Messages from the President & Board Chair

Message from the President & Board Chair

AN INDUSTRY THAT CAPITALIZES ON OPPORTUNITY, A RESILIENT CITY…CITY WITH SOUL

How do you react and review the productivity of the destination marketing organization during a global pandemic?

As Chair of the Board of Directors and President & CEO of Visit Jackson, our response to that question remains by employing the highest transparency and openness levels. To that end, it is our responsibility and honor to present Visit Jackson’s 2020 Annual Report to our stakeholders.

Typically, annual reports describe the organizational and financial health of an agency. Our goal is to adhere to industry best practices within the next few pages and provide the included data concisely and accurately.

2020 began with the release and implementation of a new strategic plan, the dedication of new office space in the Historic Electric Building, and the JXN Welcome Center’s grand opening. New coalitions were initiated, including developing the Greater Jackson destination alliances, which secured new international business shared by the destinations.

The overarching theme of this report is the necessity to utilize a fluid strategic approach. Visit Jackson has participated in disaster preparedness seminars at countless tourism conferences over the past several years. However, we think it is fair to state that no one was prepared for the external environmental factors associated with the Coronavirus Global Pandemic. Because of this, health, governmental, industry, and community-based alliances have been forged, establishing tourism resiliency and economic endurance; Visit Jackson simply calls it City With Soul STRONG!

So, while our FY2020 Plan was vetted, developed, and approved, March 2020 introduced the necessity to call an audible. One of the first tactics Visit Jackson engaged was to join the other 24 Mississippi destination marketing organizations in lobbying the state leadership and legislature to request a lifeline for Mississippi Tourism. As a part of that collective ambition, Visit Jackson received a pro-rata share of the awarded Tourism Recovery Fund (TRF). While traditional revenue was

down, TRF was used to shift marketing strategies to include establishing Jackson as a more significant local drive market, which encouraged dining pick-up and carry-out, create aggressive marketing campaigns promoting Civil Rights, Culinary, Family, Outdoor, and Staycation tourism experiences.

TRF was also used to incentivize meeting planners to reschedule and NOT cancel the larger meetings that utilize hotels and meeting venues. For the first time in Jackson’s DMOs history, significant resources were dedicated to secure research, thereby contributing to data-based tactical planning.

We hope you have observed tourism development initiatives in the form of public art in and around Jackson. We are extremely proud of the “JXN Icons” mural inspired by our own Creative Design Manager and 100% executed by Visit Jackson staff. The sales and marketing departments spent significant resources emphasizing the destination’s value in the online, virtual, and digital media spaces.

In short, inspired by necessity, 2020 was a transformational year that has further propelled Visit Jackson’s OPPORTUNITY. And while this has been a challenging year, the results are in! Mississippi Tourism is leading the nation in tourism recovery, and the Tourism Stakeholders in its Capital City are looking good!

Your committed and dedicated tourism partners,

Rickey L. Thigpen

Rickey L. Thigpen, MSL President & CEO Visit Jackson

Carol Burger

Carol Burger Board Chair Visit Jackson