Those who work in tourism got a glimpse at what the next couple of years have in store for travel. The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce/Convention and Visitors Bureau held its annual tourism marketing summit on March 14th at the Myrtle Beach Marriott Resort and Spa at the Grande Dunes.

The crowd of business leaders heard from Julia Dimon, a millennial mom influencer and family travel expert, Colleen Fitzgerald from Google, and a social media panel with executives from Ripley’s, Condo World, Vacation Myrtle Beach and Visit Myrtle Beach who discussed trends in social media and how they're using it for their businesses today. The summit closed with Scott Schult, EVP of Marketing, providing an update on Visit Myrtle Beach's marketing strategy for 2018. 

“There’s a common theme and that’s about being connected. Travelers want to be connected and marketers are now connected,” said Google senior account executive Colleen Fitzgerald, who shared trends on travel and the digital landscape.

According to Fitzgerald, 60 percent of people who watch video content use it to narrow down their destination choice or be inspired on where to go. She discussed connecting with every device to bring people to the Myrtle Beach area.

The goal is to reach 20 million visitors by the year 2020. In 2016, the Grand Strand saw 18.6 million visitors. 

“We came out of the gates fast in 2018 and are focused on laying the building blocks for future growth as we work toward the chamber’s umbrella goal called Grand Strand 2020,” said Scott Schult, executive vice president of marketing for MBACC/CVB. “All of the efforts we are putting in place now are in preparation to meet this goal and welcome 20 million visitors a year to our area by 2020.”

Check out the coverage from WMBF News. 

Following are PDFs of the presentations decks:

• Under the Influence: An Insider's Look at Millennial Family Travel Influencers - Julia Dimon, Travel Expert, and Ann Marcum, Fahlgren Mortine
• Social & Audiences: The State of the Travel Marketing Landscape - Edward St.Onge, Flip.to
• An Update from Google - Colleen Fitzgerald, Google
• Visit Myrtle Beach Marketing Update - Scott Schult, MBACC