The Situation
Amongst its many core audiences, local residents are important to the San Francisco Travel Association’s marketing within the city. While the DMO sought to evaluate resident opinions of the tourism industry and its impact to the local economy through resident sentiment research, this research would also support stakeholders, the Board of Directors and DMO members and partners so that they, too, gain an understanding of resident perceptions and can use research insights to inform messaging and communications.
Destination Analysts’ Designed Solution
For multiple years, Destination Analysts has conducted San Francisco Travel Association’s resident sentiment research. Each wave, the survey is administered via phone to landline and mobile numbers of San Francisco residents to ensure that the survey sample is generationally representative. As one of the goals was to assess differences and/or similarities between residents who live in a tourist neighborhood and residents who do not live in a tourist neighborhood, the survey questionnaire was developed accordingly. The research was also designed to measure the tourism industry’s importance to the city government budget, as well as to one’s personal financial well-being.
The Organization’s Success
The findings from this research provided the San Francisco Travel Association with a deep understanding of how local residents perceive and engage with the tourism industry. Across the years, the data consistently shows that tourism is one of San Francisco’s most important industries, residents consider tourism to have a positive impact on the city’s government and residents are appreciative of the taxes offset for households as a result of tourism to the city.
