Visit Greater Palm Springs 2023 Overview

We are pleased to present the 2023 Annual Report of Visit Greater Palm Springs (VGPS). This comprehensive overview details our destination's marketing and tourism efforts to promote our destination to the world while improving the quality of life for our residents and partners.

This year, we have again chosen to publish the report online to support our commitment to sustainability by reducing paper usage, lowering the carbon footprint from printing and shipping, and minimizing waste.

Below, you’ll find a summary of key areas of our operations. For detailed insights, including key statistics, trends, and analysis, please explore the departmental sections through the navigation links on the right for desktop users or below for mobile viewers.

Established in 1989 as a Joint Powers Authority, Visit Greater Palm Springs (VGPS) is principally supported by a Tourism Improvement District (TBID), which contributes 85% of its funding. Over time, VGPS has expanded its role beyond traditional sales and marketing to embrace workforce and economic development. The ongoing success of the tourism industry in the Coachella Valley depends on various elements: a skilled workforce, accessible and affordable housing for that workforce, innovative and improved visitor experiences, strengthened sustainability initiatives, and better transportation access. The City of Coachella joined the JPA in June 2024, further enhancing our regional collaboration.

Here’s a look at tourism’s overall impact since 2011.

VGPS has evolved over the years beyond sales and marketing to include workforce and economic development, as the future success of the tourism industry in the Coachella Valley depends on many factors: the availability of a trained workforce, affordable housing for the workforce, new and enhanced visitor experiences and attractions, enhancements to sustainability, and continued improvements to transportation access.

2023 Economic Impact of Tourism
The travel sector remains an integral part of the Coachella Valley economy. Visitors generate significant economic benefits to households, businesses, and government alike and represent a critical driver of our future. In 2023, visitors supported a total of $9 billion in economic impact at businesses in Greater Palm Springs. 

In 2023, visitors spent $7.4 billion, an increase of 4.5% over 2022, which follows two consecutive years of double-digit growth. In addition, visitor volumes increased 2%, with Greater Palm Springs welcoming 14.4 million visitors in 2023, including 7.7 million day visitors and 6.7 overnight visitors.

Below is a snapshot of tourism's economic impact in the Coachella Valley.

Short-term vacation rentals also delivered a significant contribution to tourism's economic impact in the valley. 

2023 Marketing Strategy
With an overall marketing budget of more than $6 million, VGPS launched several new initiatives alongside flagship campaigns in 2023, targeting both leisure and meetings/group travelers as well as local residents and the hospitality workforce. Greater Palm Springs’ 2023 marketing campaigns generated a total of 25.3B impressions across all programs. 

Our consumer advertising initiatives in 2023 included a multimedia approach to maximize outreach and engagement, generating 25.3B impressions in 2023 across all platforms. Television played a central role, with strategic placements on Cable, KTLA in Los Angeles, and connected television platforms. Out-of-home advertising made a strong impact, capturing attention in drive and direct fly markets. Our presence extended to Online Travel Agency (OTA) platforms, with prominent visibility on Expedia, VRBO, TripAdvisor, and Travelzoo, ensuring a significant online footprint. Digital campaigns were strategically executed across various platforms, including Centro, Sojern, Nativo, and Pandora, offering a dynamic online presence. This comprehensive approach across multiple channels reflected our commitment to reaching and resonating with diverse audiences.

With more year-round flights than ever, marketing of all new and existing nonstop flights to our destination was supported through our advertising efforts in fly markets. New advertising was also vetted with Ailevon Pacific and launched at the end of 2023 in the following one-stop markets: Kansas City, St. Louis, Omaha, Washington D.C., and Indianapolis.

In 2023, co-op programs included television, digital outdoor billboards, digital advertising (display, native content, streaming audio), and social media. Aside from our Pandora streaming audio co-op, which is a summer program, all co-ops are offered year-round to active VGPS partners. In addition to paid advertising co-ops, VGPS also offers in-kind event-support billboards in Los Angeles and San Diego for first-time and signature events taking place in the destination. These programs are subsidized through a Riverside County Grant through June 2024. 

We also continued to incorporate vacation rental information and imagery throughout our overall marketing campaign year-round. This includes television spots, out-of-home, social media, digital video content, and blog content and articles.

In January 2023, VGPS entered a strategic partnership with Finn Partners, a comprehensive marketing and public relations agency. This collaboration has allowed us to enhance and broaden our commitment to international recovery efforts. Our consumer marketing initiative kicked off between April and June, leveraging a comprehensive approach encompassing digital, social, and video. With a particular focus on the UK and Ireland, our expanded partnership focused on elevating awareness. We also embarked on a fruitful two-week activation throughout five locations in the UK and Ireland, forging nearly 10,000 engagements with consumers, trade, and media professionals. Additionally, consumer marketing co-ops were established with Visit California and Brand USA and launched in UK/Ireland, France, Australia, Germany and Mexico. 

With continued recovery of group business as a key priority for our organization, we continued to optimize our new "The Oasis is Real" campaign that launched in October 2023. New video assets from this campaign have allowed us to include more engaging video content as part of our Convention Sales media plan, showcasing our destination via meeting planner publications, e-mail newsletters, lead-generation opportunities, and digital targeting to reach planners, executives, and decision-makers.

2023 Accomplishments
The tourism economy began to normalize after coming off a record 2022 year, and continued collaboration as a region and industry was key to compete for market share. Here are a few highlights of our collective accomplishments from 2023: 

• The VGPS convention sales team ended the year achieving 121% of their room-night goal, reaching 225,052 total room nights to a goal of 185,500 while also meeting their goals for leads distributed, new bookings, and new leads (which surpassed 2019 and 2022 levels). 
   
• Our destination marketing team launched a new meetings/group campaign called "The Oasis is Real" as well as several new innovative programs including content-driven media and an VRBO summer vacation rental campaign.
   
• We expanded our leisure campaign advertising internationally and had a two-week activation throughout Ireland, Scotland, and England that opened doors for media engagement across multiple channels.
   
• The VGPS website had 628,614 partner referrals, 11,546 visitor guide downloads, and 18,146 e-newsletter sign-ups. 
   
• The team’s social media efforts resulted in a combined 51M impressions, 9M video views, and 206K website clicks for the year, and we created two new social media channels (@TeamGreaterPS) to raise engagement and awareness, support local events, and spotlight hospitality and tourism workforce priorities.
   
• More than 650 attendees gathered at the Champions of Hospitality Awards & Gala to celebrate the spirit of Greater Palm Springs tourism as we celebrated our local workforce, with more than $90,000 raised through sponsorships, silent auction, and donations.
   
• We supported workforce development, adding an Emerging Leaders Certificate training program to our TEAM GPS offerings with College of the Desert (COD) PaCE, which enrolled 98 participants last year, and awarded $58,489 in scholarships for college students pursing hospitality degrees, emerging leaders certificate training, and COD hospitality students to attend an immersion trip to Japan.
   
• We advanced our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility by continuing our work with Travel Unity, partnering with Caravanserei Project to broaden the networks of Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs with small businesses in the tourism & hospitality industry, and launching an initiative to become a Certified Autism Center.
   
• Overall, Palm Springs International Airport demand in 2023 was strong, with a record 3.2 million passengers for 2023. 

In Summary
By executing effective destination marketing, leveraging digital platforms, nurturing social media engagement, maintaining robust communications and public relations, attracting group business, focusing on tourism development, and optimizing air service connectivity, Visit Greater Palm Springs continued to successfully position itself in 2023 as a world-class destination.

We invite you to explore the detailed information provided in this report to gain a deeper understanding of Visit Greater Palm Springs' strategies and achievements in 2023.