Our Work

ARAMARK Parks & Destinations

Increasing Visitation to National Parks for ARAMARK Parks & Destinations

Visitation to U.S. National Parks had declined by nearly 900,000 individuals from the number of visitors in 2005. As the leading hospitality concessioner to national park destinations, ARAMARK knew that increasing visitation was critical given the impending recession, high gas prices and gloomy state of travel.

The Allison & Partners team worked with the National Park Service to conduct in-depth customer surveys which provided actionable information on customer demographics, travel tendencies and preferences. We created individual marketing plans for each of APD's six parks, targeting feeder markets through consumer lifestyle and vertical media. We also leveraged an unprecedented natural event at ARAMARK's flagship Lake Powell Resort when a 50–foot rise in lake levels opened a shortcut to boaters known as the Castle Rock Cut for the first time in years.

Our strategy included proactive media outreach, including press releases announcing rising lake levels at Lake Powell, aggressive radio promotion campaigns using trade-for-play agreements to gain exposure and generate reservations within key feeder markets, familiarization (FAM) trips for key media, leveraging advertising buys for public relations pitching and editorial coverage and arranging co-op and cross marketing opportunities with the National Park Service.

The result was an unprecedented number of lodging reservations and revenues that increased at individual properties as much as 164.9 percent. Parks received coverage in major national daily and travel publications and key feeder markets, including such outlets as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Arizona Republic, San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Via, National Geographic Traveler, Frommer's, Alaska Airlines, Travel + Leisure, Sunset, CNBC and Fox National News.