Olympia has been a longtime hub for exceptional food, novel attractions, and breathtaking natural sights. Many of the businesses in the tourism and hospitality industry have struggled throughout the ups and downs of the pandemic, and with restrictions lifting, Experience Olympia & Beyond is making every effort to support a resurgence of travel to our community. They recently decided to discontinue requiring membership and are now opening their services up to any and all local businesses serving in the tourism and hospitality industries. If you are a local businessowner serving up exciting ways for visitors to connect to Olympia, contact Experience Olympia today at info@experienceolympia.com to learn how you can partner together to grow.
Experience Olympia & Beyond’s primary mission is to reveal the most iconic Thurston County experiences for the world to discover. CEO Annette Pitts feels that Olympia and the surrounding areas of Thurston County truly capture the essence of the Pacific Northwest and is eager to share this with the traveling world. “For people around the world looking to have that Pacific Northwest American experience, we want them to come here and know who we are without any questions about it,” she says. “We want to be top of mind.”
Up until this year, Experience Olympia & Beyond has been a membership-based organization. “We thought it was important to step away from this to acknowledge the fact that our industry has been one of the hardest hit in the pandemic.”
With the restrictions on travel and limitations on in-person dining and recreational activities, many small business owners in the hospitality and tourism industries had no feasible way to generate income during this time. “It didn’t feel right to require people to pay us after having gone through that,” says Annette. “By removing this, we have a much clearer path to motivate economic recovery in this sector of our community and can benefit more people more quickly.”
For Annette, removing the membership requirement was necessary and important for the work Experience Olympia & Beyond is doing in the community. With their new website launching on May 31, she really wanted to make sure that all of our local attractions could be fully represented to all site visitors. “With marketing, I realized that when we were limited to our members, we simply could not give tourists a full view of everything our community has to offer,” Annette shares. “I want people to click on our website and see it all, from our tattoo shops to our food trucks.” Without this membership restriction, more businesses in Thurston County can be represented and promoted to visitors looking to fully experience the Pacific Northwest.
While Experience Olympia & Beyond cannot support every single business in the area, they are eager to promote businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector. Their promotion and partnership services are intended and reserved for businesses that are geared toward visitors as opposed to residents, though there can be some crossover with certain industries like food or the arts. Businesses in this sector of the economy can determine if their services meet Experience Olympia & Beyond’s criteria by visiting the Partnership page of their website. In short, Experience Olympia & Beyond proudly supports businesses providing lodging; food and beverage; arts or cultural experiences; outdoor recreation; events and festivals; or attractions and transportation. If you are a businessowner offering one or more of these services, Experience Olympia & Beyond is the perfect partnership to further promote your services to potential county visitors.
Photo credit: Nate Burgher
Once a business becomes an approved partner of Experience Olympia, the business quickly becomes promoted on their website. Prospective PNW travelers will be then able to easily locate your business and learn all about your services. “We work with a fantastic public relations firm and get together monthly to talk about ideas,” shares Annette. “We think about what is happening in the community and the people that are going to be traveling to determine what might resonate with visitors.” If you have something really exciting and new happening with your business or organization, Experience Olympia & Beyond strives to put these activities front and center by partnering with major media so the story can become widespread. All of these things are more opportunities to bring your business into the spotlight and showcase the amazing experiences visitors will have.
As the world begins to settle from the pandemic, Annette is eager to see businesses in our local community resurface and thrive. “We are here to serve the community and want to make sure we are contributing to the economic recovery of Thurston County,” she says. “This truly is a partnership and want all of the growth to be sustainable and reflective of the values of our community.” Through this commitment and desire to partner with Experience Olympia & Beyond is ready to help businessowners across the community attract more visitors to the area. Join today to see how their partnership can benefit your business by visiting the Experience Olympia & Beyond website or calling 360.704.7544.
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