BATON ROUGE – In a press release sent Sept. 11, it was announced that as a part of Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser’s Rural Tourism Initiative and Louisiana Byways Program, a series of free social media workshops are being conducted across the state in order to help tourism professionals in smaller markets. According to the announcement, the hands-on seminars are designed to increase skills in utilizing the latest social media marketing tools as well as leverage the power of the Louisiana Travel social media channels.
So far, it was stated, workshops in Opelousas and Oil City area have been well attended and offered valuable information on how to promote Louisiana tourism efforts on a minimal budget with social media strategies that connects with the Louisiana Byways and Trails Program. The Louisiana Trails & Byways network takes visitors on 19 epic road trips through the state’s culture, geography and history.
“The workshop draws tourism partners and community businesses located along the byways to share ideas and learn from each other with the goal of finding ways to promote and market their sites better,” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser in the press announcement. “Our main mission is to bring more visitors into the communities and to the byways and using social media channels is a proven marketing tool.”
Byways, Nungesser says, are dynamic because they change and grow so plans to further develop and market the plans also needs to be dynamic.
Lt. Governor Nungesser adds that the Louisiana Byways are currently being assessed to determine the type of workshops and outreach programs that will be developed. Some ideas being considered include: methods to enhance the visitor experience, itinerary creation, effective marketing and revisiting strategic plans of individual byways.
Other workshops are scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 12, in St. Tammany Parish at Northshore Community Technical College in Lacombe starting at 10:00 a.m.
An earlier workshop in the Houma area was rescheduled due to Tropical Storm Gordon and will be Thursday, Sept. 13, at the Houma Area Visitor’s Center, 114 Tourist Drive, in Gray, Louisiana starting at 10:00 a.m.