Alexandria, La. (February 3, 2022)—Visit Lake Charles was recently honored with the Tourism/Campaign Promotion of the Year by the Louisiana Travel Association at the association’s annual meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 2. 

In the fall of 2019, Visit Lake Charles rebranded the destination as extensive research revealed that Visit Lake Charles' brand needed to include more dynamic experiences, cultural diversity and rich food traditions along with its strong lead of gaming resorts and the great outdoors. With this data in hand, it was time to claim the destination's position as Louisiana's premier resort destination by developing a new identity, channeling the real feelings, flavors and memories of past visitors, locals, and industry partners.  

The new brand was in the marketplace only 10-weeks when COVID-19 shut down travel. Mother Nature layered on with blow after devastating blow leaving Louisiana’s Playground “under construction” for 2020 and early 2021. In April 2021, the Visit Lake Charles––Louisiana’s Playground campaign finally relaunched. 

Media metrics revealed that the campaign produced, 31M impressions, 63K landing page views, 14K engaged visitors, and a 22.13% engagement rate. Organic website traffic to Visit Lake Charles increased 23% since the relaunch with confirmed visitation (measured by devices in-market) from all 50 states. Occupancy increased 39% year-over-year to 70.4%; demand increased 8%, and revenue increased 35%. 

"Marketing Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana has certainly been a series of campaign starts and stops. Through it all, with the branding launch of Louisiana's Playground and the relaunch in the spring of 2021, it is evident that the juxtaposition of resorts and the great outdoors along with cultural experiences resonated with eager travelers who were looking to spend time exploring Southwest Louisiana. The campaign withstood the test of time through an array of difficult circumstances, and we are grateful to have been successful against all odds to bolster the local economy through travel expenditures," said Kyle Edmiston, President/CEO of Visit Lake Charles.

For more information on the Louisiana Travel Association, visit www.louisianatravelassociation.org.  

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