Orange County tourism office reports rebrand, strong social-media growth and expanded film activity

Amanda Dana, Director of Tourism for Orange County, told the Education and Economic Development Committee on Dec. 9 that the tourism office completed a county rebrand in 2024 and ran an influencer campaign that generated significant public engagement. "We rebranded this year," Dana said, adding the office worked with airlines and a Midwest influencer she referred to as "Huddie Buddy."

Rachel Carr, who led the marketing segment of the presentation, said paid advertising across streaming, YouTube and Google delivered measurable results: "As of last week over 2,900,000 impressions across streaming services," she said, and staff recorded 2,113 clicks to the Orange County tourism website from those placements. Carr said staff also exceeded its year-end social-media targets, reporting roughly 16,500 followers and setting a higher growth target for 2025.

The presenters described several audience- and cost-efficiency moves for 2025: producing an "evergreen" single-piece sizzle/travel guide for lower shipping costs, using credit-card spending data to understand what visitors buy while in the county, exploring podcast advertising, and adopting AI to improve ad targeting and visitation metrics. Dana cited a pilot from Port Jervis that used AI to distinguish people from animals in trail-camera footage and called it a model for measuring trail use locally.

Carr outlined print and trade-show outreach to tour operators, noting staff recently shipped a new tour-operator flyer to the American Bus Association to attract group travel. The tourism office also plans to refresh its 2025 travel guide visuals and continue working with travel writers and partners on feature coverage.

On film and production, Dana and Carr said multiple feature and television productions filmed across the county in 2024, bringing hotel nights, vendor work and other local spending. The office highlighted upcoming releases and credited the county's film tax incentive as a draw. Dana said the film office will strengthen studio relationships, issue regular newsletters and collect testimonials from visiting talent to support future recruitment.

Dana said a public mural project will launch with a competitive selection process in January 2025; the office will first evaluate municipally owned sites and then consider private locations. She asked the committee and the public to submit potential mural locations.

The presentation concluded with committee members asking about outreach to colleges and details of the mural process. Dana said staff had discussed possibilities with local institutions, will continue fact-finding in January and welcomed additional suggestions. The tourism office provided a written report with active links for committee members to review for more detail.