INTRODUCTION

New York State Department of Tourism must consider an alternative tourism marketing campaign option in order to take control the NYS tourism industry. Modern advertising methods and unique / innovative social media practices must be used to overhaul the state's current tourism business model.

Many state tourism campaigns are now relying on "drivers' to lure, highlight and promote locations and events. States with private partnerships use advanced social media, interactive marketing, live streaming, applications (apps) and websites designed specifically for tourist devices; smart phones and tablets. nycHighlights.com not only satisfies these new media viewing trends but can create a potential revenue stream for the State within the first 5 years. The NYS Tourism business should not be a burden on the NYS Budget's bottom line but a cash generating business that compliments their public-private investment. In doing so, the Dept of Tourism promotes the State, its businesses, its people and employs hard working New Yorkers. Combining tourists’ locations, "alternative marketing" and entertainment "shorts" is the future of State tourism. nycHighlights.com is their partner of the future.

NYS Budget Information: https://www.nystia.org/news/states-commitment-to-tourism-bolstered-in-2017-2018-new-york-state-budget

PROJECT OVERVIEW

nycHighlights.com is an innovative, revolutionary game-changer in the tourism industry.  States, landmarks, businesses that depend on tourism dollars now have a partner to achieve their business objectives. The nycHighlights website and related media become “drivers” in an industry that requires fresh ideas, innovative techniques, social media infusion and entertainment to attract and hold customers.  

In 2017, The tourism business in New York City welcomed 58.1 million visitors that spent 42.4 billion dollars, creating an economic boom for the city and state.  This yearly revenue stream throughout the city and state must be maintained, shared appropriately and enhanced to dominant the 220 billion dollar U.S.A tourism business. This built-in NY bound audience is considered a top asset for nycHightlights.com.

DATA: Most Visited Destinations by State: California (No.1), Florida (No. 2), Nevada (No. 3), Texas (No. 4), and New York (No. 5)*   Business Insider*

nycHighlights.com caters to the needs of domestic visitors and entices the world travelers to experience everything New York has to offer. From their smartphone or tablet, the viewers have a front row seat to main events, ticketed shows, the NY experience and access to information as they plan their visit to New York.

The show concept is to create highlights of various New York adventures. Some real and some staged. The production team will be responsible to produce scripted and compelling stories of NY experiences and happenings to coincide with state wide attractions.  This fast paced, live action entertainment will captivate the viewer which will result in “video likes and shares” on social media enhancing the brand and will leave a lasting impression.  Long-form highlights or episodes will provide programming options for networks and their advertisers.

The nycHighlights.com website platform will allow a permanent stage for the produced highlights to appear 24/7/365.  The viewers search habits and interests will dictate which videos appear first. Various menu options will be displayed and will categorize videos based on advertising partnerships. Digital information collected will determine the script's direction.

All industry leaders will be considered, local New York Talent will be recruited, innovative minds sort, and imaginations supported - has we build a production team to handle the challenges of revolutionizing the tourism industry with internet entertainment. Currently, the talents of top producers, production designers, commercial writers, editors, actors, website developers, social media managers, directors have already provided their initial input in this presentation. Partnerships will be negotiated to provide budget, access and location options. 

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS

 A summary of our financial projections, investor financial information and our financing options will be available when introduction meetings are scheduled.

COMPANY AND INDUSTRY

Rockaway Productions LLC specializes in managing multi-camera productions for LIVE events. Sporting events, comedy specials, Broadway commercials amongst other media entertainment have been produced over 25 years in the business. Internet surfing and fan engagement on smartphone and tablet devices will be the primary source of entertainment for our target audience within 5 years. nycHighlights.com will be ready for the ever-changing behavior of future visitors and viewers.

nycHighlights.com combines a variety of NY lifestyles, showcases trending topics, promotes our partner’s products and corporate advertisers and inform / educates the viewer thru visual content. Rockaway Production LLC's nycHightlights.com is a start-up website service in the tourism industry with a focus on entertainment that relates to the younger audience.

INDUSTRY

nycHighlights.com’s primary goal is to reinvent the tourism industry's way of communicating. The aim of strategic tourism planning is to bring stakeholders together and provide them with tools to work collaboratively to transform attractions, activities and services into a cohesive and compelling travel experience. nycHighlights.com not only provides the tools, the video content exhibits how, when and where to experience those destinations.

The main competition in the New York tourism industry is a not for profit named, nycgo.com and it’s financed mainly by New York City and NYC partnerships.  This nycgo.com site is only ranked 34,802 worldwide and the unique viewers are 72% domestic and 28% international. This site provides minimal information and caters mainly to the city landmarks, Broadway shows, restaurant and hotel businesses. The other website that competes for viewers, is NewYorker.com, an information hub for city happenings and gathering.

There isn't one single website that promotes the entire State of New York.

How does nycHighlights.com differ?  nycHighlights.com differs since we entertain and inform the viewer with video content rather than written information. Brochures and bumper stickers are old. Today's audience doesn’t look for written information but rather looks for short trending video highlights to get their information.  Where nycgo.com fails to inform, nychighlights.com excels with info-entertainment content.

Politically speaking, travel restrictions, closed borders, world security and terroristic threats might influence travel plans for many potential visitors.  A pro-active plan to instill safe travel options, soften concerns and provide comfort through video will attract many foreign visitors on holiday. Video content will also help knock down the language barrier. The US dollar, and exchange rate, looks very promising in 2018-2019.

Technology has improved the speed in which video content can be upload and viewed.  The attention span of our target audience is 40 seconds, on average. Our goal is to capture their attention in the first 10 seconds and keep them engaged throughout the highlight. The website structure will be built so smartphones and tablets will display each page in stacks so the content can be viewed properly and clearly.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Progressive Web App (PWA) will be utilized. PWA works like a "native" App that nycHighlights.com will use in development. AMP is to get top google rankings and FAST first page experience. Google has identified the "10 second problem". On mobile... if the page doesn't load in 2-3 seconds, we will start losing “watchers”. After 10 seconds... we've lost nearly 100 percent.

PRODUCT

Description: The travel website can be closely associated with Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO) but the product provides more visual information and entertainment than the average DMO. Captivating the buying audience is the main goal. nycHighlights.com will become the “driver” to these products and services in order to generate revenue. nycHighlights will assist all partnering destinations in New York State and become the dominating force behind directing visitors to areas that need increased promotion and consumer traffic.

Research and Development: Creating partnerships that will allow access to landmarks and tickets events will speed up development, but it's not essential.  The goal is to build a library of 10,000 highlight video with 3 years.  App development will continue to build a data info center for consumer marketing, purchasing habits and travel patterns. The initial focus will be Spring and Summer events during the peak season. Creating highlight videos that are cost effective, quick to edit and shareable (entertaining) will be a priority. 

Domains, Trademarks & Patents: The domain names nyHighlights.com, nysHighlights.com nycHighlights.com and BigCityHighlights.com have been purchased. Company Trademarks are pending. An Intellectual Property application has been filed with the USPTO.

Future Development: The long term plan is to implement this model in other large cities. Expanding our services to “booking” hotels directly and providing transportation services outside the metropolitan area is the long term plan.  A partnership with a food establishment will allow us to create a LIVE set that can be used as the central location for produced highlights.