Chamber Urges Support of Bill to Advertise County’s Open for Tourism

SCHELLENGER’S LANDING – Members of the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce were urged by President Vicki Clark to help rally support for an Assembly bill to advertise that the Jersey Shore is open for business after Hurricane Sandy.
Clark spoke to the body assembled Dec. 20 at the Lobster House for the monthly meeting.
She said A3630, which is being co-sponsored by First District Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matthew Milam, would appropriate $20 million from General Fund to the Department of State for travel and tourism advertising and promotion to communicate that the state’s tourism destinations, such as Cape May County, are operational despite damage caused by Sandy. There is a companion bill in the Senate, S2435, whose primary sponsor is Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-36th), deputy majority leader from Wood-Ridge.
Clark acknowledged that many in the county had sustained total losses, but noted “as a whole…we don’t have devastation” experienced in areas to the north. Still, those images of a roller coaster awash in the sea are what millions of potential vacationers believe happened everywhere on the Jersey coast. That is the image the legislation would battle.
The battle for tourism dollars to advertise the Garden State’s attributes did not just happen post-Sandy. That has dogged many, especially chamber members, whose businesses are dependent on tourism.
Clark said almost immediately after Sandy’s passing, surrounding states, including Maryland, Virginia, and even North Carolina quickly stepped up their tourism advertising campaigns in hopes of winning vacationers from those who believe New Jersey’s beaches and resorts were all lost.
Clark said members should contact Assembly members, not necessarily their own, since they backed the bill, but others who may not understand the importance the additional advertising would have to merchants in Cape May County.
“I cannot stress enough. We must counteract the negative image,” Clark told the chamber. She added that “corrective marketing” was needed immediately to ensure a good 2013 tourism season locally. She said members could write or email legislators, and offered to provide members with email addresses of all those elected officials.
“We need your help,” she urged.
Diane Wieland, county tourism director, addressed the membership immediately prior to Clark. She, too, said the county was spreading the word, with full-page advertisements in the Philadelphia Inquirer that “Cape May County is open for business.”
She, too, admitted the images set in the minds of many of the roller coaster in the water were “difficult to combat.” Wieland said her office had fielded many telephone inquiries from Montreal, Canada, where the county has targeted tourists with advertising
While she is sympathetic to the plight of those northern counties where destruction was widespread, “We are alive and well. We know what sells,” she added.
Working on social media, Wieland said the county is attempting to broadcast the news of this county’s being open for visitors.
Wieland said that photographs of the beaches and boardwalks here were among the ways to prove to tourists that the county would be an attractive place to spend a summer vacation.