Pigeon Forge's Digital Savings Passport Takes Tourism to New Heights

In the bustling city of Pigeon Forge, nestled in the heart of the breathtaking Great Smoky Mountains, tourism is the lifeblood of the community. Thousands of visitors flock to this vibrant destination each year to experience its natural beauty and thrilling attractions. Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism has recognized the need to promote what the city has to offer and provide discounts to those visiting!

After years of creating a printed coupon book, the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism was looking for a way to digitize its offerings. There is always a need to innovate and adapt to the changing landscape of tourism and a Bandwango savings passport is a modern solution to engage visitors and provide them with exclusive deals and discounts to enhance their exploration of the city.

While looking for the best platform to fit their needs, the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism came across Bandwango. They found that Bandwango’s digital passport platform would be the most user-friendly option for their coupon savings book. “Bandwango's client service is top-notch,” said Ben Hale, Senior Account Director. “From our initial kickoff meeting, to buildout of the savings passport, to providing services once the savings passport was launched, their team is very responsive. Through experience of working with other DMOs, they can provide guidance to navigate the nuances of each destination.”

Pigeon Forge created this pass to be sure that value is added to their tourists’ vacations. Digital passports allow their visitors to access the pass prior to their vacation to plan their itinerary as well as while they are in Pigeon Forge. This is the second year of the Pigeon Forge’s digital savings passport and the pass was marketed in several different ways.

“The goal of this campaign was to provide our visitors with an easy-to-use way to take advantage of the savings available to them,” said Ben Hale.  “This allows them to feel like they're getting more value out of their vacation, and hopefully get to have more experiences.”

Using a combination of both paid digital media and promoting the pass on their owned media platforms, the pass was able to gain a lot of traction. Pigeon Forge focused on retargeting ads for those who had previously visited their website at least once. “This savings message was used as a way to entice trip conversion for those strongly considering Pigeon Forge as its vacation destination,” said Hale.

Since the passport launched in 2022, these marketing efforts resulted in nearly 24,000 pass signups and over 130,000 individual website landing page views! Out of those signups, almost 4,000 customers who signed up for the 2023 pass alone have opted into marketing emails for future campaigns. In just this year there have been over 1,000 redemptions and since the savings passport launched, it has tracked over 7,000 coupon redemptions!

Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism is just one example of how turning something physical into digital can add a lot of value to a person's life. Now customers never forget their coupons and they are able to plan their adventures weeks, or even months, in advance. Interested in creating a savings passport similar to Pigeon Forge’s coupon pass? Book a demo here! We would love to tell you more about how it works.