One of our important roles in promoting tourism to our beautiful area is to host Familiarization Tours (FAM Tours) for visiting media. These tours result in valuable media mentions that bring visitors to our area to spend money. It’s been a busy Summer and Fall hosting media and we’ve gotten quite a bit of coverage so far.
We thought you might like to see how we promote our local businesses to raise the visibility of our area and how you can participate in these FAM Tours.
By the time we get a request to host visiting journalists they have been vetted by Travel Oregon and Willamette Valley Visitor’s Association. We know who they are writing the article for and what their interests and focus for their article.
It is our job to create the most favorable experiences while media visit our area. Typically while they are in Oregon they are visiting surrounding areas so we may be hosting them for a full or partial day.
We try to create a well-rounded experience with a lodging partner, restaurants, and things to do. While they are visiting we are expected to take them around and facilitate their interaction with our local businesses. We try to squeeze as many experiences into the time we have with them so that they have plenty to write about.
It isn’t up to us what they ultimately choose to write about but we provide the experiences from which to choose. It is our job to ensure that our area is presented in the best possible light.
When we create a custom itinerary for the journalist we select as many things as we can and often let them decide which of the activities are of the most interest depending on the angle for their article. So we may contact you to see if you are interested in participating only to have the journalist change their mind to go somewhere else at the last minute.
Journalists are looking for interesting experiences whether it a new wine tasting format or unusual wines unique to this area or artisan products. Please let us know if you have a seasonal product or service that you feel would be of interest to visiting journalists. Journalists like to talk with the founder, owner, winemaker or creator of the business. Not only do we host their lodging, meals, and activities but we often provide gift bags.
We welcome the opportunity to showcase your products or services so please tell us about what you have that is new, unusual, or newsworthy to travel writers. Feel free to contact Karla Erovick via email at karla@chehalemvalley.org or at 503-538-2014.
