What do the City of Brotherly Love and the City by the Sea have in common? If you’re trying to draw visitors to the region, the answer is cultural and historical tourism.
The Newport County Convention and Visitors Bureau brought the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Corporation’s director of travel research to its marketing meeting this month to share the story of how Philadelphia rebranded itself as a vacation destination.
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“Newport and the state are rich with cultural and heritage tourism aspects,” said Evan Smith, Newport visitors bureau president and CEO. “We have so many resources. I think today many people look to Newport as a leader in cultural tourism.”
Deborah Diamond, Philadelphia’s director of travel research, said her city embarked on a successful rebranding campaign that touted the city’s history, culture and nightlife.
“There aren’t many places where history is integrated into a vibrant, living place,” Diamond said. “Independence Hall is near residential and commerce centers.”
The “Philly’s more fun when you stay over” campaign, which encouraged visitors to make overnight trips to the city in the post-9/11 marketplace, was voted the most successful travel “recovery” campaign. The simple message of selling visitors into overnight hotel stays was easy enough to deliver, Diamond said.
“Then we had a lot going on in terms of culture and entertainment,” Diamond said.
The timing of art exhibits and other events was fortunate, she said, because challenges in the travel-destination market are more significant now.
“There’s no mass market out there anymore,” Diamond said. “We had to find out how to reach people, what the niche markets were and how to market Philadelphia to them.”
Research showed that travelers going to the Philadelphia region weren’t all families, as the tourism corporation thought.
“We found it was a grown-up destination,” Diamond said. “We knew the invitation had to be personal.”
For example, the Philadelphia Museum of Art planned to showcase the works of Salvador Dali, so the corporation embarked on a $2.5 million cooperative marketing campaign to draw people to the city, with the art exhibit as a centerpiece. Diamond said the people of Philadelphia “couldn’t get away from Dali.” Storefronts had replicas of his works, and drinks and dinner menus were created around the art theme.
“The whole city really pitched in to create a buzz around Dali,” Diamond said. More than 20,000 room nights were sold just for the Dali exhibit, she said. “The hook was the exhibit, but people experienced a variety of things in Philadelphia, too.”
That marketing campaign became a model for the tourism corporation, one it plans to use for the 300th birthday celebration of Benjamin Franklin. The corporation will be “Ben-ifying” Philadelphia, and saturating the market with advertising. The centerpiece will be an exhibit at the National Constitution Center in the middle of the city.
“The exhibition is an anchor, but there are so many other things going on,” Diamond said.
The concept will be marketed to African-Americans, gay and lesbian travelers, sports fans, foodies and culture “vultures,” Diamond said.
Diamond said since the corporation began actively marketing the Philadelphia region, overnight visitorship has jumped 49 percent between 1997 and 2004. Last year, 8.34 million people visited the city.
Jody Sullivan, deputy director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, said the Chamber kicked off a heritage initiative featuring the Newport and Bristol region.
“We know the value of cultural and historical tourism,” Sullivan said. “Nowhere in the country is there more history and culture than in Newport and Bristol.”
