But who gets us on the radar?
It’s a fine time to be in Columbia. We keep seeing our city on all these lists and featured in the media, being praised and touted for “unique gems” and “great food + drink” – right there in the mix with all these previously-considered “bigger and better” places.

Here are a few:

“American Travel Destinations That Are About to Blow Up” / Thrillist

“The Best Small Cities in the United States” / National Geographic Traveler

“26 Under-the-Radar Southern Cities for Girlfriend Getaways” / Cosmopolitan.com

“Where to eat and drink in Columbia, SC, One of America’s Best Food Destinations” / Food & Wine

“Great American Cities Where You Can Still Buy a House on a $50K Salary” / Thrillist

“Columbia: State-of-the-Art Destination” / Local Life Magazine

“8 American Cities Getting Big, Exciting Urban Overhauls This Year” / Thrillist

...we could go on.

Have you ever stopped to think about how we are getting all this Cola love?

Probably not – unless you’re in the PR industry.

The fact is that there’s an entity that exists to market and pitch the good work we are all doing here in Columbia, and put it on the map as the next big travel destination. Say hi to the passionate team at Experience Columbia SC.

Perhaps you recognize their name from their Instagram – or their brand refresh last year, when they evolved the “Famously Hot” tagline into “The Real Southern Hotspot,” modernized the branding of Columbia SC’s logos to the “capital C” and made our city’s official tourism hashtag #RealColumbiaSC. DYK *that* organization is responsible for getting Cola covered in that Thrillist article you just shared all over Facebook?

If you don’t know about them yet, don’t feel bad. As a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO), they can’t advertise in Columbia; only in out-of-market locations. Currently, they’re targeting cities like Charlotte, Atlanta, Charleston and Greenville, as well as other cities across the Southeast + nation.

So – ready to get to know them? Here’s how they get the job done.

Their organization focuses on driving visitation in the form of meetings + conventions (think Miss South Carolina Pageant and the S.C. State Firefighters Association), sporting events (like the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament First and Second Rounds and the U.S. Quidditch Cup – yes, as in Harry Potter’s favorite sport), and leisure travel.

They use these key tactics to get the job done:

Public Relations | media coverage earned by Experience Columbia SC, like the lists mentioned above
Advertising | paid media, like this 17-page spread in Delta SKY (6,576,164 readers)
Social Media | Facebook, Instagram + Twitter posts are crafted to create travel inspiration for potential visitors
Influencer Marketing | paid partnerships with social media and blogging influencers, as seen in Garden & Gun (1,600,000 total audience)

All this helps support tourism in Columbia + helps get us on the national stage.

Tourism by the numbers (via Experience Columbia SC’s annual report, 2016-17):

5.5 million overnight tourists came to the Columbia region + stayed in our hotels
An additional 9.2 million visitors came for day trips to shop, dine, explore the outdoors, attend events and appointments + more
...making tourism in the Cola area a $2.1 billion industry last year
All that tourism supported 21,000 local jobs
$107 million in state + local tax revenue was generated from money spent by tourists
Hotels in the City of Columbia and Richland + Lexington counties had a 66.5% occupancy rate within that fiscal year
$20+ million in economic impact was generated from 107 meetings + conventions recruited by the Experience Columbia SC DMO team
$14+ million in economic impact was generated from 372 events held at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center (during those, 22,473 hotel rooms were booked)
$11+ million in economic impact was generated by the 43 sports events recruited by Experience Columbia SC Sports; attracting 113,432 attendees
81+ million sets of eyes saw Columbia SC billboards in key target cities
115 media leads were generated through PR efforts, with 15 hosted press visits + 97 stories garnered

It’s pretty cool that there’s an entire group of people behind all of those bragging rights articles.

Let’s keep crushing it so we make it easy for Experience Columbia SC to tell people just how great we are. 🙌

–Chloe