Business & Workforce
According to Destinations International’s landmark study, “Destination Promotion: An Engine of Economic Development”, the visitor economy accrues benefits beyond visitor-related industries and their suppliers. Not only does destination promotion raise a place’s profile but it can also draw economic development decision makers through conventions and trade shows—all fundamentally benefiting economic development.
Overview
According to Destinations International’s landmark study, “Destination Promotion: An Engine of Economic Development”, the dividends of destination marketing and visitor economies extend to quality of life and overall wellbeing and sense of belonging for communities.
As such, the following recommended strategies aim to not only sustain career pathways within the tourism and hospitality industry regionally, but also grow recognition of Oakland County as a choice destination for business in Metro Detroit through increased business-related visits/travel.
Goal #9:
To strengthen hometown identities and better align the County’s hometown brands and products with the lifestyles of the talent pool
Strategies
01
Design and conduct business leadership/investor FAM tours.
FAM tours (“Familiarization Tours”) are organized visits designed to enable business leaders/decisionmakers to familiarize themselves with a destination to help inform business relocation/expansion plans. While past FAM tours led by business attraction entities and/or Chambers of Commerce may have focused on geographically-specific commercial sites and meetings/conventions facilities for business operations/use, it is important that Oakland County revisits this strategy to design county-wide FAM tours that also showcase key quality of life assets such as the destination’s great outdoors attractions, entertainment venues, marquee community events, residential neighborhoods and education/cultural institutions. In addition, these FAM tours should also be designed in collaboration with, or in partnership with, key business leaders/companies that are already located in the County to leverage their lived experience/ perspective on the County.
| Level of Effort | Phasing |
|---|---|
 Low |  Near Term |
Why is this important?
Oakland County has always welcomed the world’s leading innovators. The County and region are home to a robust cluster of headquarters, including the Big Three automakers and Tier 1 suppliers, making it particularly attractive to companies in the automotive and advanced manufacturing sectors. This advantage can be further leveraged through targeted tours and storytelling.
In fact, stakeholders across a variety of sectors shared in early focus groups that beyond its unparalleled access to major highways and international transport hubs that allow businesses to easily reach markets like Ann Arbor, Lansing, Detroit, Flint, Canada, Oakland County remains a choice location for some of its largest international employers (largely European and Asian) due to quality of life traits such as access to quality education, diverse housing products, and access to parks/open spaces.
Goal #10:
To grow and diversify group travel in lifestyle and technology sectors
Strategies
01
02
03
Design Oakland County’s meetings venue platform.
A meetings venue platform is a comprehensive digital resource for event/meeting planners to carefully evaluate potential locations for their meetings/group travel/events. The comprehensive inventory, when well designed, would also feature a central booking platform.
| Level of Effort | Phasing |
|---|---|
| Low |  Immediate |
Source: Meetings in Madison
Why is this important?
While Visit Detroit currently offers meeting planners access to an inventory of various venues/facilities across the region, the inventory largely features traditional, ‘in-the-box’ venues. These venues do not sufficiently reflect the breadth of opportunities outside of Detroit that may play host to various social or special interest groups. There is also a clear opportunity for the region to further inspire meeting planners to think ‘outside the box’ (whether through client testimonials or stories of past unique event formats) and to create tailored venues for a variety of key industry sectors who may be looking for specialized venues outside the hotel ballroom, convention center or board room.
Case Study: Meetings in Madison (Destination Madison) (WI)
Despite its attractive location for meetings and events with direct flight connections to major hubs like Dallas and D.C., Madison, WI competes frequently with neighboring destinations such as St. Paul, MN and Green Bay, WI, for event business.
In order to differentiate itself from regional competitors, Destination Madison took a bold approach to curate collections of unique venues that are non-traditional, or ‘beyond the ballroom’, to encourage meeting planners to utilize the destinations’ variety of venues. The digitally-curated collections feature venues with varying ‘vibes’: Historical & Architectural, Activity Based, Campus Connections, LGBTQ+ Friendly, and Beautiful Barns.
For each venue in the digital inventory/collection, a comprehensive and detailed spec list and gallery of images is included to ensure that meeting planners have all the necessary information and inspiration to support decision-making.
Develop an Oakland County targeted industry events incentive and services package.
An events incentive and services package is a typical sales tool utilized by Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) to attract and support large-scale events such as conferences, tournaments, festivals, and conventions to their destinations. These packages, which may include a mix of regulatory/permitting support, event planning support, perks and discounts for both event organizers and their attendees, and are primarily intended to reduce financial risk for event organizers and thereby increase their likelihood to choose the destination as their choice location for events. In Oakland County, it is important that any incentives and services developed be targeted to fill calendars of activities during shoulder seasons/less competitive booking windows (Winter/Spring - Jan-April).
| Level of Effort | Phasing |
|---|---|
 Medium |  Future |
Why is this important?
Visit Detroit, as the regional DMO currently offers a comprehensive suite of services and incentives to event organizers/planners. However, it must be noted that many of its perks are focused on Detroit-based businesses and intended to support attraction of events to major venues and facilities located in Detroit.
As such, it is important for the County to develop a complementary suite of supporting services and incentives to enable Visit Detroit’s sales teams to better pitch Oakland County venues to event organizers and planners.
In particular, industry stakeholders have shared the ambition to host a mix of both large, global format events in Oakland County, as well as smaller to mid-sized format, out-of-the-box meetings and events. More traditional industry events that were of interest amongst industry stakeholders centered around business and economic development, and auto/auto-tech/robotics. However, respondents also shared enthusiasm for more lifestyle-focused festivals/events centering around food, hospitality, and outdoor recreation, which may better align with the attractions and assets in the County.
Case Study: Destination Ann Arbor (MI)
Destination Ann Arbor leads its meeting sales pitch with the campaign “Make Our Towns Your Meetings Ground”, acknowledging the breadth of available venues across its regional destination beyond Ann Arbor. In addition, the destination plays heavily into its ability to host social events such as weddings by creating a suite of resources dedicated to supporting wedding planners looking for venues for weddings, engagement parties, and group dining opportunities. These include features for great outdoor assets such as farms, barns, quads, chalets and inns - i.e. venues beyond the convention centers and the ballrooms.
Create a series of annual tourism ambassador initiatives.
Tourism ambassador initiatives, including industry events and training programs, are educational and empowerment opportunities for the local hospitality workforce. They are intended to ensure that industry staff are not only knowledgeable about Oakland County as a destination but equipped to act as problem solvers (should challenges in the visitor experience arise) and enthusiastic promoters of the destination.
The Oakland Tourism Ambassador program should serve to build on existing industry events and initiatives spearheaded by Visit Detroit to create industry resources that shed light on opportunities specific to the County, including a centralized repository of all available and publicly accessible regional workforce training opportunities relevant to tourism and hospitality staff.
| Level of Effort | Phasing |
|---|---|
| Low | Immediate |
Memphis Rocks and Insider Tours (Memphis, TN)
Why is this important?
Visit Detroit currently executes educational seminars for its partners/members and industry events such as its annual Hometown Tourist Day, an exhibitor fair where industry stakeholders can network with representatives from metro Detroit restaurants, attractions and hotels, and learn more about product offerings across the region on a 1-2 day gathering. However, there are a number of limitations with these types of initiatives. Chief among them, exclusivity in access to resources to members. In addition, exhibitor fairs remain passive modes of information-sharing and can seem transactional for attendees. Fairs also require significant time and resource investment for smaller vendors/operators and typically do not offer the industry workforce firsthand experience of products across the destination, limiting their ability to speak authentically and confidently to visitors about products on offer.
It is critical for the County therefore to use immersive ways to engage regional industry staff so that they can better serve as brand ambassadors for the County and its offerings and ensure that our assets don’t just serve those ‘in the know’.
Case Study: Memphis Rocks and Insider Tours (TN)
Welcome to Memphis, a non-profit subsidiary of Memphis Tourism, offers a number of hospitality training programs for city and Shelby County staff in the tourism industry. The organization works directly with employers, supervisors, and guest services teams to deliver hospitality service training through two key programs: Memphis Rocks and Insider Tours.
While Memphis Rocks is focused on soft skill training to improve cultural sensitivity and respect in the workplace, telephone etiquette, workplace accountability, and time management, Insider Tours is focused on creating an immersive training opportunity for staff in the tourism industry to familiarize themselves with tourism product/asset offerings in the destination. The monthly 90-minute program, in partnership with local tour providers, Backbeat Tours, takes industry staff on neighborhood tours to learn about key points of interest, amenities, and attractions.