Communications & Public Relations

2024 Overview

Key Achievements:

• 1,441 Earned Media Articles
• 3.9 Billion Circulation
• 210 Media Visits and Group FAMS
• 2,724 Media Assists

Scroll to the bottom to see the 2024 media coverage highlights and annual dashboards.

Top Communications/PR Highlights of 2024

• London Design Festival: Strengthened our international visibility with interactive exhibit by Studio Mama at the London Design Festival, featuring an exceptional partnership with Mattel's Barbie. This collaboration showcased innovative design and creativity, aligning the destination with the popularity of Barbie and the Barbie movie, capturing widespread media and audience attention. This program resulted in 22 pieces of coverage including The Times, The Guardian, Elle Décor, London Evening Standard, BBC Radio London and Dezeen, with a circulation of more than 39 Million readers.

• Meet the Mentors 2.0: Successfully hosted the second iteration of this mentorship program, inspiring and supporting the next generation of storytellers while providing immersion in Greater Palm Springs. The program received accolades, including the Adrian Award, ESTO Award, and PRSA Anvil. Each of the six mentees had their story published on the VGPS website; MTM program was covered in 3 online media stories as well, reaching more than 100,000 readers. 

• Live with Kelly & Mark: Collaborated with the nationally syndicated show to spotlight Greater Palm Springs in four live to tape shows at The Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort & Spa. The show garnered 8.9 million viewers and over 17M in advertising value. 

• Location Scout FAMs: Working with Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) and in partnership with Riverside County Film Commission, the team hosted two familiarization (FAM) tours, one for the East (Coachella, Indio, La Quinta, Indian Wells and Palm Desert) and West (Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City) Valleys, showcasing the region’s potential for film and television projects. A total of 27 partners were showcased during these FAMs.

• Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) Editors Council: Hosted 28 travel editors for their annual meeting, providing an opportunity for invaluable first-person experiences. 

• IPW in LA: Organized pre- and post-FAM trips hosting 14 qualified media, showcasing the region’s offerings to international media during this annual show. The 2025 show will be in Chicago.
• IGLTA Convention in Osaka: Represented Greater Palm Springs at this global LGBTQ+ travel event, in advance of hosting the convention in Palm Springs in 2025. 

• Tokyo Event: Leveraged time in Japan to host a wellness event in Tokyo to engage Japanese media and strengthen international media and content creator relationships. 

• Global Media Engagement: Expanded international efforts with group FAMs from the UK, Australia, Germany, France, and Japan, solidifying Greater Palm Springs as a premier global destination. 

• Visit California China/S. Korea Media Mission: Participated in VCA’s media mission to Beijing and Seoul, allowing our team to interact with more than 60 influential journalists and content creators to better understand these markets and how we can influence travel to GPS.
• Luxury Travel Media: Attended ILTM (International Luxury Travel Market) in Cannes as part of the Visit California Media Mission. This was followed by events and media appointments with luxury travel editors in Paris.
• PR Leadership: Todd Burke was appointed to the PRSA Travel + Tourism Executive Committee, further elevating the team’s leadership and influence within the industry. 

*Goals far exceeded due to media exposure from LIVE with Kelly & Mark and London Design Festival.
 

• PR Quality Score is a point-based system of evaluating the quality of media.  Media is rated on a scale of 1-12 based on story type, media tier, visuals, URL, DMO mention, and reader response. This is done through an internal point scoring system.