CVB outlines digital, AI and sports‑tourism strategies, cites millions in earned publicity

Rob Wells, representing Visit Beaufort Port Royal, presented the DMO’s approach to destination marketing and emphasized performance measurement and group‑sales work that he says drives overnight stays. "One of the things that we do is that we watch through what we call attribution," Wells said, explaining the DMO’s efforts to connect advertising to in‑market visits. He described integrating live AI advertising and attribution to measure campaign outcomes and cited prior publicity results in the low millions.

Wells also described sports tourism as a resilient driver of visitation and said his office and partners generated roughly 3,500 room nights from group sales last year. Committee members asked about coordination with applicant marketing plans; Wells said the CVB supports applicants and provides data to help the committee evaluate claims. The presentation provided background data the committee used while questioning several applicants about projected out‑of‑market visitation.