Cape May County Department of Tourism Earns Top Honors for PR

COURT HOUSE – The Cape May County Department of Tourism was honored with its thirteenth Tourism Excellence Award at the 2015 New Jersey Tourism Industry Association (NJTIA) Tourism Conference held recently at Trump Marina Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
The Department of Tourism under the direction of Director of Tourism, Diane Wieland, and Freeholder Liaison E. Marie Hayes of the Board of Chosen Freeholders, captured one of four New Jersey Tourism Excellence Awards for the implementation of a French Canadian Public Relations Campaign.
The Department was lauded for a campaign expanding the annual French Canadian marketing efforts to target travelers in the northern part of the Province of Quebec. The award-winning campaign featured a 16-page destination guide in French, a training program for front line staff by Atlantic Cape Community College (ACCC), providing conversational French classes at no cost to businesses throughout the county, and an expanded media outreach initiative in the greater Quebec City region of the Province of Quebec.
“I applaud the efforts of this award-winning Department. Director of Tourism Diane Wieland is considered a leader in the industry and the New Jersey Excellence in Tourism award honors the merit of the work of Wieland and her Department as standouts in the industry of tourism,” explained Freeholder Liaison, E. Marie Hayes.
Analysis of the Department’s current Canadian marketing initiatives showed there was heavy interest from the northern section of the Province of Quebec. In response to the visitor interest, Wieland launched a Public Relations campaign increasing its exposure in the northern Quebec regions of the Province of Quebec reaching 766,000 potential visitors.
Media outreach included two familiarization tours of Cape May County for several freelance journalists, resulting in 3,000 inches of publicity that translates to $1 million in advertising value. A sales mission hosted by Wieland and Hayes welcomed the Regional Director and agents from 13 Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) offices in the Province of Quebec to a gathering in the City of Quebec in May, 2014.
The tourism industry in Cape May County contributed $5.8 billion to the state’s economy in 2014. Tourism expenditures in the County placed the destination second only to Atlantic City in the State in terms of overall tourism expenditures. Cape May County’s tourism industry showed an increase in every sector in the state’s tourism research conducted by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics Company.
Pictured in the photo are (l to r): Freeholder Leonard Desiderio (Vice-Director), Freeholder E. Marie Hayes, Deborah Bass, Director of Tourism Diane Wieland, Rachael Cox, Christie Ostrander, Freeholder Director Gerald M. Thornton, Freeholder Kristine Gabor, and Freeholder Will Morey.