Travel Council

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About the Travel Council

It is the Travel Council’s responsibility to promote and encourage local tourism to help broaden and strengthen the county’s economic base. The Travel Council seeks to accomplish this through promotion supporting recreation, tourism, and conventions in a manner that protects the beauty and scenery of our natural environment.  

The objective is not to increase the number of visitors coming to Moab, but to reach out to markets with higher end demographics to attract fewer, but higher spending, visitors. We also strive to change perceived weaknesses into strengths and increase the revenue received.

Membership

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Functions

The functions of the office are activities that include, but are not limited to:

  • Answer all visitor information calls for the Moab Information Center (12,000 calls annually).
  • Creation of educational videos that include the promotion of responsible recreation, Leave No Trace ethics, Sustainability and Accessibility.  The Travel Council is a member of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.  (In addition to online exposure, many of the videos were also played in local hotels until funding was cut by COVID-19.)
  • Work with local public land agencies (BLM, National Park Service, State School & Institutional Trust Lands Administration and the Forest Service) to develop accurate and consistent minimum impact messaging for all content.
  • Moab Area Travel Council Advisory Board - The Moab Area Travel Council Advisory Board is composed of seven voting members. (Voting members must be Grand County residents and represent tourism related industries.) The Moab Area Travel Council Advisory Board provides recommendations concerning the promotion and creation of recreation, tourism and conventions in Grand County for consideration by the Grand County Commissioners. The board develops and submits a recommended marketing budget and plan to the Grand County Commissioners. Public meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month, with the exception of July. 
  • Work with Host Compliance to confirm legal business licenses for overnight rentals.
  • Validate businesses that pay TRT and TRCC.
  • Promote Sustainability by stressing the importance of conservation, recycling and green energy in preserving our unique environment. 
  • Provide the annual operating budget of the Moab to the Monument Valley Film Commission.  
  • As a service to downtown businesses, the Travel Council provides funds to keep the restrooms at the Moab Information Center (MIC) open in the evenings, when the main information center is closed.  
  • Partner with local businesses to produce written and video content to help promote their business.
  • Content and media distribution to media outlets.
  • In-house website development and design (discovermoab.com & doitlikeamoablocal.com), eliminating the expense of outside design firms.
  • Creation and distribution of visitor collateral (20,000+ requests annually).
  • Continued support for "Throttle Down in Town" campaign. Educational UTV posters and brochures are created and offered to all businesses with Throttle Down messaging. Yard signs are distributed to local residents and businesses free of charge.
  • To provide visibility for local businesses and services, the Travel Council occasionally hosts Familiarization Tours (FAM Tours) for national and global journalists, media representatives, and tour operators. Participation in a FAM Tour is a great way for local businesses to promote their business to travel industry professionals.
  • Management of Travel Council Leads Program to help local businesses that cannot afford to advertise on their own.  Businesses can take advantage of the Travel Council's advertising and receive inexpensive weekly leads.
  • Promotion of event venues and possibilities.
  • Social media strategic planning, content development, and management.
  • Accessibility - The Travel Council is committed to making Moab a destination where life's big adventures are accessible to everyone. We work with the National Ability Center to produce videos featuring individuals with special needs enjoying Moab. 
  • COVID-19 Response: Secured over 200,000 masks from the Governor's Office of Economic Development for distribution in Moab. Monitored complaints from residents about unauthorized overnight rentals.  Rented hand washing stations for Moab. Responded to thousands of visitor phone calls and emails relating to COVID-19.
  • Trade show attendance.
  • Other special projects as time allows.
The Travel Council has tremendous reach to potential and returning visitors:

  • Discovermoab.com receives over 3 million visitors each year and is the number one website on Google for the Moab area.  
  • Our social media reach is equally as broad with over 75,000 followers on our Facebook page alone.  
  • Our office also answers over 12,000 yearly visitor information calls from the Moab Information Center.
  • We handle nearly 20,000 Travel Guide requests each year.
Because of this reach, we are in a unique position to continue our efforts to: 

  • Educate about being a good steward of the environment and a responsible visitor when in Moab.
  • Promote Sustainability.
  • Promote Accessibility.
  • Reach out to markets with high end demographics to attract fewer, but higher spending, visitors.

Current Collateral and Advertising Materials

Moab Billboard

Click here for a look at current collateral and advertising materials.

Video Projects

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Click here for a look at some recent Travel Council video projects.

Free Marketing Opportunities for Local Businesses

Get A Free Business Listing

Certain tourism-related businesses in Grand County (Lodging Properties, Property Management Companies, Campgrounds, Guides & Outfitters, Transportation, Rentals & Restaurants) may be entitled to a free business listing on discovermoab.com and more. Be part of:

  • 20,000+ Travel Guides distributed annually 
  • 200,000+ Web Links to local businesses annually 
  • 3,000,000+ Visitors to discovermoab.com annually

To participate, visit: discovermoab.com/listing

Get A Free Partner Pixel

Consumers research 40+ websites when planning their trips.  In order to track the entire impact of The Travel Council’s digital campaign efforts, they are asking local businesses, who are interested, to add a “Partner Pixel” (tiny snippet of code) to their website.  You can help the Travel Council adjust its marketing to maximize visitors to your website!  Please note that this pixel does not track any propriety data.  It only lets the Travel Council know that their marketing is resulting in visits to your website.

To participate, email: mstocks@discovermoab.com

Get Featured on DoItLikeAMoabLocal.com

“Do It Like A Moab Local” is a new sustainable tourism effort for Moab that is the direct result of Moab locals’ desire to convey that Moab isn’t just a tourist destination, it’s our home.  Help educate visitors on proper behavior, etiquette, and stewardship of the environment while they’re here – staying on trails, obeying speed limits through town, properly preparing for their trips or hikes in the desert, proper disposal of human waste, and much more.  Being part of the “Do It Like A Moab Local” effort is another great free way to promote your business.

Visit: doitlikeamoablocal.com

Statistics

Outgoing Links from discovermoab.com to Moab Business Websites

  • 2019: 210,299
  • 2020: 232,020

2020 Visitor Phone Calls Answered

  • 12,045

Number of Individual Travel Planners Mailed

  • 2019: 21,835
  • 2020: 18,148

Discovermoab.com Unique Web Visits

  • 2019: 3,413,446
  • 2020: 2,544,744

Top Pages Visited on discovermoab.com in 2019

  • Home Page
  • Campgrounds
  • BLM Campgrounds
  • Arches National Park
  • Events

Top Pages Visited on discovermoab.com in 2020

  • Home Page
  • COVID-19
  • BLM Campgrounds
  • Arches National Park
  • Commercial Campgrounds

Tourism Associations

The Travel Council Director also represents the Grand County/Moab Area as a board member of Utah Tourism Development, as a member of the Utah Tourism Industry Association (a statewide tourism advocacy association), as co-director of Southern Utah National Parks Advertising Coalition, as co-director of the Canyonlands Travel Region, as a board member on the local Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Dinosaur Diamond Byway Organization, as a member of the National Tour Association, as a member of United States Travel Association, and as a board member of the Museum of Moab.