On Dec. 8, visitors to Providence will be able to get in the holiday spirit with a tour of historic homes on Benefit Street, a stroll down to City Hall for the city’s annual tree lighting, a ride in a horse-drawn carriage, caroling, and hot apple cider and other holiday treats for sale on Westminster Street.
The day of activities will be the keystone event in an effort by Providence tourism officials to coordinate and market the city throughout the month of December, in hopes of boosting hotel and retail business during the holiday season.
As part of its “Providence for the Holidays” initiative, the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau this week plans to launch a Web site that lists nearly 70 holiday-related events to be held in the city from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.
“It’s kind of whatever you’re looking for,” said Kristen Adamo, vice president of marketing and communications for the PWCVB. “It’s everything from the zoo doing something on New Year’s Day to more traditional things like [Trinity Repertory Company’s] ‘A Christmas Carol,’ or Festival Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker.’ ”
The PWCVB is working with neighborhood and merchant associations throughout the city to hold new events and promote holiday programming on the Web site, www.providencefortheholidays.com. The tourism bureau is also assembling hotel packages for out-of-towners visiting Providence during the holidays, Adamo said.
The highlight of the marketing initiative will be the day of events held in Providence on Dec. 8, when the Providence Preservation Society will hold its second annual Holiday Festival and Benefit Street Stroll. The city has moved the date of its annual tree lighting ceremony at City Hall to coordinate with the Preservation Society’s programming that day.
The Preservation Society’s Holiday Festival, an event which the organization revived last year for the first time since the 1990s, also features caroling and rides on horse-drawn carriages.
For the first time this year, the house tour and holiday stroll that has been traditionally held along Benefit Street will be extended into the burgeoning retail district on Westminster Street in downtown Providence, where outdoor vendors will operate throughout the day.
“We get people from all over New England and even beyond that to this festival, and it’s important for us to not only showcase the East Side but to really showcase the preservation efforts that are going on downtown,” said Lauren Goldenberg, the Preservation Society’s development coordinator.
The “Providence for the Holidays” marketing effort, which tourism officials hope will boost hotel and retail business in the city during a traditionally slow period, is modeled on similar efforts that have proven successful in drawing visitors to Newport and Nantucket during the holidays, said Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the PWCVB.
“December, typically from the hotel perspective, is not a strong month for occupancy, so we were brainstorming strategies to build occupancies and overnight stays during the month,” she said. “We thought that the retail product for holiday shopping was strong, and obviously our restaurant product has always been strong, and why not loop them all together – or tie them together with a ribbon, as we like to say – and promote it as one month-long celebration for the city to drive visitation here?”
The PWCVB will publicize the Providence for the Holidays effort and its Web site with advertising and editorial coverage in regional newspapers and travel publications, Sheridan said.
In addition to attracting visitors from outside the city, tourism officials hope the initiative will bring Providence residents downtown to shop and dine during the holiday season, Adamo said.
“While we certainly want tourists to come, we also want to encourage people that live here,” she said. “You can be from Warwick, or you can be from Newport, and you might want to come up for the day with your kids and go to the tree lighting and the Benefit Street stroll, and do some shopping in places that you normally might not look at.” •
