Meetings Growth Case Study
How Go Fish Tourism’s Strategy Helped Drive $11M in Projected Economic Impact for Rapid City
A Projected $11M Impact
When leisure softened, Visit Rapid City used grant funding to launch a focused, award-winning meetings campaign, driving 4x the projected economic impact and room nights year over year.
Visit Rapid City is the destination marketing organization for Rapid City, South Dakota, promoting the gateway to the Black Hills as a year-round leisure and meetings destination.
the challenge
Replacing Soft Leisure Demand With Group Momentum
As leisure travel softened, Rapid City’s hotel community felt the pressure. The need was clear: grow group business and stabilize base demand.
When Visit Rapid City secured state grant funding dedicated to meetings marketing, they partnered with Go Fish Tourism + Business Events, their meetings agency since 2015, to deploy a focused, results-driven strategy and campaign that would help convert funds into sustainable group demand.
One of the BEST things about Go Fish Tourism + Business Events is how quickly they can integrate with your team. They are so well versed in the planner space that they can create high-impact strategies and campaigns that convert to RFPs, leads and new business for your destination. Their team is responsive, creative, and beyond capable of helping hit your sales and marketing goals. Every day you’re not working with Go Fish Tourism, you’re leaving business on the table.
Brook Kaufman, Former President & CEO, Visit Rapid City
strategy
An Inside-Out Regional Approach
The strategy focused on growing regional group business through a layered, integrated campaign. The approach was simple: create awareness, generate interest, and convert that interest into measurable sales pipeline growth.
Regional Market Targeting
A drive-market campaign targeted planners across South Dakota and neighboring states, positioning Rapid City as a high-value meetings destination close to home.
Community Referral Activation
A local campaign encouraged residents to refer meetings and events, leveraging community pride to uncover new business opportunities.
Integrated Digital Execution
Display, social media, search, retargeting, social distribution, chamber placements, and email marketing worked together to drive qualified traffic to tailored landing pages designed to capture leads.
results
From Strategy
Performance, Recognizedto Measurable Success
4x
Projected Growth
Economic impact and room nights
50
Meetings Hosted (2023)
Their third-best year on record
Platinum
Adrian Award Winner
Integrated B2B campaign excellence
Ready to Turn Strategy Into Group Growth?
If your destination is navigating soft leisure demand and looking to strengthen its meetings base, we can help you convert strategy into measurable economic impact.