Oregon Meets Tough Economy With Aggressive Fall Travel Campaign

New Strategy Attracts Culinary Travelers with Inventive Marketing Tactics

SALEM, Ore., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- As consumers scale back household
budgets, they are taking shorter trips and staying closer to home. To capture
that market, Travel Oregon is launching its largest culinary campaign ever. A
nearly one million dollar investment, the 2009 Oregon Bounty campaign is
designed to inspire travel to and within the state during the fall harvest
season.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071001/AQM187LOGO-b)

The new campaign includes: a comprehensive food and drink website;
illustrated, culinary-themed maps of Oregon's regions to be distributed by
"street teams" in key markets; online video vignettes showcasing some of
Oregon's culinary masters; extensive online advertising; and an interactive
contest where consumers submit their own "video resumes" for a chance to win
one of seven Oregon cuisine internships, or "Cuisinternships" (pronounced
quiz-een-turn-ships).

"Using these creative tactics is an innovative and personal way to deliver the
Oregon Bounty message directly to potential visitors," said Todd Davidson, CEO
of Travel Oregon. "It communicates the Oregon culinary experience via intimate
and accessible sources, as a friend might recommend a destination to another.
And it points to the type of experience Oregon Bounty offers. Here, visitors
can meet the culinary artisans behind our exceptional products, which makes a
trip more authentic, and Oregon a must-see destination," he said.

Inspiration Maps To Be Distributed by "Street Teams"
With fresh brand creative (view here: http://traveloregon.mediaroom.com), the
fall campaign features "inspiration maps" that highlight iconic gems and
insider tips in each of Oregon's tourism regions. Seven limited edition
poster-sized maps suggest three- to five-day road trips with
out-of-the-ordinary places to eat, sleep and play. The call to action invites
travelers to visit Travel Oregon's new food and drink website,
www.TravelOregon.com/Bounty, to explore more ideas and plan trips.

The maps will be inserted in regional editions of travel and culinary
magazines such as Sunset and Wine Spectator. They will also be distributed in
coffee shops, newspaper stands, book stores, welcome centers and other
gathering places by "street teams" in September and October. The teams will
place regional maps that are closest to that travel area; e.g., maps of
Greater Portland and the

Willamette Valley in Seattle locations; Southern Oregon and Oregon Coast maps
in San Francisco.

Street team visits to area locations will be announced via
Twitter@TravelOregon and Facebook (Facebook.com/TravelOregon). Local residents
who follow the street teams will get first opportunity to pick up limited
edition, large-scale maps featuring whimsical illustrations of Oregon's travel
treasures, and potentially collect all seven.

Dream On. . .Win an Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship
This year, Travel Oregon is offering an added incentive to experience Oregon:
the "Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship" contest. Seven winners will spend a week
with seven of Oregon's finest culinary masters--Oregon "dreamers" who
fulfilled their own culinary vision in this state (watch videos and learn
about them here: www.TravelOregon.com/Bounty). The seven Cuisinternship
winners will participate in an all-expenses paid (including airfare and
lodging), five-night and six-day apprenticeship learning how to become an
Oregon winemaker, chef, brew master, rancher, fisherman, craft distiller, or
artisan chocolate and cheese maker.

To give visitors an idea of what they can anticipate on their trip, Travel
Oregon has produced video vignettes of each culinary mentor and the experience
their Cuisinternship offers. To view the videos and enter the contest,
consumers can visit the Oregon Cuisinternship website,
www.TravelOregon.com/Bounty, upload their own short video, and write a
Twitter-length statement of 140 characters or less about why they are the
ideal candidate to win one of seven culinary "dream jobs." The contest runs
Aug. 24-Sept. 18, 2009.

Innovative Social Media & Public Relations Stimulate Conversations
Online media, which comprises an unprecedented 51 percent of total Oregon
Bounty advertising this year, will entice viewers to enter the Cuisinternship
contest. In addition, a seven-market radio promotion will air August through
October. The promotion, called "On the Road with Oregon Bounty," introduces
listeners to the seven culinary artisans who are serving as mentors in the
"Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship" contest.

Concurrently, Travel Oregon invited seven expert culinary bloggers to judge
contest entries and share their opinions of Oregon's artisanal culinary
products on their blogs.

New York media will get a taste of Oregon's abundant artisan foods and drinks
at an invitation-only event on Oct. 20, called Food Fete. Oregon food and
beverage companies interested in participating can contact Jeff Davis of Food
Fete at http://www.foodfete.wordpress.com/forms.

"This campaign was developed to get people talking about Oregon as a place
where you can still have an authentic culinary experience and meet the
artisans who create these incredible products," said Kevin Wright, Director of
Consumer Marketing for Travel Oregon. "We're integrating a variety of media
platforms to connect with potential visitors at any stage of their trip
planning process. They'll find our inspiration maps in a local coffee shop,
read about the Cuisinternship contest on a foodie blog or watch videos of
Oregon artisans on YouTube. Wherever travelers get their inspiration, we'll be
there, inviting them to share Oregon Bounty," said Wright.

About Oregon Bounty and Travel Oregon
The annual statewide Oregon Bounty promotion celebrates the state's culinary
abundance during three months of unique travel experiences, fall harvest
events and special overnight packages at historic inns and hotels--all
designed to highlight Oregon's diverse and plentiful culinary landscape.
Oregon Bounty is produced by the Oregon Tourism Commission, dba Travel
Oregon--with support from Oregon's regional destination marketing
organizations, Oregon Wine Board, Oregon Lodging Association, Oregon
Restaurant Association, Oregon Bed and Breakfast Guild, and Brand Oregon,
among others--with the goal of encouraging economic growth and enhancing the
quality of life in Oregon through a strengthened economic impact of tourism
statewide. Travel Oregon collaborates extensively with local communities,
industry associations, government agencies and private businesses, and is
proud to grow the Oregon Bounty promotion as a key campaign in the state's
$8.4 billion tourism industry, helping Oregon to be recognized as a
not-to-be-missed culinary travel destination. Visit www.TravelOregon.com for
more information.

SOURCE Travel Oregon

Linea Gagliano, +1-503-378-2084, linea@traveloregon.com, or Michelle Godfrey,
+1-503-378-8861, michelle@traveloregon.com, both of Travel Oregon