted travel media writers on familiarization tours.

Explore Tualatin Valley attended three media marketplaces in FY23-24, resulting in the booking of a total of 48 media appointments. The media marketplaces attended included:

ETV attended the annual SATW Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico (September 2023) for three days of networking, professional development and exploration.

SATW is the preeminent professional organization comprised of the travel industry’s most experienced journalists, photographers, editors, broadcast/video/ﬁlm producers, bloggers, website owners, public relations experts and hospitality industry representatives from the United States and Canada. ETV had one-on-one meetings with 16 travel media and networked with dozens of media and destination public relations representatives throughout the conference.

ETV attended the International Media Marketplace (IMM) in New York, NY (January 2024) to connect the travel industry with editors, journalists, broadcasters and inﬂuencers from all over the continent. ETV met with 23 travel media on one-on-one appointments and networked with hundreds of media, further solidifying relationships with known media and fostering new relationships with others.

A special dinner for a select group of 9 travel media was organized Travel Oregon, Travel Portland, and ETV to showcase Oregon’s diverse food and beverage scene. ETV provided sake from SakeOne and nuts from Pilgrimz Nuts for the guests’gift bags.

ETV also attended a private launch party for the new season of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love, which celebrated the new season of the PBS travel series. ETV, along with other Portland Region partners, Travel Portland and Mt. Hood Territory, sponsored an episode of the show.

29 TRAVEL MEDIA AND CONTENT CREATORS HOSTED

ETV hosted media fams resulting from meetings held during IMM in New York with writers who have existing relationships with ETV as well as writers who were pitched by ETV’s PR agency of record, Lawrence PR.

The largest fam, which consisted of 15 content creators, was held during the annual TravelCon event for travel content creators. The conference was held in Portland in May at the Oregon Convention Center. ETV had an exhibition table during the three-day conference and met with dozens of travel inﬂuencers and content creators who visited the booth. In addition, ETV had one-on-one meetings with at least 25 creators who were interested in working with Explore Tualatin Valley in the future. Each of the travel media who visited were on speciﬁc assignments, which included: new wineries/wine country; outdoor adventure activities, and dining.

Leveraging Inﬂuencer & Content Creator Partnerships

A structured and strategic creator program was launched in FY23-24 to help increase awareness and a inity for Tualatin Valley. The goal was to leverage content creators to showcase a range of experiences using distinctive voices and tap into a deeper conversation through the Tualatin Valley lens. Our content creator partnerships also:

BUILD BRAND AFFINITY: Amplify Tualatin Valley messaging and highlight diverse experiences and drive conversation through distinctive voices.

EXTEND REACH: Creator collaboration drives awareness signiﬁcantly by exposing content not only to Tualatin Valley audiences but also to (often large) creator audiences for incremental reach.

SUPPORT MESSAGING: In the planning phase - we aligned on goals and objectives for their content to build out their narrative, looking to shape a consistent story arch and support ETV’s messaging priority.

Inﬂuencer Post Name

Michelle Ven Lee (82K Instagram followers)

Ti any & Brett Brown (combined 1.45MM Instagram followers

Nori de Vega (30K Instagram followers)

Beaverton Restaurant Week Sept. 26, 2023 1,334 97

Fun Things to Do in Tualatin Valley Nov. 2, 2023 2,727 121

Cellar Season in Tualatin Valley Jan. 11, 2024 416 65 Subtotal 4,477 283

Date Night in Beaverton Oct. 3, 2023 45,400 293

Fall in Tualatin Valley Oct. 19, 2023 23,900 118

Rainy Day Feb. 8, 2024 8,949 50

Pink! Rose Festival May 22, 2024 1,106 2 Subtotal 79,355 463

Intro to Tap Season

TELEVISION

KOIN/CW: Starting August 2023, ETV partnered with KOIN 6 News and CW 32, which included :30 and :15 spots that are aired throughout the broadcast schedule on both channels, as CTV channels (including AppleTV and Hulu). The partnership also included the“Explore Tualatin Valley”weathercam, which is stationed at David Hill Vineyards.

OPB: During FY23-24, ETV partnered with OPB Radio to sponsor“live reads” that were read by the hosts during the morning drive time, and before the weekend airings of Rick Steves’ travel show and“Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” During the Tap Season and Spring Sips campaigns, the live read messages were changed to reﬂect each promotion.

KINK/KXL: ETV sponsored two :30 spots and one :15 spot which aired on FM radio stations, KINK-FM 101.9 and FM News 101 KXL to promote Spring Sips.

RADIO

SECTION 8 – GROUP SALES

We define our role in destination sales to be an additional source of business for our partners and to be an advocate for organizers of meeting and sports groups plus tour operators that serve both the domestic and international markets. In addition, we define the role of support service to our partners as a valued added proposition to assist our partners in working with customers that have defined.

SMALL GROUP MEETINGS

In Fiscal Year 2024, we gained a better understanding of our destination and deﬁned our proactive focus on small group meeting organizers due to the limited meeting group venues and hotels in the county. These customers are sourced from the meeting organizers that are represented by the acronym SMERF (Social, Military, Educational and Fraternal) markets.

We focused our direct selling activities on the trade verticals and trade show opportunities that best ﬁt the buying needs of these customers.

In addition, we built a relationship and booking o ers to meeting organizers that serve these markets via the professional organizations Meeting Planners International (MPI) and via the third-party meeting planning association Helms-Briscoe.

We also leveraged our destination placement via the lead sharing platform CVENT.

SPORTS MARKET

Based on our marketing analysis in Fiscal Year 2023, we positioned our proactive e orts in providing support services to our destination customers using our parks’ facilities but did not invest in additional sta ing or attendance in sports trade events.

We leveraged our destination placement via a paid subscription on the sports lead sharing platform PLAYEASY to receptively manager inbound leads.

We are awaiting the venue improvements announcements of the Hillsboro Hops Stadium and Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District to inform our long-term sports planning.

PROFESSIONAL TRADE EVENTS

MAY 2024: MPI PNW Regional – Glen Eden Beach, OR

22 Planners Regional education and tradeshow conference for the OR and WA chapters of Meeting Professionals International.

Helms Briscoe Annual Meeting – Las Vegas, NV

25 Planners Tradeshow for the world’s largest third-party meeting planners who each represent multiple clients.

SECTION 9 – TRAVEL TRADE

During Fiscal Year 2023, we worked with Washington County destination partners to develop suggested itineraries. We partnered with Travel Oregon and presented to international tour buyers at multiple trade events and focused on invited and touring travel trade buyers in the Tualatin Valley.

We also partnered with Brand USA to ﬁnd international marketing opportunities for the inbound market.

We used our partnership with the International Inbound Travel Association to provide training support for our partners wishing to work in the inbound travel market.

During the ﬁscal year, we worked with our hotel partners and determined that we should redeploy in the domestic bus tour market in Fiscal Year 2025.

PROFESSIONAL TRADE EVENTS

FEBRUARY 2024: International Inbound Travel Association – Memphis, TN

33 Planners

Education and tradeshow focused on internation inbound tour operators and receptive operators.

Go West – Lake Tahoe, CA

50 Planners

International inbound appointment tradeshow for tour operators and receptive operators who are focused on the western USA destinations.

MAY 2024: IPW – Los Angeles, CA

75 Planners

USA’s largest tradeshow for international tour operators and receptive operators.

September 2023

February 2023

SECTION

MAPS AND GUIDES

During FY23-24, we had continued success with our updated printed maps and guides, which inspire visitors to engage with our destination.

Within Washington County, visitors can find our professionally printed maps and guides through the Washington County Chambers of Commerce Visitor Information Centers and through direct shipments to our visitor-facing partners. Our maps and guides are directly fulfilled to visitor request via our website and Travel Oregon both by our o ice team and by our fulfillment service.

We replaced our traditional visitor guide magazine with an annual set of three seasonal“Inspiration Guides” which o er timely travel and visit ideas. Across these, and all maps and guides, we implemented a unique QR-coding system to track usage and engagement, and ultimately to better understand what content is most appealing to our audiences.

Distribution Points:

SECTION 11 – PARTNER & COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Partner eNewsletters We value the importance of planned and useful communications to share our e orts and engage our partners. Our two monthly e-newsletters“Tualatin Valley @ Work”and “Tualatin Valley Insights”deliver relevant trends and tourism-speciﬁc data relevant to our partners as well as team highlights, partner spotlights and opportunities, and local events.

Listening & Engagement Sessions In FY23-24, Explore Tualatin Valley executed targeted listening sessions to pinpoint partner needs. We will continue this program with the goal of creating new initiatives and opportunities to support our partners and the community.

PARTNERSHIP & ADVOCACY PRESENTATIONS

Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) On November 14, 2024, Explore Tualatin Valley hosted a Product Tasting Event, showcasing local wine, food and artisan products at the 118th AOC Annual Conference as more than 500 commissioners, judges, county sta , and agency leaders from around the state came to Eugene for three days of networking, learning, and building relationships to solve county issues. This“must-attend tasting event”featured 23 counties showcasing unique products representative of local agriculture and businesses.

State of the Cities Dave Parulo, President & CEO, and Nicole Bradin, Community Engagement Director, attended 8 State of the City addresses.

Presentations

Banks Economic Development Committee – June 6, 2023

Hillsboro Arts & Culture Council –August 10, 2023

Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) District 8 Meeting –October 4, 2023

Explore Tualatin Valley’s Strategic Plan Town Hall Presentation & Reception – December 7, 2023

Bi-monthly updates at Tualatin Valley Creates board meetings

SECTION 12 – THE REGIONAL COOPERATIVE TOURISM PROGRAM

Explore Tualatin Valley partners Travel Oregon to develop and submit a regional plan proposal for use of state transient lodging dollars via the Regional Cooperative Tourism Program (RCTP) to bolster Oregon’s tourism economy.

During Fiscal Year 2024, we leveraged this investment to focus on our International Marketing e orts in partnership with Brand USA and Expedia. These funds also supported our direct selling representation at the GO WEST and IPW International Trade Events.

Locally, we leveraged RCTP funds to support a $36,000 Destination Development investment of mapping of the Tualatin River by the Tualatin Riverkeepers and a $3,000 investment to support the Salmonberry Trail Intergovernmental Agency.

SECTION 13 – INSPIRATION, FOUNDATION, AND VISITOR INFORMATION GRANT AWARDS

Explore Tualatin Valley’s Foundation Award is a competitive grant award program being introduced in Fiscal Year 2025 and prioritizes projects that will inspire awareness and overnight visitation to Washington County, Oregon, and will serve as a platform for cultural and economic growth. Organizations that have an inspirational project that will collaboratively propel Explore Tualatin Valley forward in our e orts to promote the destination to visitors and enhance the quality of life of our residents are encouraged to apply for up to $20,000 (up to $100,000 per ﬁscal year) of funding.

The“Heart & Inspiration Awards”is an event marketing and sponsorship program. This program is available to events in Washington County, Oregon, and $5,000 (up to $25,000 total per application cycle) investments are awarded to events that will inspire awareness and overnight visitation and that serve as a platform for cultural and economic growth.

We also supported our nine local Chambers of Commerce with Tourism Development Grants ($10,000 each) to assist these organizations operate visitor information centers strategically around the county.

SECTION 14 – STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS, PARTNERSHIPS, AND EVENT PROMOTION

Explore Tualatin Valley deﬁned“Develop a Great Place to Live and Visit”as a core objective in our FY25-27 Strategic Plan. During FY 2024, our organization pledged capital support for two large destination development projects.

Hillsboro Hops Baseball Stadium: A $2 million investment in partnership with the State of Oregon, Washington County, The City of Hillsboro, and private investors to build a new state-of-the-art minor league baseball stadium and multi-use entertainment venue scheduled for an April 2026 opening.

Scoggins Creek Campground: A $1 million investment partnered with the United States Bureau of Reclamation and Washington County to develop a 32-acre RV, cabin, and tent campground to Scoggins Creek Valley Park scheduled for a September 2027 opening.

As a destination management organization, we have leadership responsibilities beyond marketing, promotion and selling of the destination. We also participate in projects to enhance our county’s desirability as a destination to beneﬁt both visitors, stakeholders, and residents.

Salmonberry Trail: The Salmonberry Trail is a visionary 82-mile rails-to-trails conversion project that will connect Banks, Oregon with the Oregon Coast. Explore Tualatin Valley has been an active supporter and investor in the project which is nearing a seven-mile conversion stage within Washington County. Our CEO, Dave Parulo, has a leadership position on the Salmonberry Trail Intergovernmental Agency which oversees the project managed by the Salmonberry Trail Foundation.

Tualatin River Keepers: The Tualatin Riverkeepers are the conservation stewards and recreational development leaders of our Tualatin River. Explore Tualatin Valley has been a proud partner working with the riverkeepers to increase visitor and resident access to enjoy and recreate on our National Water Trail.

Nordia House: In FY 2024, Explore Tualatin Valley secured a $50,000 destination development grant to assist the Nordia House to build an internationally recognized Thomas Dumbo art troll a ectionally called“Ole Bolle”to Washington County as part of a Paciﬁc Northwest Visitor experience art trail titled“Way of the Bird King”.

IN-KIND EVENT SUPPORT

During FY23-24, Explore Tualatin Valley supported local festivals and events hosted by non-proﬁts that have measurable and meaningful attraction of overnight and day visitors into Washington County by providing in-kind marketing support.

La Strada dei Pastelli

An annual summer festival in Hillsboro, Oregon - La Strada dei Pastelli is an immersive chalk art festival that provides a window into the creative process wherein festival goers can engage with nationally recognized and emerging visual artists as they carefully manipulate bold, colorful pigments to produce huge, temporary drawings down the center of the street.

Tualatin Valley Creates, Tualatin Valley’s preeminent arts and culture organization produces the festival and as a premier sponsor, Explore Tualatin Valley supported them with marketing and advertising, with paid e orts totaling more than $19,000.

Event promotion included web, digital, social, broadcast and public relations e orts and was added as a “Featured Event”on both the tualatinvalley.org homepage and the Events & Festivals landing page between June 19 – July 17, 2023.

Total La Strada dei Pastelli Event page views reached over 1,200 - a 7% increase over 2022. The event was mentioned on prominent Portlandbased news and media outlets.

Concours d’Elegance

In 1973 the Forest Grove Rotary Club created the Forest Grove Concours d'Elegance to raise funds for scholarships and community service projects. Held on the 3rd Sunday in July, on the campus of Paciﬁc University in Forest Grove, over 300 antique, collector, and special interest automobiles are on display. The event features 52 classes of restored antique, classic and special interest cars.

Explore Tualatin Valley is proud to promote and support this event as a way to drive visitation to the destination. In FY23-24, $11,750 in media spend was provided by Explore Tualatin Valley to place digital, print, and broadcast promotions for the event.

West Coast Giant Pumpkin Festival

The West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta is one of the most unique fall Festivals in Oregon. Since 2004 people from around the country gather to witness costumed characters paddling inside giant pumpkins in a series of races. The event also includes Pumpkins and Pints, a giant pumpkin weigh-o , Regatta Run, and Regatta festival and pumpkin races.

Explore Tualatin Valley was pleased to support the Regatta with an event-focused grant, as well as paid promotion and advertising sponsorship.

Dave Parulo, Explore Tualatin Valley’s President & CEO, also participated in the races, hosted at Tualatin’s Lake of the Commons.

Sample Event Promotion digital banner ad

SECTION 15 – PARTNER EVENTS & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

ANNUAL PARTNER EVENT

Explore Tualatin Valley hosted a special event to celebrate National Travel and Tourism Week alongside its 40th Anniversary. This reception was attended by local tourism industry professionals, community leaders, and industry partners to reﬂect on the region's growth and promote its vibrant future.

Set at the picturesque Eagles Nest Reserve Winery, the evening (themed “Celebrating history. Inspiring Tomorrow”) featured a hosted farmers market with three local farms, an alpaca feeding and petting station, live entertainment, artisan food, beverages and locally crafted desserts, and presentations highlighting the impact of tourism on the local economy and Explore Tualatin Valley’s new vision and mission statements as part of its new three-year strategic plan.

The event also marked 40 years of promoting Tualatin Valley as a premier destination in Oregon, highlighting our partners and showcasing the region's diverse o erings. From its rich agricultural roots and renowned wine and craft beverage scene to its vibrant arts and culture, and recreation opportunities, Tualatin Valley has established itself as a unique and inclusive destination for visitors.

 Featured nine partner businesses

 216 RSVPs. Estimated 175+ partners attended.

Development and retention of a skilled and engaged team is a key focus of our new Strategic Plan. To deliver on this goal, we are focusing on sta development, trainings, and certiﬁcations to better equip the team to represent and support Explore Tualatin Valley’s vision and mission as best as possible.

OUR TEAM CERTIFICATIONS

PDM Certifications: Professional in Destination Management (PDM) certificate program provides destination marketing organization professionals with cutting-edge education, o ering the critical skills and knowledge necessary to support their careers in the travel and tourism industry. Through this program, participants learned how destination organizations and the various departments within an organization function; the role of a destination organization within a community; how destination organizations enhance and benefit their communities; and how to sell our destination to business and leisure travelers.

CDME Candidates: Certified Destination Management Executive certification is our industry’s highest professional certification and prepares senior executives to thrive in a constantly changing environment. The program focuses on vision, leadership, productivity and implementing business strategies.

Ariel Lessens Daniel Gering Chris Glawe Wendy Popkin

Dave Parulo Nicole Bradin

OUR BOARD LEADERSHIP

Explore Tualatin Valley is a volunteer board directed not-for-proﬁt corporation. Our O icers and Board of Directors provides ﬁscal and visionary oversight to our professional sta to allow Explore Tualatin Valley to make a continued economic impact and destination development leadership for Washington County.