“Credit card giveaway to woo September visitors” plus 1 more |
| Credit card giveaway to woo September visitors Posted: 25 Aug 2010 12:37 PM PDT Overnight visitors to the county next month will get more than just a relaxing vacation, a serene coastline and the soothing beauty of nature. They'll get up to $250 in prepaid credit cards as an incentive to spend locally. The Franklin County Tourist Development Council (TDC) is poised to launch September Seafood Days, the second in a series of fall promotions aimed at boosting visitor traffic during the post-summer pre-fall period. The TDC is producing $250,000 in Visa gift cards to distribute to visitors who stay two or more nights in September, as an incentive to encourage people to visit and spend cash during their stay. At the Aug. 17 county commission meeting, TDC Chairman Helen Spohrer said funding for Seafood Days was provided by a $360,000 Phase 3 grant from BP. Six counties to the west of Franklin also will receive grant funds, with the stipulation they be spent during September. The cards will be given to visitors when they check in to a beach home, hotel, bed and breakfast, or campground, both to those with existing reservations and to lure last minute walk-in visitors. Spohrer said the TDC was notified of the grant award during the first week in August, and decided to distribute gift cards because the time constraint made it difficult to advertise effectively. Based on bed tax revenues, only about 6 percent of the county's overnight visitors come during September so the TDC hopes this money will be an opportunity to boost the numbers, which last year ran between 12,000 and 13,000. "We are targeting groups that we know already visit us," said Spohrer. "This is a fast-paced marketing blitz designed to bring vacationers to Franklin County in September." Spohrer said BP funds enabled the TDC to test new markets this summer, but Tallahassee and Atlanta remained the mainstays of local tourism. "We redesigned our webpage and visits for information on local accommodations increased tenfold," she said. The most common hits on the site were to accommodations or the live webcams. Spohrer said visitors who stay for a week will receive $250 on check-in. Briefer stays earn smaller amounts, with an overnight visit netting $50. She said lodging providers will be asked to provide the number of reservations at the beginning of each week and will be issued gift cards based on their count. At the end of the week, they will be asked to confirm how many visitors actually stayed in the county and unused cards will be returned. She said visitors with existing reservations will also be eligible for the program. Details about restrictions and conditions are posted on the TDC's website www.anaturalescape.com. Spohrer said the county can not restrict the use of the gift cards to local businesses but would seek ways to encourage tourists to spend here. "I would guess that well over half the people will apply it directly to their rooms," she said. Jamie Crum, manager of Fickling Vacation Rentals, said he did not think that great a percentage would apply it to the cost of accommodations. "Our visitors have already prepaid for their rentals," he said. "I believe they will spend it in the restaurants, or on day trips or even groceries. Danny Itzkovitz, owner of Café Floridita in Apalachicola, said he was excited about the giveaway. "That's an awesome idea," he said. Spohrer said the most important thing was getting people to the county. Lodging providers will also receive marketing support with custom graphics, daily videos, banner ads and TV spots that they can upload to their website or use in their email campaigns. The TDC and the Apalachicola Bay Chamber of Commerce encourage local merchants to participate in September Seafood Days. If you would like to offer an additional discount on a meal, free glass of wine, dessert or discount on a tour, email info@apalachicolabay.org and the chamber will help you design a promotion. Also beginning in September the TDC will join Visit Florida in launching the first in what it hopes will be a continuing series of Franklin County-based Natural Florida Getaways promoted at each of the five State Welcome Centers. Visit Florida officials say it is expected to be seen by an estimated 300,000 visitors during the first two-month campaign, which will run September-October. The first campaign will feature St. George Island. Resort Vacation Properties is donating the first getaway vacation which will also feature a guided kayak tour from Journeys of St. George Island, a lighthouse tour and tee shirts as well as a meal for two donated by the Blue Parrot Oceanfront Cafe. Additional campaigns are being developed for Apalachicola, Carrabelle, Alligator Point and even a special natural getaway fishing vacation. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| The feel of home away from home Posted: 25 Aug 2010 03:09 AM PDT I can't believe that summer — as defined by the school year, not the thermometer — already is over. And I can only imagine how teachers feel. In honor of an age-old school tradition, here is my "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" essay: Maybe I should start with how I didn't spend my summer vacation. I didn't check e-mail. I didn't watch television. I didn't see one political ad. Tubing in Tennessee: $9 Hang gliding in North Carolina: $99. Days without seeing millionaire politicians spend part of their fortune on TV ads: priceless. Let's get away from work! We did old-school vacations this summer. And by "old school," I mean we drove to a couple of iconic Southeastern destinations, filling the car to the point where opening the hatchback meant risking having the contents explode like a jack-in-the-box. OK, to be fair to Mom and Dad, our trips were still a long way from old school. We had air conditioning, DVDs, Nintendo and all kinds of other distractions for Mia. (And yet we hadn't even crossed the Duval County line before she uttered the first, "Are we almost there?") We started the summer by gathering with my wife's family in the Smoky Mountains. We ended it by gathering with my family on the Outer Banks. In both cases, being away from Jacksonville made me think about Jacksonville. That's what a vacation inevitably does. I had never been to the Outer Banks, but it's one of those places we all have images of in our heads. Black-and-white images of flimsy planes gliding above the sands of Kitty Hawk. Kodachrome images of the sturdy lighthouses on Cape Hatteras beaches. And in many ways, it was what I expected: a great place to gather with family and wrap up summer. We hung out on the beach and cooked fresh seafood. We went to an outdoor play about the establishment of an English colony in the 1600s. We took hang gliding lessons just a few miles from where the Wright brothers flew — and where the National Park Service now has a wonderfully simple tribute. (A granite boulder marks the spot where their four flights took off in 1903, four stones where the flights ended.) Natural beauty, history, recreation, seafood. Sound familiar? At some point during the vacation, it struck me that we have many of the same attributes as the place that markets itself as "America's beach." I'd argue that some of North Florida's beaches are more beautiful than the ones in North Carolina. And that from Fort Caroline to St. Augustine, our history runs even deeper. And that our shrimp can compete with their shrimp. So could we be like the Outer Banks? Perhaps a better question is: Would we want to? With the vacation rentals, restaurants and swimsuit shops, kayak and paddleboard outfitters, license plates from Florida to New York, the Outer Banks feel like a getaway. Which is great if you're there for a getaway. But I'm not sure I'd want to live there. (OK, if someone wants to give me a vacation home there, I'll gladly take it.) Our beach neighborhoods feel like neighborhoods. Our hometown, while certainly not perfect, feels like home. And that's how you want to end summer vacation. Appreciating your destination and your home. Flag as offensiveThis entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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