Digital Analytics

November–December

Overview

For the reporting period of November and December, the Visit Greater Palm Springs website generated approximately 406,330 active users and 517,120 sessions. These months represent a critical planning window for winter and early-year travel, and performance indicates sustained traveler interest heading into peak season.

The largest sources of traffic for this period remained Paid Search and Organic Search, supported by Direct traffic and Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. PMax delivered roughly 6% more active users year over year, while Paid Social more than doubled performance (+108% active users YoY), led by “Time to Fly,” “Events,” and Blog Promotion campaigns—reinforcing the strength of timely, inspirational content paired with seasonal messaging.

Key Engagements, Actions & Conversions

During this period, the website also provided the following engagements:

• 79,550 Partner Referrals
  • 62,410 Non-Hotel Partner Referrals
  • 16,890 Hotel Partner Referrals
• 1,780 Visitor Guide Requests/Downloads
• 1,670 Coupon Referrals
• 1,430 E-Newsletter Sign-Ups
• 13 Indian Wells e-Newsletter Sign-Ups
• 6 dineGPS e-Newsletter Sign-Ups
• 23 Digital Guide Views

This data highlights the effective strategies implemented and the positive response from our audience, even as AI-powered search and social platforms increasingly shape the discovery process.

Holiday-Related Pages

Holiday-focused content played a central role in December planning behavior. Event-related pages—including Events, Holiday Events, and Events This Weekend—collectively captured approximately 37,440 sessions, reflecting a 4% year-over-year increase and underscoring the importance of events in trip-timing decisions.

Holiday attractions also performed strongly within partner referrals. The Magic of Lights Coachella Valley listing was the top individual referral-driving partner during this period (825 referrals), with other seasonal experiences such as WildLights ranking among the top 20 partners—demonstrating strong visitor interest in holiday lights and festive programming.

Blog Content

In November and December, the content team continued to publish and update blogs that support key seasonal themes, including holiday events, winter experiences, and trip-planning inspiration. These efforts were amplified by Paid Social campaigns—particularly “Events” and Blog Promotion—which helped drive incremental reach and engagement with blog content.

There were 7 new blogs created, and 21 blogs were updated. Below are the new blogs:

• Winter Spa Escape: Recharge in the New Year
• Cozy Dining Spots in Greater Palm Springs
• Mindful Travel in Greater Palm Springs: A 48-Hour Wellness Itinerary
• Greater Palm Springs Taco Trail
• Plan the Perfect Bachelorette Party in Palm Springs: 4 Easy Steps
• What to Eat at Acrisure Arena: Local Favorites and New Flavors
• Your Guide to Arenas District

Email Updates  

For the months of November and December, the consumer and dineGPS newsletters continued to perform well above the industry average open rate benchmark of 31%.

Nonstop Flights

VGPS continued to promote nonstop air service through the “Time to Fly” initiative, using Paid Search, Paid Social, and PMax to direct qualified travelers to dedicated "Time to Fly" landing pages personalized by origin market. These campaigns highlight nonstop routes, localized messaging, and supporting content that make it easier for travelers to plan air service into Greater Palm Springs while also contributing to the strong performance of Paid Social and cross-network traffic in November and December.

2025 Recap

In 2025, Visit Greater Palm Springs welcomed approximately 2.76 million active users to the website, generating about 3.63 million sessions. While this represents a modest 6% decline in users and 4% decline in sessions year over year, performance remained close to target in a year marked by major shifts in how travelers discover information online. Overall, VGPS achieved 89% of its Active Users goal, 90% of its Sessions goal, 75% of its Key Pages goal, and 72% of its Action goal.

Across the travel sector, AI-powered discovery and “zero-click” search expanded rapidly in 2025, increasing their share of total search exposure by over 240%. As more questions are answered directly in Google’s AI Overviews and other AI-driven experiences, fewer users click through to destination websites—even when interest remains high. Against this backdrop, VGPS maintained relatively stable traffic and continued to drive meaningful visitor actions, outperforming many peer destinations.

VGPS garnered the following engagements for 2025:

• 436,634 Partner Referrals

  • 332,388 Non-Hotel Partner Referrals

  • 71,408 Hotel Partner Referrals

• 17,254 Coupon Referrals

• 8,935 Visitor Guide Requests

• 7,599 Consumer e-Newsletter Sign-Ups

• 116 dineGPS Sign-Ups

• 37 Indian Wells e-Newsletter Sign-Ups

• 805 Digital Guide Requests

These actions represent high-intent travelers actively planning trips, engaging with partners, and entering owned marketing channels that support future visitation. Spa and wellness experiences were particularly impactful: Spa partners accounted for all of the year’s top referral-driving listings, including The Spa at Séc-he, Azure Palm Hot Springs Resort & Spa, The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, and Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa—signaling that luxury, wellness, and relaxation remain core differentiators for the Greater Palm Springs brand.

Escape Your Ordinary

The "Escape Your Ordinary" campaign landing page was one of the most-visited entry points to the site in 2025, alongside the homepage and California landing page. Year over year, "Escape Your Ordinary" recorded a roughly 177% increase in sessions and a 155% increase in engaged sessions, demonstrating the continued strength of inspirational, story-led content in driving interest and deeper site exploration.

Looking ahead, "Escape Your Ordinary" will remain a cornerstone brand platform, supported by seasonal content, always-on paid media, and cross-channel storytelling that showcases the region’s unique mix of wellness, outdoor adventure, culture, and signature events.

Looking Ahead

As we look forward into 2026, Visit Greater Palm Springs will continue to grow website traffic, engagement, and conversions by focusing on channels and content that best reflect evolving traveler behavior. Priority initiatives include:

• Continuing to refine key pages (Places to Stay, Deals, Things to Do, Events) for AI Overview and LLM experiences, with clearer entities, structured FAQs, schema, and concise, citation-ready summaries.

• Leaning further into social-first discovery with expanded creative and creator-led content for spa and wellness, dining, and events—while retargeting engaged visitors with offers and trip-planning tools.

• Growing first-party audiences via visitor guide requests, email sign-ups, and digital guides so VGPS can maintain direct relationships with travelers regardless of third-party platform changes.

• Elevating high-performing partners and categories (vacation rentals, hot springs, pet-friendly stays, deals, dining, and marquee attractions) across campaigns and onsite content, guided by referral and action data.

Together, these efforts position Visit Greater Palm Springs to stay visible and competitive in an AI-driven, social-led travel environment—translating digital engagement into measurable visitation and partner impact through 2026 and beyond.

Digital Analytics Dashboards

Below are dashboards showing our year-to-date total website traffic, engagement, and conversion rates.