When promoting tourism and travel to the destinations you manage, assets are important. However, there is one vital factor that has the capability to create synergy in your efforts—momentum. In this instance, the momentum refers to the ancillary coverage you can provide your clients by building awareness of events and happenings in conjunction with your static assets.

Festivals, celebrations, gatherings and events have a way of playing into your hands if you’re careful to draw the inferences that intertwine your asset promotional efforts. In managing the Richmond County, North Carolina tourism account. the available assets have clearly-established visitation potential. But when coupled with a specific momentum-building event, it can create the type of coverage necessary to draw together several assets at once.

Here is a great example of this type of effort. Last year, our agency created the Rock n’ Reel fishing tournament to bolster visitation to Blewett Falls Lake. While admittedly there may be better fishing along the coastline of North Carolina, Blewett Falls Lake is promoted in its own right for the propensity of anglers to catch monster-sized catfish in its waters. Creating static media outreach efforts for fishing this remote spot had to be carefully crafted to create the desire for anglers to give the lake a try. How did we do it? By positioning the lake as a hidden gem, un-crowded and teeming with record-setting fish. Yet, creating the fishing tournament gave an added incentive—the momentum—to have fisherman make that first effort to visit. The grand prize offered $1,000 to the largest catfish caught during the single-day event, with the remainder of entry fees donated to a Richmond County-based charity. 13 boats with 46 competitors took to the waters and made the day a successful undertaking. Hopefully, many of these same fishermen will one day return on their own.

This spring, Richmond County stands poised to take advantage of another case study in additional momentum. As NASCAR makes its return to the one-mile Rockingham Speedway, efforts are ongoing to promote ThunderFest 2012. a daylong celebration just prior to the race. The festival will feature live bands, food and activities for families and hopefully lead to additional ticket sales. A pre-race concert onsite at the race track is expected to draw even more fans the evening before the event. To promote just a race track is one thing. To create momentum by tying in several concurrent events which revolve around the race track goes a lot further towards creating synergy and opportunity.

And these efforts won’t stop after NASCAR’s big event on April 15. The renewed synergy of progress is descending on Richmond County with the announcement of several other projects meant to spur tourism and visitation. The Discovery Place KIDS Museum is set to host a ground-breaking ceremony just as the city of Rockingham is slated to host a ribbon-cutting for the opening of their brand-new blue trail paddleway, Hitchcock Creek. Tying these events together under the banner of economic development and progress gives these assets an additional introduction to the general public. And hopefully one that will have families casting an eye on future visitation.

Building momentum around events for your tourism assets will give your public relations and media outreach efforts a boost—and hopefully one that creates the type of return on investment your clients seek. How about your current efforts? Are you building additional momentum for the assets in your tourism category? If you have a great example, feel free to share!