Bull Moose Marketing

08/08/2026

Something we've been working on behind the scenes this year. "Spirits of PA" is a Dept of Ag initiative to position the state's wealth of distilled spirits and history of rye production—America's original whiskey—as a means to boost tourism across the commonwealth. We're pretty proud of this one.

More to come very soon, but for now, visit spiritsofpa.com and follow Spirits of PA on your favorite social channels.

Read more here: https://loom.ly/8-wDFx4

08/05/2026

Quick question: if someone in Pittsburgh asked their phone tonight, "Where's a good weekend trip within two hours?", would your town come up?

That's more and more how people plan travel in 2026. They're asking voice assistants and searching Pinterest instead of typing keywords, and AI is starting to surface destinations based on things like the weather—imagine a breezy lake town or riverside getaway popping up for city folks right as a summer heat wave rolls in.

The good news for small towns and small teams: you don't need a big budget to keep up. Fill out your Google listing completely, answer the real questions visitors ask, and build an email list you own.

This playbook from TravelSpike is a clear, practical read on what's coming: https://loom.ly/ejc4toM

07/22/2026

Two of 2026's biggest travel trends point straight at the kind of places we love working with.

The first is what the Adventure Travel Trade Association calls the "decision detox." People are worn out from planning every detail of their lives, and they want trips where someone else has already done the thinking—lodging, meals, and things to do, bundled into one easy yes.

The second: travelers are done elbowing through crowds. They're skipping the overrun hotspots for quieter, more genuine places: the secondary destinations that finally get their turn.

For state parks, small-town main streets, and the spots that don't make the "top 10" lists, that's an opening. The move is to stop handing people a menu of attractions and start handing them a whole weekend they can just show up for.

Worth a read: https://loom.ly/agofJAw

Ask us how to market an itinerary, an experience, or a weekend getaway, rather than just a place.

The global travel landscape is evolving faster now than any time in the past decade, and adventure travel is both the te...

07/15/2026

Good news for rural destinations: travelers are staying closer to home.

The U.S. Travel Association's Spring 2026 forecast projects a $1.37 trillion spending year, and with budgets still tight, more people are choosing shorter, lower-cost trips over long-haul travel. That's a real advantage for regional and drive markets here in Pennsylvania and across Maryland and Ohio.

Here's the number worth remembering: 72 million people live within a four-hour drive of PA. Those are the visitors already within reach, the ones a well-told destination story can turn into a weekend trip and real dollars for local businesses.

Read the full article here: https://loom.ly/pjDDiCs

The Spring 2026 U.S. Travel update projects travel spending growth at low but positive rates, continuing the trend seen in late 2025 and early 2026. Bolstered by domestic travel, spending is expected to grow 1% (inflation-adjusted) in 2026, accelerating to 3% growth in 2027 and 2028. Resilient domes...

07/08/2026

Pennsylvania just ran the biggest tourism experiment of the decade, and buried in the results is a lesson every rural destination should be studying.

While Philadelphia's World Cup Fan Fest passed 400,000 visitors and international flights jumped as much as 59%, the state's tourism office wasn't just celebrating the host cities. They built a deliberate bridge from the spotlight to the rest of the map, pointing visitors toward Cherry Springs' dark skies, the PA Wilds, the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, and Lake Erie.

Deputy Tourism Secretary Anne Ryan put it plainly: "2026 is for all 67 counties."

That's the real takeaway for small and rural DMOs. You don't need to host a World Cup match to benefit from one. You need a plan for the spillover: content tied to the moment, a direct pitch to the state tourism office, an itinerary that gives a Philly-bound traveler a reason to keep driving.

The state built the bridge. The question is whether your destination is standing on the other side of it, ready to be found.

Read the full interview here: https://loom.ly/kTolOQ0

If your team is thinking through how to turn a statewide moment into local visitation, that's exactly the kind of work we do. Let's talk.

Anne Ryan spoke with City & State about the commonwealth’s hosting abilities thus far

07/04/2026

Happy Independence Day, and happy 250th birthday, America. 🇺🇸

This isn't just another Fourth of July. Today marks a quarter millennium since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A moment 250 years in the making.

At Bull Moose, we work with destinations that carry pieces of that story every single day. Small towns, historic communities, and the places that don't always make the front page but have always made this country what it is. This year, the whole country is finally paying attention to what we've always known: every destination has a story worth telling.

Here's to the next 250.

07/01/2026

This was a great workshop to be involved with on a Monday afternoon in Erie during the PA Downtown Center 2026 Conference. In other news, Ron Mattocks is much tanner.

07/01/2026

This Saturday isn't just the Fourth of July. It's the 250th birthday of the United States, and the tourism industry is feeling every bit of it.

Hotel bookings for Independence Day weekend have surged up to 108% compared to last year. Philadelphia alone is up 81%. Williamsburg, Virginia, population 15,000, is up 62%. Visit Philadelphia is projecting an additional $1.6 billion in visitor spending across 2026, fueled by the convergence of America250 celebrations, six FIFA World Cup matches, and the upcoming MLB All-Star Game.

But here's what matters most to us at Bull Moose: the 250th was intentionally designed to be decentralized. The entire framework behind America250 was built so that celebrations would be distributed across every state, every county, every community. Not concentrated in a handful of major metros. The federal Freedom Trucks are rolling through 48 states, visiting local schools, libraries, and national parks. States from Florida to Colorado to Wyoming are running their own heritage programming. Airbnb just released its first-ever "America Off-the-Map" list spotlighting 20 rural destinations where short-term rentals are the primary source of visitor accommodation, and where hosts in areas with no hotels collectively earned nearly $10 billion last year.

That's not a footnote. That's the future of destination marketing.

The 250th is proving what we've been saying for years: travelers aren't just looking for monuments and stadiums. They're looking for authentic, local, story-driven experiences. And that puts small towns, rural communities, and mid-size destinations in an incredibly strong position, if they know how to tell their story and meet the moment.

Eighty-six percent of travelers say they're interested in visiting remote or rural destinations. For Gen Z, that number climbs to 94%. The demand is there. The question is whether destinations of every size have the marketing infrastructure, the digital presence, and the visitor experience to capture it.

This is a once-in-a-generation window. The eyes of the country, and the world, are on American communities right now. Not just Philadelphia. Not just D.C. Not just Boston. Every town with a story to tell has a seat at this table.

Happy 250th, America. Now let's make sure every destination gets its moment.

04/01/2026

We had a pretty nice day at the GO Laurel Highlands Spring Summit this week. It was the perfect mix of learning, meeting people, and...being reminded of the neighborhood many of us grew up with and are working to build.