Finding new ways to market Tahoe as a destination is a huge challenge in the face of the ever changing digital world of iPads and social media outlets.  The Visitor Authorities on both the North and South shores have struggled with expanding competition, dwindling budgets and have all but given up on national and worldwide marketing.  Their efforts now concentrate primarily on marketing to the drive markets of San Francisco and Sacramento.

How then has a mid-sized Vacation Rental Management company found such great success in attracting a regional response to their home rentals?  Jim Morris, owner of Lake Tahoe Accommodations, calls it “taking a chance and thinking outside the box.”  Morris, after taking his idea of marketing Lake Tahoe to both the NLTRA and LTVA and being told that neither agency saw the value in marketing to a national audience, took the bold move of sponsoring broadcasts of a show called “Getting Away Together.”  “The first season of this show is now on PBS nationwide” says Morris. “It features families and groups renting houses in destinations and enjoying all that destination has to offer while sharing a home or condo as a group.”  The show’s producer, Jerry Smith, states, “The viewership and response to the show has been huge.  It has been shown in all the major markets across the nation, and the destinations featured are seeing a big uptick in home and condo rentals.”

The show’s unique concept is part reality show, part travel log.  In addition to the viewing on PBS stations across the nation, the shows can also be viewed online at www.gettingawaytogether.com.  “It’s amazing how many people who saw the show on PBS go to the online show to view it again and plan their next trip,” says Smith.

As for its success rate for local company Lake Tahoe Accommodations, “We are sponsoring the show in the Reno, Northern Nevada markets,” states Morris. “It gives people the idea that there are alternatives to renting a hotel room and that traveling together as a family or for a girlfriends’ getaway, renting a home is the best way to go.”  The show airs Saturday mornings at 10:00 am on KNPB Channel 5.

Morris is disappointed that the local Visitor Bureaus don’t support this new trend in vacationing even though their own research shows a huge increase in consumers using websites like HomeAway and VRBO more frequently to book vacations.  Although it is not a featured destination on the show, Lake Tahoe has one of the largest inventories of vacation rentals of all the US resorts.  “Vacation Rentals account for well over 50% of the TOT (a tax collected on rentals that normally funds tourist agencies).  It is disappointing that as a business community that supports and funds them, the local Visitor Authorities do not listen to us with regard to marketing that works for our business segment” states Morris.  “We’re really missing the boat as Lake Tahoe was just voted the “Best Lake in America” by USA Today readers.”