Louisiana Office of Tourism

DEVENEY worked with the Louisiana Office of Tourism to advance Louisiana tourism and increase visitation to the state. Charged with rebuilding the state as a top tourist destination in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, our public relations strategy evolved to respond to a number of crises, including the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that resulted in the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

Targeted strategies and tactics (such as social, online and traditional media relations, familiarization tours and special events) successfully reached targeted audiences to advance a positive image of Louisiana. By aggressively correcting false perceptions and creating public relations opportunities to build Louisiana’s brand, we positioned the state as a premier destination for culture, cuisine, history, entertainment and adventure.

This work was instrumental in positioning Louisiana as a top culinary, cultural and festival destination. We also expanded opportunities to showcase Louisiana’s authentic culture to visitors.  To quantify the program’s overall impact, a formula for calculating the number of media impressions (when tourism messages were received) and the publicity value of earned media placement was used. Our campaigns, which won some 10 national and international awards, successfully:

– Met all program objectives
– Yielded more than a 1,991 to 1 return on investment
– Garnered more than 667.3 million impressions Earned more than $658.5 million in publicity
– Placed Louisiana on track to exceed its pre-Katrina benchmarks for number of visitors and visitor spending by 2013.