EUREKA, California (March 15, 2022) —Tonight at the city of Eureka’s City Council meeting the tourism marketing agency of record, Eddy Alexander, presented an update on the community’s marketing, placemaking, and promotion efforts.
Eddy Alexander reported Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), a measure of local tourism traffic and revenue, had increased 130% between the start of their contract in 2019 and the end of the calendar year 2021. This improvement was driven in large part by a measurable increase in the average length of stay for visitors leveraging area hotels and accommodations.
They also noted that the city was doing a better job increasing the number of assets that visitors enjoyed while in the area and attracting more people from more places, a shift that can both be attributed to the disruption of the pandemic and one that an Eddy Alexander representative said, “positions the city for continued growth as a destination in the years to come.”
In the last year, the city of Eureka, and its new Redwood Sky Walk attraction, have been featured in more than 200 outlets achieving an estimated viewership of 3.73 million people, racking up 108,000 article social shares – across 11 different countries and six languages. High profile placements include The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler Spain, Lonely Planet, National Geographic, and the current cover of Sonoma Magazine, which Eddy Alexander President Jennifer Eddy shared during the presentation.
The firm reported that they had worked with more than 200 media outlets and more than 2,000 freelance travel writers, bloggers, and influencers and had facilitated Eureka features across more than 400 radio stations. The total estimated value of the recent earned media attention exceeded $4M and the efforts helped increase traffic to the Visiteureka.com website by ~600% year over year.
At the end of the presentation, Eureka City Council was presented with a Visit California Poppy Award for “Best Public Relations Campaign” which was recently awarded at the California Tourism Outlook conference in San Francisco.
Visit California recognizes the leading tourism marketing efforts that have best contributed to the state’s reputation, economy, and standing as a leading global destination over the previous 24-month period, and the city of Eureka was honored for the campaign to open the new Redwood Sky Walk at Sequoia Park Zoo.
At the same event, Eureka and Eddy Alexander were also honored as finalists for best Overall Destination Marketing Brand.
The full recorded City Council presentation includes additional details about Eddy Alexander’s recent and upcoming projects and will be made available for public viewing on the city of Eureka’s website.
About Eddy Alexander
Eddy Alexander is a full-service marketing and growth strategy consultancy that offers award-winning branding, advertising, and public relations services. Eddy Alexander combines the best of management consulting with comprehensive marketing and communications growth strategy to deliver measurable, meaningful, and strategic business results. Learn more at eddyalexander.com.
About the City of Eureka
As the county seat of world-famous Humboldt County, California, the city of Eureka (Pop. 27k) is the heart of the U.S. Redwood Coast. Eureka is the market and cultural center of a beautiful region filled with iconic redwoods, the world’s tallest trees, and stunningly beautiful, rugged, and remote ocean landscapes. Eureka is the largest coastal city between San Francisco and Portland and a frequent stopover point for road trippers exploring the Pacific Northwest. Culturally protected by the ‘redwood curtain,’ the city is most famous for its unique Victorian architecture, one-of-a-kind shops and artisanal businesses, and its rich, authentic history. For more information, see visiteureka.com.
About the Redwood Sky Walk
The Redwood Sky Walk at Sequoia Park Zoo is a self-guided interpretive experience designed to educate, inspire, and delight. Visitors to the Sequoia Park Zoo can visit the Redwood Sky Walk to learn about the rich hidden ecology of California Coastal Redwoods (the world’s tallest trees) from an entirely new perspective. As the longest sky walk in the western United States, the Redwood Sky Walk is just under ¼ mile to the end and back and reaches heights as much as 100ft above the forest floor. The Redwood Sky Walk is ADA accessible and rises approximately 1/3 of the way up the old and second growth trees in the city of Eureka’s historic Sequoia Park. Admission to the Redwood Sky Walk is included in the price of admission to the Sequoia Park Zoo and no special reservations are required. Learn more at redwoodskywalk.com.
About Visit California
Visit California is a nonprofit organization with a mission to develop and maintain marketing programs – in partnership with the state’s travel industry – that keep California top-of-mind as a premier travel destination. For more information about Visit California and for a free California Official State Visitor’s Guide, go to visitcalifornia.com.