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Day 4: Pack Your Bags — Tourism Campaign Career Lab

Lesson Overview
Time 50 minutes
Objectives Read the H&L "Pack Your Bags" Career Lab scenario; play the role of Director of Tourism for the city of Silverbrook; design a tourism campaign with a slogan, target audience, and key marketing channels
TEKS d(1)(C)
Deliverable Sketched tourism campaign with slogan, target audience, 3 attractions to highlight, and marketing strategy
Materials H&L Workbook Ch 10 (pp. 168-173, "Pack Your Bags"), printed Silverbrook Memo (workbook p. 169), tourism sketch sheet, colored pencils/markers

Warm-Up (5 min)

WARM-UP: Why do people travel? Name 3 reasons. Now: which one matters most to FAMILIES with kids?

Take 3-4 student responses. The class should land on family-friendly travel: safe, fun, affordable, with activities for different ages. Today they design a tourism campaign aimed at families.

Activity 1: Set the Scenario — Silverbrook City Memo (12 min)

Source: H&L Workbook Ch 10, pp. 168-169, "Pack Your Bags: Local Tourism Campaign" Background and Office of Economic Development Memo

Read aloud the workbook background (Ch 10, p. 168): Students play the role of the Director of Tourism for the city of Silverbrook. The city council wants to bring in more visitors but is losing tourists to bigger nearby cities. Students must create a print media campaign that highlights what makes Silverbrook unique.

Project the Silverbrook Memo on the screen (Ch 10, p. 169). Read the key parts aloud:

  • Current situation: 210,000 visitors per year, $18.7 million in tourism revenue, but 65% are nearby visitors and only 42% spend money at local businesses
  • 3-year goals: Increase to 350,000 visitors and $30 million revenue; get 68% to spend at local businesses; become a top family-friendly destination
  • 4 strategies: Better advertising for families, supporting local businesses, focus on attractions/events, attracting visitors from outside the region
  • Top family attractions to highlight (workbook p. 170):
    • Silverbrook Adventure Park (zip lines, ropes, nature trails)
    • Historic Downtown Silverbrook (shops, restaurants, farmers' market)
    • Big Bear Water Park (slides, lazy river, kid areas)
    • Wildwood Nature Reserve (guided walks, bird-watching, picnics)
    • The Discovery Museum (hands-on science exhibits)
    • Riverfront Amphitheater (live music, outdoor movies)

Students take quick notes on the memo: which 3 attractions would they highlight in their campaign and why?

Facilitation Tip

Some students will skip reading the memo and just start sketching. Slow them down: "Real tourism directors read the data first. They don't just guess what tourists want." The memo has the data they need to defend their design choices.

Activity 2: Plan and Design the Campaign (25 min)

Source: H&L Workbook Ch 10, pp. 171-172, "Step 2: Conduct Research" + "Step 3: Plan and Design a Tourism Campaign"

Students work with a partner. Each pair designs one tourism campaign on the sketch sheet. The campaign must include:

  • Campaign Name: A creative title
  • Slogan: A short, memorable phrase that makes families want to visit (e.g., "Silverbrook. Where Adventure Meets Family Fun")
  • Target Audience: Who exactly are you trying to attract? (e.g., families with kids ages 5-12 from cities 100-200 miles away)
  • 3 Attractions to Highlight: Pick 3 from the memo and write 1-2 sentences on why each matters to families
  • Marketing Channels: Where will the campaign run? (airport billboards, hotels, travel websites, public spaces, family magazines)
  • Visual Sketch: Draw a rough version of the campaign poster, what does the title look like, what images appear, what colors

The workbook (Ch 10, p. 171) prompts students to consider:

  • Marketing Technology & Tools: What digital and print tools will you use?
  • Target Audience Interest: How will you make sure the campaign appeals to the people you want to reach?
  • Slogan Originality: What makes a slogan stand out?
  • Strategic Advertising: Where will it run for maximum impact?
  • City-Specific Information: How does Silverbrook's unique geography influence your campaign?

DOK 4: Why is a city tourism campaign different from a hotel ad? Both are trying to bring people to a place, what does a tourism campaign have to do that a hotel ad doesn't?

Activity 3: Pair Share + Sketch Polish (5 min)

In the last 5 minutes, each pair shows their sketch to one other pair. Each pair gives one piece of feedback: "Your slogan would be stronger if _" or "I love how you used ___."

Pairs then make ONE quick edit to their sketch based on the feedback before turning it in.

Connection to Career

The students are doing the actual work of a Tourism Director or Marketing Manager today. These are real careers with median salaries in the $60,000-$100,000 range. The skills practiced, researching, segmenting an audience, writing a slogan, designing visuals, are exactly what these professionals do.

Exit Ticket (3 min)

EXIT TICKET (Short Constructed Response) · Printable PDF:

  1. My campaign slogan: "_____________"

  2. Target audience (be specific: age range + where they come from):

  1. The 3 Silverbrook attractions I chose and WHY each fits the target audience (one sentence per):

Attraction 1: ___. Why: ___

Attraction 2: ___. Why: ___

Attraction 3: ___. Why: ___

  1. ONE piece of data from the Silverbrook memo (visitor numbers, revenue, existing/needed) that backs up my slogan's focus:

(d(1)(C))

Submit your tourism campaign sketch with this ticket.

Differentiation

  • Support: Pre-fill the campaign sketch sheet with the city name, 3 attractions, and a slogan template ("Silverbrook, _____ for the whole family"). Students fill in the missing pieces.
  • Extension: Build the actual campaign poster in Canva. Use real images from the Canva library. Plan the layout for a 24" × 36" travel poster.
  • ELL: Pre-teach: Tourism = Turismo, Slogan = Eslogan, Visitor = Visitante, Attraction = Atracción. The slogan and campaign can be in English, Spanish, or bilingual, many real Texas tourism campaigns target Spanish-speaking families.