Explore Minnesota Tourism: Industry Site

Familiarization (fam) tours are always a big part of the Travel Trade Marketing schedule each year. Minnesota communities benefit when influential travel people see firsthand what is offered for travelers within the state. EMT hosts familiarization tours for targeted international travel agents and tour operators and US group tour operators. The Minnesota tourism industry co-sponsors familiarization tours by providing complimentary lodging, meals, attractions and guide services. EMT also works with US travel trade media, geared towards travel professionals, and international consumer and travel trade media to generate feature articles and broadcast productions on Minnesota.  Though autumn sees the biggest number of tours, such activity occurs throughout the year, based on availability of participants’ schedules and various co-hosts.

The impact translates into a greater presence in the tour operators’ catalogs and on websites.  The fam tours also result in approximately $150,000 in estimated PR value annually from the various print media involved.  It’s a great supplement to advertising because of the experiential narrative and accompanying images found in the various articles.  Some of those results are also posted here on the industry site: MN news-travel trade and MN news-intl.