Fall Foliage Directories

Mary Bowling | 15 August 2005 |

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Although it’s still as hot as blazes here in Blizzard Internet Marketing country - Glenwood Springs, Colorado - autumn is just around the corner. Newscasters will soon be predicting the dates for "Color Weekend". This is the weekend when nearly everyone in Colorado takes to the mountain roads for their annual pilgrimage to view the peak display of Rocky Mountain autumn foliage.

Word Spy defines these autumn color seekers as "Leaf Peepers".
Leaf peeper (LEEF peep.ur) n. A person who, at the appropriate time during autumn, seeks out an area where many or most of the tree leaves have turned color.-leaf peeping pp.

Many areas of the country experience this awesome natural display, and hordes of visitors are drawn to revel in it. Leaf Peeping is very big business. It is estimated to bring $8 billion annually into local economies in New England alone. There are even "pro peepers" who start in eastern Canada in September and follow the changing foliage south, ending up in the Carolinas and Georgia in late October or early November.

Most lodging property owners realize the potential for a full house during these times, but they are sometimes nervously left waiting until the last moment for it to happen. How can you pinpoint the Fall Foliage seekers and draw them to your inn?

NATIONAL DIRECTORIES

The Foliage Network is a powerful resource in this niche. Its only mission is to gather and share information about the changing colors in the East and Midwest during September, October and November. A network of 567 foliage spotters e-mails twice-weekly reports to them outlining the progress of the leaf change in specific areas. The Foliage Network then makes this information available to web site visitors and sends reports to hundreds of regional newspapers.

In addition to foliage reports, this web site explains the science of leaf change, displays awesome photos, and gives visitors information about "Things to Do" and "Places to Stay" in each locale.

Paid advertising is available in the form of banner and box ads. Full page lodging listings, with up to four photos, can be purchased in the "Places To Stay" pages. Send an e-mail to advertise@foliagenetwork.com for detailed information.

Another option is to become part of their network. By becoming a spotter, you can have your lodging property listed in the "Foliage Spotters" area. Your listing will display a photo, a short description, an e-mail link, and a live link to your website.

The Foliage Network website is attractive, well-organized and easy to navigate. The page rank is 6 of 10.

Gorp offers a plethora of seasonal information for active travelers, with plenty of attention given to the autumn colors. Among other topics, Gorp covers scenic drives, hikes, bikes and paddles, the top ten national forests for foliage, color hotlines for many states, and recommendations by locals for the best autumn activities in their areas. For details about submissions to Gorp, please go to http://away.com/advertising/index.html.

STATE and REGIONAL DIRECTORIES

In areas where Fall Foliage is an important economic force, most state and regional tourism agencies are already on the Leaf Peepers bandwagon. Below are a few that also include lodging listings on their web sites:

Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism - www.arkansas.com

Rhode Island Tourism - www.visitrhodeisland.com

New Jersey Commerce and Economic Growth Commission - www.state.nj.us/travel

Wisconsin Department of Tourism - www.travelwisconsin.com

South Dakota Department of Tourism - www.travelsd.com

Colorado 14ers Region (Salida, Buena Vista area) - www.nowthisiscolorado.com

Texas Parks and Wildlife - www.tpwd.state.tx.us

Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing - www.travel-vermont.com

There are also sites targeting specific tourism regions which promote LeafPeeping. Please note that, like the websites listed above and below, most of these are not yet displaying fall foliage information for the 2005 season.

For the Adirondacks, try www.adirondacks.com/autumndrives.html

The Ozarks www.ozarkmtns.com/foliage

Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau www.800pocono.com

Great Lakes www.great-lakes.net/tourism/fallcolor.html

LOCAL WEBSITES

In some areas, local chambers of commerce and other town, city and county web sites offer information on the best spots to see the changing colors. These websites typically list member lodging properties.

Bethlehem New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce - www.bethlehemwhitemtns.com/fallfoliage.html

Knox County Ohio Convention and Visitor’s Bureau - visitknoxohio.org/?article=fallfoliage

Pocahontas County West Virginia - www.pocahontas.org/fallcolor

The websites of travel companies that offer Fall Foliage tours sometimes offer lodging listings:

Wanderlust Tours makes personal recommendations of places to stay while viewing the autumn colors in and around Bend Oregon

Carolina Motorcycle Tours offers motorcycle tours throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains and displays area lodging links, as well.

Backroad Discovery, which offers tours in Vermont, has its own online lodging directory.

YOUR OWN WEBSITE

Some lodging properties find Fall Foliage business to be important and profitable enough to them to give the topic its own page on their web site.

Alexis Park Inn and Suites, in Iowa City, Iowa presents this web page, www.alexisparkinn.com/fall_colors_in_iowa!.htm, which comes up in the #2 and #3 positions in MSN searches for "iowa fall colors".

Austin Hill Inn in West Dover, Vermont has its own "Fall Foliage" page. They bid on the term "fall foliage" in Overture and appear in the sponsored listings, along with other inns.

To see who has good positioning in this market, try typing these terms into your search engine:
"your state" or "your region" plus "fall foliage", "autumn foliage", "fall colors", "autumn colors", leaf peepers" and "leaf peeping".

If you add pages to your web site about fall colors, be certain to optimize them properly and to leave them up year ’round in order to capitalize on the optimization. Then you, too, may find your property high in the organic rankings for these searches. If you need help, please call the optimization experts at Blizzard Internet Marketing (888) 840-5893.