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JBloggs

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We have a tourism dept now. We have someone who has been trained and knows her stuff. I am happy to meet her and welcome her. SHE is the tourism dept. for our county, bless her heart!
I got a questionnaire today, required to assist with tourism, and the questions are such as occupancy per month, walkins vs reservations, etc etc. Lodging taxes. What cities are your leisure travelers point of origin and EXTENSIVE questions INDEPTH questions.
Now here is the one I find humorous on our guest demographics:
Individual - white collar
Individual blue collar workers/construction etc
NOW THAT IS FUNNY!
I am supposed to know what each guest does for a living?
Not to mention WHY each guest is here, broken down by event, etc. I am sure the hotels will be SPOT ON for THIS INFORMATION!
 
Joey Bloggs said:
Now here is the one I find humorous on our guest demographics:
Individual - white collar
Individual blue collar workers/construction etc
NOW THAT IS FUNNY!
I am supposed to know what each guest does for a living?
Not to mention WHY each guest is here, broken down by event, etc. I am sure the hotels will be SPOT ON for THIS INFORMATION!
Congrats on the Tourism Dept!
At a couple different conferences I've attended over the years, there was 1 'presenter' who used to have a print/online directory (initials are PL) and she would come out in mainstream publications with articles about our industry, etc. She would use information from questionnaires asking those stupid questions you're talking about. What's your guest income level, guest occupation, how many times to they stay in b&bs...etc. There is no way that our guessing could ever be used in a legit survey! She would then use this guessing information and form opinions and 'facts' about our industry. ABSURD! In fact, I saw something online where her daughter is speaking somewhere and is using the same bogus information in her topic.
 
Joey Bloggs said:
Now here is the one I find humorous on our guest demographics:
Individual - white collar
Individual blue collar workers/construction etc
NOW THAT IS FUNNY!
I am supposed to know what each guest does for a living?
Not to mention WHY each guest is here, broken down by event, etc. I am sure the hotels will be SPOT ON for THIS INFORMATION!
Congrats on the Tourism Dept!
At a couple different conferences I've attended over the years, there was 1 'presenter' who used to have a print/online directory (initials are PL) and she would come out in mainstream publications with articles about our industry, etc. She would use information from questionnaires asking those stupid questions you're talking about. What's your guest income level, guest occupation, how many times to they stay in b&bs...etc. There is no way that our guessing could ever be used in a legit survey! She would then use this guessing information and form opinions and 'facts' about our industry. ABSURD! In fact, I saw something online where her daughter is speaking somewhere and is using the same bogus information in her topic..
Yes, unless our guests agreed to fill out a questionnaire themselves. Even those are not worth the ink they are printed on.
If there were anyone in this county WHO COULD possibly know more about the visitors it would be me, but down to their collar color? I find that intrusive. Oddly enough the person who is sending this out is African American, so it is a curious thing, looking at all of this with that in view. I won't go into the other questions here, and I do really like this person and wish her all the best, but she is paddling upstream on this one.
I pretty sure a hotel in the area would mark down on a check list "Construction worker in room 501" or something.
DH said just this morning, if our prices were less we would have a different clientele. How different? Who the heck knows. There is not way of comparing apples and oranges.
Today for example, because I DO KNOW - our check ins will be:
  • Mommy paid for a room for son and his girlfriend. What age are they? I don't know, I will find out shortly. But it better be over 18. What do they do for a living? What does Mommy do for a living? No clue. Doesn't matter.
  • One room is a 50th anniversary. How do I know? A professor in Tazwell called to buy them champagne, which I said we could not provide and offered a fresh flower bouquet instead which she DID buy!
  • Another room is a wedding night. Family called about late check-in and more for their room later... I hope to have photos of the decorated car and maybe them with their breakfast delivery...we'll see. Are they black or white? Rich or poor? I have no idea, doesn't matter.
  • And another room I know nothing about their skin color, thie age group, their job status or mortgage payment. Why are they here? I don't know, they didn't say so I didn't ask. LOL!
I can tell the tourism manager these are all one night stays. Not one of them that I know about is here for the hot air balloon festival, nor the civil war days. Both I have been promoting as packages.
 
Glad your area has finally come around JB - they owe most of it to YOU!
Our tourism commission touts that type of information from some national companies that collect this data. How they collect it is beyond me and the individuals at the commission have dodged my (and others) questions on this subject. They present it to the council and the council (the ones dictating their budget) smiles and keeps raising their budget because of the report stats.
In the early days of our TC they had a small survey they asked people to complete and put in the box. Many of those type of questions were included - just like some of the online surveys companies try to get you to complete. That went away quickly and started buying the report from this national company. When I complete surveys about my salary etc. I usually do not mark the correct one and there are surveys about taking surveys that state I am not alone.
 
I don't think any of the tourism groups here have asked those questions! Basically - where are the guests from, how long do they stay, what are your rates, has biz been up or down? That's it.
I did get one the other day asking me to predict what guests would be coming here to do in the next 5 years. And where should the state tourism focus their attention to get/keep guests coming here.
If I had to guess income, it's going to be under 6 figures but high 5 figures. But that's all I could do - guess.
 
Joey Bloggs said:
Now here is the one I find humorous on our guest demographics:
Individual - white collar
Individual blue collar workers/construction etc
NOW THAT IS FUNNY!
I am supposed to know what each guest does for a living?
Not to mention WHY each guest is here, broken down by event, etc. I am sure the hotels will be SPOT ON for THIS INFORMATION!
Congrats on the Tourism Dept!
At a couple different conferences I've attended over the years, there was 1 'presenter' who used to have a print/online directory (initials are PL) and she would come out in mainstream publications with articles about our industry, etc. She would use information from questionnaires asking those stupid questions you're talking about. What's your guest income level, guest occupation, how many times to they stay in b&bs...etc. There is no way that our guessing could ever be used in a legit survey! She would then use this guessing information and form opinions and 'facts' about our industry. ABSURD! In fact, I saw something online where her daughter is speaking somewhere and is using the same bogus information in her topic..
At a couple different conferences I've attended over the years, there was 1 'presenter' who used to have a print/online directory (initials are PL) and she would come out in mainstream publications with articles about our industry, etc. She would use information from questionnaires asking those stupid questions you're talking about. What's your guest income level, guest occupation, how many times to they stay in b&bs...etc.
We had same person (supposedly the person who started directories) at one of our conferences years ago - her keynote speech was the data gleaned from a conference elsewhere.
 
Joey Bloggs said:
Now here is the one I find humorous on our guest demographics:
Individual - white collar
Individual blue collar workers/construction etc
NOW THAT IS FUNNY!
I am supposed to know what each guest does for a living?
Not to mention WHY each guest is here, broken down by event, etc. I am sure the hotels will be SPOT ON for THIS INFORMATION!
Congrats on the Tourism Dept!
At a couple different conferences I've attended over the years, there was 1 'presenter' who used to have a print/online directory (initials are PL) and she would come out in mainstream publications with articles about our industry, etc. She would use information from questionnaires asking those stupid questions you're talking about. What's your guest income level, guest occupation, how many times to they stay in b&bs...etc. There is no way that our guessing could ever be used in a legit survey! She would then use this guessing information and form opinions and 'facts' about our industry. ABSURD! In fact, I saw something online where her daughter is speaking somewhere and is using the same bogus information in her topic..
At a couple different conferences I've attended over the years, there was 1 'presenter' who used to have a print/online directory (initials are PL) and she would come out in mainstream publications with articles about our industry, etc. She would use information from questionnaires asking those stupid questions you're talking about. What's your guest income level, guest occupation, how many times to they stay in b&bs...etc.
We had same person (supposedly the person who started directories) at one of our conferences years ago - her keynote speech was the data gleaned from a conference elsewhere.
.
I have these to fill in for Visit Britain - I basically submit my best guess or what we want to show for our area ie lots of business tourists which supports the conference centre - its all a bunch of hooey in my opinion
 
Joey Bloggs said:
Now here is the one I find humorous on our guest demographics:
Individual - white collar
Individual blue collar workers/construction etc
NOW THAT IS FUNNY!
I am supposed to know what each guest does for a living?
Not to mention WHY each guest is here, broken down by event, etc. I am sure the hotels will be SPOT ON for THIS INFORMATION!
Congrats on the Tourism Dept!
At a couple different conferences I've attended over the years, there was 1 'presenter' who used to have a print/online directory (initials are PL) and she would come out in mainstream publications with articles about our industry, etc. She would use information from questionnaires asking those stupid questions you're talking about. What's your guest income level, guest occupation, how many times to they stay in b&bs...etc. There is no way that our guessing could ever be used in a legit survey! She would then use this guessing information and form opinions and 'facts' about our industry. ABSURD! In fact, I saw something online where her daughter is speaking somewhere and is using the same bogus information in her topic..
At a couple different conferences I've attended over the years, there was 1 'presenter' who used to have a print/online directory (initials are PL) and she would come out in mainstream publications with articles about our industry, etc. She would use information from questionnaires asking those stupid questions you're talking about. What's your guest income level, guest occupation, how many times to they stay in b&bs...etc.
We had same person (supposedly the person who started directories) at one of our conferences years ago - her keynote speech was the data gleaned from a conference elsewhere.
.
I have these to fill in for Visit Britain - I basically submit my best guess or what we want to show for our area ie lots of business tourists which supports the conference centre - its all a bunch of hooey in my opinion
.
I have these to fill in for Visit Britain - I basically submit my best guess or what we want to show for our area ie lots of business tourists which supports the conference centre - its all a bunch of hooey in my opinion
and the best guess does what for the stats? See this is what I mean, it is really of no use for me or anyone to guess, and I won't give away privy info on guests, even down to their hair color. I will nickname them "Ratty from Wind in the Willows" tho. :)
Occupancy etc and even zip code are not intrusive at all.
 
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