Bristolians find charm still sells

SHOWING PRIDE: The Bristol Train of Artillery commanded by Lt. Col. Raymond Murray performs during the 2011 Fourth of July Parade. The Bristol Merchants Association and residents have launched a marketing campaign to pitch the town’s assets. / COURTESY ED KING
SHOWING PRIDE: The Bristol Train of Artillery commanded by Lt. Col. Raymond Murray performs during the 2011 Fourth of July Parade. The Bristol Merchants Association and residents have launched a marketing campaign to pitch the town’s assets. / COURTESY ED KING

Tropical Storm Irene left this small, coastal town feeling powerless two years ago in more ways than one. But a successful marketing campaign, Explore Bristol Rhode Island, has dramatically changed the outlook of some local officials and businesses for the better.
About 30 downtown merchants in the town of nearly 23,000 lost power for the better part of a week, primarily on Hope, Bradford and State streets, following that late August storm, according to town leaders and Peggy Hicks, owner of the Bradford Street gift shop the Knotty Dog. Complaints grew as restoration lagged, they said.
“It was a dark storm and a dark time in Bristol,” Hicks recalled recently. “There were a lot of businesses closing at that time. We had lost five or six stores. People had said business had been good 10 years prior, but with the recession and for whatever reason, people weren’t coming downtown to shop and eat.”
Instead of giving in to the negative turn of events, however, residents and business owners began meeting and getting past the gripe sessions to a new level of awareness: that if anything was to change, it would take deliberate, constructive effort from within.
“The end result of all of this was lots of discussion, primarily by the merchants and the Town Council,” said Jeffrey Hirsh, owner of the Lobster Pot Restaurant on Hope Street.
Collaborating with the town and residents old and new, a local group launched a marketing campaign and website to pitch the seaside town’s assets – its harbor, museums, shops and bed-and-breakfast and lodging establishments – not with the intent of becoming a major tourist attraction, but to encourage sustained visits from within and elsewhere.
Located on Narragansett Bay and the Kickemuit River, the town is home to the Herreshoff Marine Museum/America’s Cup Hall of Fame, Colt State Park and the Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum. Charter fishing, kayaking, art and photography exhibits and weddings are among the more popular activities, according to www.explorebristolri.com. “Bristol is an undiscovered gem,” added Kathleen Seguin, president of the Bristol Merchants Association and owner of the Bristol House B&B. “There are so many things that go on here that it just made sense to get the word out nationally. It’s not an overworked waterfront. It’s what you think quaint New England waterfronts should look like. It’s what attracted me when I moved here. There’s kayaking and you can rent boats for the day, but there’s also commercial fishing.”
Hirsh and others knew Lou Hammond, chairman and founder of Lou Hammond & Associates of New York City, a prominent public relations firm, and hired her firm to help. Supporters also approached Cherie Daniel, owner of CC inspire llc, a Web-development company whose clients include Discover Newport and The Block Island Tourism Council, to build an interactive website.
That was in December of 2012.
The Explore Bristol group broke into committees to focus on everything from the arts to the waterfront, and affiliated with the nonprofit Mosaico, which has helped manage funding, including $30,000 from the town, $15,000 from Roger Williams University and another $30,000 raised through various channels, Hirsh said.
The town even hired a new harbormaster, said Tony Teixeira, town administrator.
“The mission was, ‘What do we do to move forward?’ ” Teixeira said. “ ‘We need a marketing plan. We need to be more welcoming. We have to stop the griping and move forward.’ Everybody jumped onboard because we created different groups, [each] with a different focus. Everybody pulled together and became involved.”
Success exceeded expectations. Between last December and this past September, the reach in press clips and articles resulting from media visits to Bristol totaled 104,828,155, according to a report from Hammond. That marketing translated into a total ad value of $437,177, the report states. “I think we have something really special going on here,” said Hicks. “Nobody wants us to be a tourist town like Newport. But we want to have a vibrant downtown and business community, great restaurants and shops and people attending our museums.”
Hammond said local inns and businesses “were fabulous” when hosting 11 different journalists who visited and wrote for such publications as New York Magazine and websites like FoodandWineAccess.com.
“Some of the articles did help people to recognize what a charming city Bristol is,” Hammond said. “People had to become believers that Bristol could be marketed as a destination and I think they believe that today.”
The Knotty Dog has increased sales 30 percent year over year for the last two years, Hicks said. And anecdotally, Hirsh noted, everyone from the library director to the local car-rental shop owner has seen an uptick in visitors and repeat business.
“I think that’s a direct result of these efforts,” Hicks said of her boost in sales, “because some of the increase is the hundreds of people involved in working groups are supporting their local businesses.”
State Tourism Director Mark Brodeur attended Explore Bristol Rhode Island ’s annual meeting on Oct. 10 and was impressed with the results. He worked with them in getting government officials to consider policies for harbor and traffic management that might be more conducive to handling increased attention from visitors, he said.
“Out of the 39 cities and towns in Rhode Island, this has got to be one of the most wonderful and productive groups when it comes to promotion of a town,” Brodeur said.
Hirsh said residents, political leaders and business owners alike “checked their egos at the door” to help make the marketing campaign work.
“Everybody is listed on the website, even if they can’t afford to contribute [to marketing efforts],” he said. “It makes Bristol a more viable community and represents our team spirit.” •

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1 COMMENT

  1. Yes, when you live in the HDC you have to spend thousands more for maintenance of your home so the small insignificant downtown businesses can scalp tourists. Since the State pulled back the 1% of the sales tax that used to go to the towns there is no financial benefit to the town.

    The State also pulled back the small tax break for HDC maintenance costs. If a window costs $800 more to have the same custom wood frames etc the town or the other home owners which profit from the HDC (that’s what the municode states.)should pay the extra costs.

    Museums?

    $7 million in tax free property supposedly ‘owned’ by the America’s Cup Hall of Fame.

    The America’s Cup has never seen the inside of that place and when they have induction ceremonies it’s at the New York Yacht Club in New York.

    The biggest scam in Bristol other than the HDC.

    BTW during Sandy National Grid got Stop & Shop & Metacom Ave running on day 1 them went elsewhere. It wasn’t until the owner of the Lobster Pot spoke on WPRO and told it like it is that Grid came back to the area.