Driving tourism with strategic paid media

The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority (CRVA) is responsible for promoting travel and tourism to the Queen City, as well as for a variety of brands and venues such as the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the BOplex Entertainment Complex and more. The region’s travel sector employes 1 in 9 residents and generates $8 billion each year in direct visitor spending. 

In 2017, CRVA partnered with Valtech to launch a revamped CharlottesGotALot.com, designed to empower visitors to explore and plan their trips to Charlotte, NC.

But once the site launched, the challenge was clear: how do we drive continuous, meaningful traffic while encouraging travelers to visit Charlotte? The goal wasn’t just increasing website visitors. It was about turning digital interactions into real-world visits.

With the site live, we focused on a combination of paid search and social media to generate consistent traffic.

In the initial phases, the objective was to establish CharlottesGotALot.com as a trusted, primary resource for anyone planning trips to Charlotte.

Paid media helped amplify the new site and drive the right audience to engage. The site saw a significant lift in traffic in the first year of the campaign.

As the foundation solidified, we recognized the need to expand reach. By increasing the media budget and launching evergreen campaigns, Charlotte was introduced as a prime travel destination to new markets. Digital display ads were implemented to further amplify reach and awareness.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the travel industry to grind to a halt, forcing a strategic pivot. Valtech swiftly adapted by shifting focus to local audiences, using creative assets that encouraged staycations and support for local businesses. The media buy was closely monitored, and as recovery efforts began funds were gradually shifted back toward out-of-town audiences.

Media attribution demonstrated the power of our marketing efforts: Data showed that the number of room nights booked grew and grew, significantly surpassing pre-COVID levels.

While we continue to partner with CRVA to drive visitors year-round, we also work together to tackle new challenges, such as:

• Increasing visitors during the holiday season through a campaign specifically targeting visiting friends and relatives.
• Driving traffic to minority-owned businesses that shape the city’s identity.
• Leveraging data to identify the markets and audiences that spend the most money at local businesses and hotels and developing distinct creative for each. 

Valtech is bringing in more visitors to Charlotte, and those visitors are spending more money. From 2022 to 2024, we saw significant upticks in key metrics: