The 29th annual Vermont Travel Industry Conference will be April 12-13 at the Killington Grand Resort in Killington. The conference will feature workshops ranging from culinary tourism to customer service to online marketing.
This event is an excellent opportunity to build relationships with other members of Vermont's tourism industry. If you are part of a tourism-related business or have an interest in the Vermont travel industry, this conference is for you.
Watch a new VTIC video to learn more about the conference.

Winter is here! Vermont's new winter marketing campaign is up and running to draw visitors to the state this season. VDTM, Ski Vermont and Cabot developed pathtovermont.com to drive web and mobile traffic to an online contest, as well as direct consumers to each of the partner sites.

VDTM and its marketing partners are focusing on four core areas to better target our markets through online (web and mobile), out-of home advertising, social media and radio broadcast. The foci for the winter season are outdoor enthusiast, family friendly, romantic escapes and culinary Vermont.

We will be launching our annual survey of lodging properties in January for activity in 2011.  We had record strong participation with last year's survey (200 respondents) and would like to up that number this time out.  This data, which is reconciled with additional measures from Smith Travel Research and taxable receipts reports, is essential for preparing the biannual report about the economic impact of tourism on the Vermont economy.

Click here for a summary of the key responses to last year's survey.

October MRA Held Steady: Statewide, Vermont’s hospitality industry held its ground during October, despite the travel obstacles posed by damage from Tropical Storm Irene. The preliminary report of Meals Rooms and Alcohol(MRA) taxable receipts during October 2012, show statewide rooms receipts were up a modest 0.6 percent. This contrasts with the actual 7.5 percent increase of room receipts during September. Likewise, meals receipts were up just 0.7 percent over October 2010. Clearly, the October response to the storm's damage was sobering: alcohol sales were down slightly, - 1.9 percent. Read More.

Tourism industry professionals will meet with representatives from international markets at Discover New England's 17th Annual Tourism Summit & International Marketplace at the Boston Park Plaza hotel & Towers in Boston on March 26-28.
The summit will provide New England tourism industry partners the opportunity to develop business relationships with international tour operators and receptive operators. The event is the only international tourism trade event focused entirely on the New England Region.

Enter your Civil War Events and/or Exhibits to be featured in 2012 Civil War Sesquicentennial promotions. Apply Now - Deadline is Feburary 8th.

Should your event make the top ten - your event will be featured on both VermontVacation.com & VermontCivilWar150.com, with a potential to be showcased in our consumer eNewsletter!

Read More.

What opportunities do you have planned for visitors who are eager to include experiential learning as part of their Vermont vacation? Culinary, artistic, literary, recreational, crafts, nature and the environment – most subjects are likely to please.

Post your workshops at www.vermontvacation.com by clicking Add Your Event. Under “event category” be sure to click “workshop/class”. You can also add catherine.brooks@state.vt.us to your emailing lists. Select workshops will be featured on vermontvaction.com and in our e-newsletter sent to more than 38,000 subscribers.

The following are opportunities to share VDTM's booth at consumer shows in the North American Market.

Toronto Adventure Show
Feb. 24-26  Cost: $1,000

Ottawa Vacation Show
Mar. 10-11   Cost: $1,000

Hartford Summerfest
May. 5-6  Cost: $400

For more information, visit us online or contact Christiane Skinner at Christiane.Skinner@state.vt.us.