Tourism primarily conducts domestic leisure public relations and communications to attract visitors to Wisconsin and makes some investments in meetings, conventions, sports, and international tourism marketing and promotion. The budget is developed on a biennial basis and has not been established for the full period of this Contract. Historically, public relations and communication comes with a $1 million base budget per fiscal year (July – June) and has fluctuated as high as $2 million. The public relations and communications budget for fiscal year 2025 is expected to be $2 million. A public relations and communications strategy for fiscal year 2025 will be in place to work from. Subsequent budgets will be determined in the next biennial budget. With a $1 million budget, the public relations and communications program generated 3.7 billion impressions in fiscal year 2023 as a result of hosting around 40 travel writers in state, coordinating 17 social media content creator partnerships, meeting with 48 travel writers and social media content creators through in person or virtual deskside meetings and engaging in ongoing media pitching. These efforts are inclusive of co-op program partnerships with industry organizations. The Contractor(s) shall be required to provide a high level of quality services which are normally associated with the handling of an account of this scope and size. Collaboration is the key to a successful Contract, and it is the expectation that there will be almost daily phone and email contact between Tourism and the Contractor(s).
