Ummm, with a fraction of the available revenue, staff and attractions.
What complete and utter horseshit.
But, it sounds good to the home crowd, which is still cranked off that the larger neighboring town beat them in that basketball game back in ’52.
Geopolitical boundaries mean nothing to travelers...and the greater the collection of attractions one has to offer with the biggest possible promotional budget wins. Period.
Which is why it is so refreshing to see what 5 DMOs (in 3 states, no less) have accomplished this summer by ignoring boundaries. Called the “Sweet Tea Partners,” Savannah, Charleston, Hilton Head, Brunswick/St. Simons Island and Amelia Island started meeting about two years ago to discuss ways to create a joint marketing alliance.
As the Savannah CVB’s Joe Marinelli told me, “we had to go through the stages of getting to know each other, trusting each other, becoming friends, etc. But, we’re there now.”
I’ll say. This summer, the Partners launched a huge sweepstakes promotion on the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s webpage (Atlanta is the #1 target market for all five) and backed it up with an 8-page insert in the newspaper.
Cost: $20,000 per partner. And, given the buying power that all 5 already had with the paper, the combined worth of the print and online campaign was over $150,000.
To date, the “Sweet Tea Getaway” website has welcomed over 2 million unique visitors. Each destination has added 7,500 e-newsletter subscribers. And, occupancy in Savannah was up 2% in June and 6% in July.
Joe is quick to point out that the promotion cannot prove it was the catalyst behind these increases...but, with virtually every other destination across America seeing decreases, there’s no doubt that at least some of the increase can be traced back to the Partnership.
And it should paint a fairly clear picture to every destination that thinks going it alone is smarter....that it isn’t.
Congratulations to Joe, Helen, Susan, Bill and Gil for seeing the light...and ignoring those lines that map-makers (and politicians) love to draw.