Inquiry Conversion and Travel Advertising Effectiveness

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This study explores the effect of advertising in stimulating both inquiries and visitation to the historic restoration operated by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia. A hierarchial model, based on a quasi-experimental approach, is compared to a concurrent conversion study of the same population. The results suggest that conversion studies can avoid serious bias in the measurement of some advertising effects but that conversion studies cannot lead to an adequate measurement of incremental visitation due to advertising.