Overhauled Visitors and Relocation Guide Coming in 2014

The Official Durham Visitors & Relocation Guide (VRG) produced by the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) in cooperation with other local organizations, is getting a complete format overhaul, as well as new levels of information integration with DCVB's website. The revamped guide will be published twice a year now, as well as being supported by an entirely new additional publication that will be used primarily as a visual sales pitch to people outside Durham to convince them to visit.

The current 2013 Official
Durham Visitors & Relocation Guide will be
distributed through February, 2014.

"We are responding to the way people use printed publications in a digital age," said Shelly Green, President and CEO of DCVB. "Visitors to Durham are typically well-educated, technology forward, and tend toward affluence.  They, like all of today's internet-savvy visitors, are used to information on demand, and that is just what this new format will offer them when they are on the ground here in Durham," she added.

The VRG, like all of DCVB's publications, is increasingly enhanced by rapidly evolving and constantly refreshed online content to which users link via QR codes and other digital activation methods.

The Official Visitors & Relocation Guide will also be a semi-annual publication and will contain much of the same content in the currently available Guide that DCVB produces now.  DCVB's website is becoming more robust with constantly evolving fresh, and refreshed, content to ensure that when visitors are availing themselves of web content from mobile devices that it is relevant to them at the time.

The physical dimensions of this guide have changed, too; the Guide will be digest sized and roughly half the dimensions of the current edition.  It will measure about 5 by 8 inches.

This Guide is distributed via more than 145 targeted channels throughout Durham, at NC Welcome Centers on interstate highways, and directly to those requesting it, as well.  "Currently we are looking at two issues per year simply because we have so much going on in Durham and we want to keep our publications seasonally up to date," Green said.  "We're prepared to increase that frequency in coming years," she added.

This new approach to connecting with visitors, primarily when they are already in Durham, creates a significant opportunity for local businesses looking to advertise directly to visitors.  "In 2011 (most recent year of data available) 7.8 million people visited Durham and spent more than $780 million while they were here," said Green.  "This format is an economical and direct way for local businesses to tap into the largest number of customers and dollars," she said.

DCVB is taking space reservations now for The Official Visitors & Relocation Guide.  Those interested can reach Greg Craft by email at ads@durham-cvb.com, and at 919-612-9382.

A second publication - yet unnamed - is slated for production this year. It will be comprised of compelling images with a small quantity of descriptive copy meant to effectively sell Durham as potential visitors are in the research phase of planning a trip. "The new publication is a lure piece or a kind of 'look book'.  Is is meant to bring Durham's unique sense of place to life in a way that will make people want to visit and explore," Green said.

This guide will be produced in smaller quantities and only distributed directly to those who respond to DCVB's marketing and outreach efforts, or in person at the Visitors Information Center at 101 E. Morgan Street in Downtown Durham. More about this publication will be forthcoming.