NEWS

At the August meeting of the Tourism Leadership Council, Visit Savannah President Joseph Marinelli, Vice President of Marketing Jeremy Harvey and Social Media Strategist Lauren Cleland gave a presentation on how the communications team markets to “millennials.” With a population of over 78 million and growing, this segment of travelers will be Savannah and Tybee Island’s next wave of visitors. But with smartphones, NETFLIX and even PokemonGO, getting their attention can be challenging.
The greater Savannah area attracts over 13 million visitors annually and current data suggests that they are indeed getting younger, spending more and staying longer. Visit Savannah’s Tourism Futures Study, released in 2015, emphasized the importance of finding new ways of reaching this audience. With the current wave of boutique hotels, a growing number of short-term rentals, the changing culinary scene and exploding retail offerings, the Visit Savannah team is constantly working to keep the greater Savannah area front-of-mind and relevant to a market segment that every destination is aggressively chasing.