Familiarization Tours

Familiarization tours (Fam Tours) in which journalists, tour operators or travel agents experience the region first-hand, have been described as the most cost-effective means of marketing a tourism product that exists. In fact, some of the best promotion the RMI region has received in Europe has been a direct result of numerous fam trips. A study done by RMI on a German media fam tour documented over $8,000 of marketing exposure (advertising equivalent) for every $10 spent on in-kind services.

There are two classifications used with fams:

• Trade - Tour Operators/Travel Agents getting familiar with the region they sell
• Media - Producing some source of media (newspaper, magazine, book, film, etc.) from experiences on their trip

It was decided several years ago to decrease the number of large, multi-state familiarization tours because airline support was difficult and results of large projects were hard to measure.

The RMI Mega Fams now serve that function and in October of every year, over 30 tour operators experience attractions in two of the four "Real America" states. In addition, smaller, more customized, and more targeted programs (see below) have produced much more real business and exposure for the region than the traditional approach.

RMI thanks our sponsoring airlines as well as all of the destinations and suppliers on the ground who invested in the projects with in-kind services and helped make them so successful. To find our how you can get involved in the fam tours, call your state representative using the contact information to the right.