Michigan seeking tourism marketing rep for UK, Ireland, Scotland

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation wishes to contract with an "in-country full-service travel marketing firm" to represent Travel Michigan in the UK, Ireland and Scotland at trade and consumer levels.

Extensive knowledge of the Michigan leisure travel market is required, along with demonstrated native-country expertise in promoting foreign travel product like that of Michigan.

RFP in a nutshell:

Background:

• International inbound travel to Michigan is recovering more slowly than domestic travel.
• Traditionally Michigan has had a relatively low market share of international inbound visitors to USA, vs. East and West Coast states.
• Michigan seeks to increase its share by increasing awareness of the State as a world-class destination.

Contractor's role:

• Create strategy to increase inbound leisure travel to Michigan
• Enhance the image of Michigan as a desirable destination
• Create marketing programs and platforms
• Advise Travel Michigan staff as to opportunities in UK, Ireland, Scotland
• Develop "native-language" marketing tools
• Organize sales missions and secure tradeshow appointments
• Be an extension of the Travel Michigan staff via weekly meetings, monthly status reports and annual performance reports.

Qualifications:

Minimum of 5 years' experience representing American tourism destinations abroad, and 5 years' experience representing US destinations in UK, Ireland, Scotland.

Deliverables:

• Strategy for attracting more visitors from the UK, Ireland, Scotland
• Brochures, newsletters, social media accounts and websites
• Work with tour operators
• Engage travel journalists for FAM tours
• Represent Michigan at key travel events
• Get appointments with operators and media
• Attend major travel shows including WTM and IPW
• Build consumer awareness of Michigan as a destination

The full RFP is here:

www.michiganbusiness.org/4...ing-representative-rfp.pdf

Proposals must include in electronic format each of the following:

• Technical proposal
• Price proposal
• Signed Independent Price Determination Certificate
• Conflicts of Interest Disclosure, if applicable

Submit proposals no later than 3 PM Michigan time on 1 July 2024 to:

Contract Services

Michigan Strategic Fund

300 North Washington Square, 3rd Floor

Lansing, MI 48913

contractsandgrants@mivhigan.org

No phone inquiries or rep visits, proposals will not be accepted by US mail or any other method.

Preliminary proposal evaluation scoring:

1. Statement of work 40%
2. Bidder information 30%
3. Prior experience 15%
4. Staffing 15%

You must score at least 80/100 for price to be considered.

I don't see an anticipated contract award date, but the State is requiring proposals to be guaranteed valid through 1 July 2024 plus 120 days. Nor do I see any mention of contract fee.

Comment: Some of the RFP requirements - like being on the ground in UK, Ireland, Scotland and also having experience with doing tourism marketing for states offering product like that of Michigan - are going to make it tough for a small agency to win this contract. Agencies now or recently working with Michigan on tourism marketing include Lambert/9thWonder, MMGY Global, FINN Partners and Meredith Travel Marketing. But maybe the prime will need some subs. What can you do better than these big agencies?