Digital Marketing

The VGPS digital team exceeded its 2024 goals for both Users and Sessions, reaching 113% and 114% of the annual targets, respectively. While performance in Highly Engaged Sessions and Qualified Sessions fell slightly below goal, overall engagement remained strong. 

By year-end, we recorded 600,452 partner referrals, 11,185 visitor guide downloads, and 5,244 e-newsletter sign-ups.

Mobile continued to be the dominant platform, accounting for the majority of activity with 1,787,861 users and 2,221,866 sessions.

Other highlights include: 

• Paid search was the largest source of traffic in 2024 (819,317 active users; 51% of all sessions), which came in just slightly higher than organic search (783,563 active users; 49% of all sessions).
   
• Users: The number of users reached 2,935,311, exceeding the team's goal of 2,604,355.
   
• Sessions: Total sessions reached 3,797,746, surpassing the goal of 3,329,649.
   
• Highly Engaged Sessions: VGPS recorded 1,318,126 highly engaged sessions, slightly below our target of 1,408,698. Both qualified and highly engaged sessions came in under goal, largely due to the decrease was the implementation of our updated cookie policy mid-year, which limited our ability to track user engagement accurately as we were. This change, along with broader updates to tracking platforms such as Google Analytics 4, impacted how sessions were measured. As a result, VGPS will be shifting away from engagement metrics in 2025 and instead focus on tracking specific, event-driven interactions that provide clearer insights into user behavior such as partner referrals and guide downloads. 
  
  Additionally, we experienced a decline in organic traffic—a trend seen across many destination marketing organizations (DMOs)—which also contributed to the overall dip in engagement metrics.
   
• Qualified Sessions: Qualified sessions totaled 616,882, coming in just below the goal of 667,531. 
   
• Consumer E-newsletter: Consumer e-newsletters averaged an impressive open rate of 47.33% and a click-through rate of 9.83%—well above the industry averages of 31% and 5.0%, respectively. 
   
• Campaign Landing Pages:  In 2024, the Fall "Escape Your Ordinary" brand campaign page generated over 187,000 sessions and contributed to approximately 553 partner referrals. The Summer Travel landing page saw 136,398 sessions and drove 822 partner referrals.
   
• VGPS Website: The VGPS website recorded 3,807,485 sessions—an 18.25% increase over 2023. Two of the primary drivers behind this growth were increased display advertising and paid social media campaigns.
   
• VGPS Blogs: Our blog content remained a key driver of website traffic, generating 923,481 views and attracting 571,805 active users in 2024. Readers spent an average of 1 minute and 24 seconds per session, reflecting strong and consistent engagement. Over the course of the year, the team published 179 new blog posts to the Visit Greater Palm Springs website, supporting seasonal campaigns, events, and destination storytelling.

 The top-10 highest performing blogs of 2024 include:

• ‘Hot Water’ Guide to Desert Hot Springs: Hot Springs in Palm Springs
• Al Fresco Bites: Perfect Patios for Outdoor Dining in Greater Palm Springs
• The Traveler's Guide to Downtown Palm Springs
• Day Passes to Soak in the Hot Springs
• The Ultimate Family-Friendly Vacation in Indian Wells
• Eight Reasons to Visit Greater Palm Springs This Summer
• Culinary Hot Spots in Greater Palm Springs
• November in Greater Palm Springs
• 10 Reasons to Visit Greater Palm Springs in 2024
• 6 Reasons to Visit Indian Wells this Summer