LT-2023-017-THE PATCH - Laserfiche WebLink

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9129122, 12:24 PM Response 2.1 * Response 2.2* Application Questions: P art. 2 3l lmpact LTAC Clerk Review Why would tourists travel to Kittitas County to attend your evenVactivity/facility? First, our 300+ days of sunshine are very appealing to tourists. While both spring and fall weather on the westside brings rain, muddy corn mazes and water laden egg hunts, we typically have sunny, blue sky days here in Ellensburg. Spring can no doubt be a challenge, but it's not westside weatherl Over the years, we've heard "weather" as a driving factor for many guests and this year's Easter event was no exception. Secondly, guests are looking to avoid the crowds. Most farms on the westside are less than 30-minutes from a major urban center, which means they get inundated by crowds. As a result, farms have had to change their operations in order to manage the numbers. Advanced tickets are often required and rigid time slots are managed. Thirdly, we hear the word "genuine" a lot. Guests are looking to avoid the "commercial" feel found on westside farms, where you'll find trains, rollercoasters and nacho cheese machines (oh my!). Guests love visiting directly with the farmers year-after-year, getting cookies from "grandma" (yes, my mom) in the Silo Caf6 and getting to sit on "grandpa's" tractor (yup, my dad). lt's a family operation and guests love it as much as we do. 2500 character limit Describe the prior success of your evenUactivity/facility in attraction tourists. Looking more closely at our event numbers for 2022, we had approximately 450 guests. Of those guests, 333 purchased tickets online, giving us good, trackable data. Of the 333 tickets purchased online, 23o/o (76) were from outside Kittitas County. Within that74% (55) were from 50+ miles away. With the exception of two tickets being tied to a Florida address (which we excluded from our numbers as they were clearly not visiting from FL and likely recently moved), none of our data shows guests from out-of-state or the country As mentioned before, we had no lodging tax support for this event and in an effort to keep costs down, made no effort to attract guests from 50+ miles away. Talking with guests in attendance, we learned that many are already "Patch fans" and follow us on social media. And, they were thrilled to have a reason to come back, without having to wait until the fall. That said, we believe that targeted marketing, afforded by lodging tax grant dollars, will have an immediate impact on 50+ mile attendees and expect attendance to reach 700 next year. 2500 character limit lf-app-16-03.co.kittilas.wa.us/Forms/form/submission/history/77621186050?hideHeader=true 5t14