Bull Moose Marketing

06/10/2026

Your visitors aren't posting about your ticketed attractions. They're posting about your sidewalks.

New research from Tourism and Hospitality Research analyzed thousands of travel-related Instagram posts and found a clear pattern: modern travelers are drawn to walkable neighborhoods, public parks, and local gathering spots: what sociologists call "Third Places."

Not the hotel. Not the attraction with an admission fee. The coffee shop patio. The riverfront trail. The downtown block where something unexpected happens on a Tuesday afternoon.

For rural destinations, this is actually good news. You may not have a theme park, but you probably have a charming Main Street, a great local café, and a trail system that photographs beautifully.

The question for DMOs: Is your marketing reflecting where visitors actually want to be? Or is it still built around a brochure rack of paid attractions?

Community spaces aren't just nice to have. They're becoming the destination.
📄 Read the full study: https://loom.ly/SkWWt2I

Purpose. Good places are welcoming spaces where people can relax and enjoy themselves. The purpose of this study is to expand Ray Oldenburg’s “good places” theory in the realm of tourism, recognising its potential in exploring how tourism activities engage with and interpret third places. Olde...

06/03/2026

A brilliant digital campaign can get travelers across your state border, but what happens when they actually arrive?

Pennsylvania has already welcomed record-breaking crowds for the NFL Draft and PGA Championship, and the biggest moments are still ahead: six FIFA World Cup matches in Philadelphia and the America250PA celebrations on July 4. With 209 million projected visitors this year, the state isn’t just investing in promotion—PennDOT is activating all 14 Welcome Centers to make sure the on-the-ground experience matches the hype.

This is something we talk about constantly: the best destination marketing doesn’t stop at the click. It follows through at every physical touchpoint.

🔗 https://loom.ly/RNqbyWA

PA Welcome Centers Open for Commonwealth Visitors Amid Historic Tourism Season

05/25/2026

Today, we honor the those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, our freedom, and our future. 🇺🇸

We hope that everyone enjoying the long weekend takes a moment to reflect and remember this Memorial Day. ❤️

Our office will be closed today in observance of the holiday.

05/08/2026

So. Today was okay. Thank you to for the meet and greet tour today. Big things coming for PA distilled spirits in the months ahead.

05/07/2026

Congratulations to the on 25 years of greatness -- 25 years of stewardship, 25 years of storytelling, 25 years of vision, advocacy, and collective hard work to build something special. Tonight's 25 Year Celebration Dinner was great fun with some really great people.

05/06/2026

Travel supports 15 million American jobs and generates $2.9 trillion in economic output. Those numbers are real. But they don't happen on their own.

They happen because DMOs, including small, under-resourced ones in rural communities, show up every day to do the work: building brands, coordinating partners, advocating for funding, and telling stories that bring visitors through the door.

National Travel & Tourism Week's 2026 theme is "Postmarked: Essential." And if anyone knows what "essential" looks like, it's the two-person DMO office running a county's entire tourism strategy on a shoestring.

At Bull Moose Marketing, we exist to serve these organizations. Our approach—strategy before promotion, integration over silos, governance alongside creative—is built for the reality of rural destination work. Because the communities that need the most help often have the fewest resources to get it.

To every DMO professional reading this: your work matters. We see it.

04/28/2026

For a day and a half conference, the (first ever) PA Outdoor Economy Summit + Industry Expo by the Outdoor Business Alliance managed to pack in a TON of actionable (and surprising) information from an incredible roster of experts. The alignment of strategies among DCNR, the Office of Outdoor Recreation, DCED, the Fish and Boat Commission, PA Game Commission, and PA Creative Industries in approaching ways to improve PA's outdoor economy is impressive. It's eye-opening how much opportunity exists in PA to promote and build on through multiple avenues.

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.

03/25/2026

Last week we shared Part 1 on how AI search is changing destination discovery, including some eye-opening data on falling click-through rates and the growing number of travelers planning trips through AI tools without ever visiting a DMO website.

In Part 2, Digital Tourism Think Tank gets into what leading DMOs are actually doing in response. Strategies range from ensuring their content gets accurately cited by AI systems, to building proprietary AI tools to compete with mainstream platforms. There's real, actionable thinking here—on content strategy, owned channels, GEO, and more.

The core insight: websites now serve two audiences: human visitors and AI systems. Both matter, and your content needs to work for both.

Worth a read if you're trying to figure out your next move. 👇
https://loom.ly/beopkB0

03/24/2026

As I've been watching things play out over the past year when it comes to AI, the biggest risk I'm see for rural Pennsylvania might not be AI itself. It’s standing still while everything else changes.

Manufacturing, workforce development, healthcare, schools, and local journalism, those are just a few areas where AI is already reshaping how communities stay competitive and resilient. Rural places do not need to abandon what makes them unique, but they do need to engage with the tools shaping the future.

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