Oregon Tour & Travel Alliance
E-Newsletter
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Message from Your President
Happy February and Happy Birthday Oregon!
Thank you to Jamie McKinney-Fousek, Director-Global Sales and Marketing for America's Hub World Tours and Gabi Duarte, Global Sales Program Manager Travel Oregon for presenting at our virtual winter meeting focussed on trade shows, profile sheets, appointments and lead follow up. With ABA leads coming out shortly and Go West happening this week, now is the perfect time to review those profile sheets! Jamie and Gabi, we appreciate you both for all that you do to help promote Oregon and for taking the time to share your expertise with us.
Our next meeting will be held in Sunriver on March 14th, just prior to the Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism. We will be offering this meeting in person as well as by Zoom. If you are attending in person, please be sure to sign up as soon as possible so we may get our meal guarantee in by the end of the month.
The second session of the three-part Steps to Success Workshop Series, focussed on the return of international inbound travelers, is being held on Wednesday, March 2nd from 10am-11:30am. Go to industry.traveloregon.com for more information or to register for this FREE event.
Finally, a reminder to get your 2022 membership renewals in. If your company is facing financial need, OTTA is extending 10 scholarships to help. Applications are available on our website. We appreciate your commitment to OTTA and look forward to a better 2022!
Tammy Thompson
OTTA President
Hotelco, LLC
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OTTA Board Of Directors
We are delighted to announce that the following members have be elected or re-elected to our Board for terms through December 31, 2023:
- Mindy Dean-Caldwell, Portland Spirit-Portland
- Melynda Cordes, The Hungry Hustle Walking Food Tour-Medford
- Caroline Wuebben, Columbia River Maritime Museum-Astoria.
It’s wonderful to see representation from across the state! Click here for a full list of our board members.
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OTTA Hybrid Spring Meeting
Increasing Social Reach in the Post Free-to-Play Landscape:
Strategies for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Youtube
March 14 • 8:30 - 11:30 am
In Person and Via Zoom
In Person - Members - $40 • Non-Members - $50
Virtual - Members - FREE • Non-Members - $25
Speaker: Jarrod Lyman, Founder of Mt. Hood Marketing
Jarrod has spent 16+ years overseeing marketing campaigns, social strategy and communications for destination marketing organizations in Arizona, California and Oregon. Over the past 7 years he has created award-winning campaigns and been honored with the J. Desmond Slattery Professional Marketing Award (Tourism Travel Research Association), the Destiny Award for Best Social Media Campaign (US Travel Association), the Governor's Award for Best Oregon Social Media Campaign (twice -Travel Oregon) and the Governor's Award for Cooperative Marketing (Arizona Office of Tourism).
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Back by Popular Demand...
Governor's Conference Raffle Gift Baskets
For those people donating for Eastern Oregon region, Chris Chester can deliver the items to the Governor’s Conference. She can be reached at 503-551-6440 or by email at chester.chris@yahoo.com
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Become an OTTA Member or Renew Your Membership
As our world reopens, now is a good time to join Oregon Tour and Travel Alliance or renew your existing membership. With Travel Oregon, opportunities will be available to attend trade shows again. One of the membership benefits are the sales leads from these shows when you can’t attend. As we try to get back to the new normal, re-establishing or creating new connections will become vital to our businesses.
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Member/Staff Profile: Caroline Wuebben
After almost 20 years in hospitality management in Astoria, Caroline embarked on a new career as the Marketing, Membership & Communications Manager at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in 2020. Staying directly involved in tourism on the North Oregon coast was important … and the Museum provided that opportunity. The Museum is supportive of her roles on the Lower Columbia Tourism Committee, Astoria-Warrenton Chamber of Commerce, Astoria Trolley Board, Uniontown Maritime Memorial Committee, and now as the newest board member of OTTA.
Her first day at the Museum was both exciting and a bit unsettling – it was the day the State of Oregon closed for Covid-19! Fortunately the Museum was able to keep all employees – including Caroline – on the payroll through all the shut downs and reduced capacities.
One thing you will learn about her – if you don’t already know her – Caroline is a HUGE Seattle Seahawks fan; really, a NFL junkie in every way! NFL Radio on Sirius XM is the only programmed radio station in her car! Her favorite things to do are work in her organic vegetable garden, watch football and spend time with her family in Texas. She welcomed a new great-nephew into the family in January and looks forward to visiting him often, as his dad just took the job as Tight Ends Coach at U of O – go Ducks!
Caroline learned about OTTA from Julie Flues, a previous member. Julie was working in what is now Caroline’s job at the Museum. There was some interest from OTTA to visit Astoria for a fall meeting and this led to membership for Caroline and her hotel. The fall meeting in Astoria was a huge success and was Caroline’s first introduction to the group. The energy, comradery and likeminded approach to Oregon tourism is what kept Caroline involved. One of the most valuable benefits of OTTA membership is the exposure to tour operators through the itineraries and the leads generated from trade show attendance. A non-profit such as the Museum simply could not afford to make this happen.
“COVID has changed everything – our lives, our relationships, our livelihoods. I have seen COVID’s direct impact on personal interactions. It seems people are in one of two groups now – those who make the effort to show compassion and patience with their fellow humans, and those who have turned angry and frustrated and feel it is okay to make those around them unhappy. I want to be remembered as someone who falls into the first group of people – compassionate, patient, kind, respectful. My hope is that once we can move back into a more normal way to lead our lives, we will move back to being a kinder, gentler universe of beings.”
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OTTA sends out a birthday gift to the top 50 tour operators on Oregon’s birthday, February 14th. Here is one of our tour operators with this year's birthday gift - a bag of Bend, Oregon's Holm Made Birthday Cake Hazelnut Toffee and a Somebody in Oregon Misses You Magnet.
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COVID Recovery Training:
The Return of International Inbound Travel
Join Travel Oregon for the second of IITA’s Steps to Success webinar, Step #2, where we’ll dive deeper into the mechanics of working with international inbound operators. Begin thinking about your tourism potential as you discover the different characteristics of each level of the travel trade, understand the types of visitors arriving, and what tools you need as a business to target the tourism markets you want. Your attendance will be time well spent to collectively promote Oregon as a desired destination for the rebound and resulting in economic impact of international visitation.
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Call for Food Vendors for World
Athletics Championships Oregon22
The World Athletics Championships Oregon22 will be an unmissable global experience, hosted for the first time ever on U.S. soil at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field in the heart and home of track and field, Eugene. The event will take place July 15–24. Organizers are currently seeking food and beverage vendors. This is an incredible opportunity to showcase your regional culinary business to guests from all over the world who will be working, volunteering, spectating and competing at the event. All applications are welcome, whether you represent a food truck, restaurant, snack shop, bakery, caterer or anything in between.
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New: External Funding and Grant Opportunities
To keep the industry informed of more opportunities to apply for funding and grants, we’ve developed a page to share opportunities from other agencies, organizations, businesses and partners.
Opportunities submitted through the form will be reviewed and curated prior to being published on the page.
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Reminder: Travel Oregon's Draft Strategic
Plan Open for Comment
The transformational plan is designed to be a high-level, 10-year strategy—one that is a crucial response to adapt our mission to meet the most timely and significant opportunities and needs of our residents, industry and visitors. We invite you to join us on this journey of transformation and are looking forward to any comments you may have during this draft iteration.
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Calendar of Events
April 24-26 – Spotlight, Rapid City, SD
May 11 – OTIS Training
May 12 - OTTA Annual Night Out - Bullwinkle's Wilsonville - 6:00 - 8:00 pm
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Oregon Tour & Travel Alliance
503.626.8197
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