Average price per gallon on March 29 was $2.09
The person driving that Mini Cooper through Rhode Island in the state’s television tourism ad campaign will be paying a lot more at the pump this summer, and it might tighten spending.
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The 2005 tourism campaign unveiled last month builds on the success of last year’s “Road Trip” theme, targeting baby boomers and their families within a 400-mile radius of Rhode Island who would drive to the state for a vacation. This demographic reportedly represents 17 million households with an income exceeding $1 trillion.
“The road trip concept started before gasoline prices started to go up. Even before 9-11, we noticed cars were an important method of travel here,” said David DePetrillo, Rhode Island tourism director.
Out-of-state visitors spent $2.7 billion in travel and tourism in 2003, contributing more than half the total $4.55 billion generated through tourism in Rhode Island, a travel and tourism report released last year by University of Rhode Island professor Timothy Tyrrell shows.
The television, print and online ads in this year’s tourism campaign encourage people to “get in the car and get away from stress” by taking a leisurely drive through Rhode Island.
But the cost of gasoline in 2005 is estimated to average 8.5 cents per mile or $1,285 per year in a AAA study, compared to 6.5 cents per mile or $975 last year.
On March 29, the average cost for a gallon of gasoline was $2.09 in the New England region. AAA’s fuel cost calculator shows that a 2005 Mini Cooper traveling 884 miles round trip from Buffalo, N.Y., to Providence uses 26 gallons of gas, totaling $56.02 at that rate. A less economical vehicle, like a 2005 Ford Expedition, traveling from Buffalo to Providence uses 49.12 gallons round trip, costing $105.80 at $2.09 a gallon. Those travel estimates don’t count the miles used to tour the state, which is what the campaign encourages visitors to do.
“Relative to the competition, we are very well-positioned because people can see so much in such little distance in Rhode Island,” said DePetrillo.
An enhancement to the road trip push on the tourism Web site is the debut of “R.I. Heritage Trails,” a self-guided tour feature that lets potential travelers customize their vacation in Rhode Island by plugging in key words – like history, architecture or beaches – to create an itinerary. It also connects them to driving directions and discounts on different attractions.
Places like Newport depend on carloads of visitors from Boston, Connecticut and then New York for its tourism, so gas prices may have a detrimental effect on revenue this year, said Greg Fracassa, general manager of the Hotel Viking in Newport.
To alleviate the financial burden of high gas prices last season, the hotel offered $20 pre-paid gas cards with a weekend stay, and will offer the program again this year.
“Prices are expected to be even higher this season, so we hope that by running this offer again we can attract people,” who may not want to travel because of the extra fuel expense, Fracassa said.
The hotel will likely run the special in print ads on Internet travel sites like Expedia.com and Travelocity.com, he said.
And the state tourism department will again run the “More Smiles Per Gallon” program on its Web site, offering discounts at a number of destinations in the state to offset the high cost of fuel. About 30,000 people downloaded coupons off the site last summer, DePetrillo said.
Though people who commute 50-plus miles to work each day feel the pinch from increasing fuel prices, the increase isn’t expected to deter travelers, said AAA Southern New England’s Director of Public Affairs David Raposa.
“People paid over $2 a gallon last summer, so the shock value has worn off. We have yet to see any statistics that show gas prices keep people from traveling – people are married to their vacations,” said Raposa.
The 2005 tourism campaign is designed to promote the best of Rhode Island to more than 40 million people in the Northeast over a course of three months at a cost of approximately $306,000.
The ads will run on cable news, travel and weather channels in the New York market area, including the Weather Channel and Travel Channel, in mainstream and trade publications like
New York Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure, and on Web sites including NYTimes.com, Weather.com and Concierge.com. All the ads direct prospective visitors to the state tourism Web site, which accounted for 56 percent of the state’s tourism leads in 2004, said DePetrillo.
