Tourism Chief: Visitors Abound

SWAINTON – Jeff Vasser, executive director, New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism, discussed the impact tourism has on New Jersey at the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce meeting at Avalon Links Restaurant May 16.
Vasser gave an overview of the state’s marketing plan for 2019 and a recap of the tourism economic impact report for 2018. He noted that tourism is the seventh largest employer in New Jersey. “Of the 333,860 jobs tourism creates for New Jersey, 26,572 of those jobs are in Cape May County,” Vasser said.
Cape May County has the highest number of tourism jobs in the state. “Looking into the 26,572 jobs, a very significant 42.6 percent of those jobs are related to tourism. You can see just how tourism dependent our economy is in Cape May County,” he said.
Visitor spending in 2018 surpassed $44 billion, which is one of the fastest rates of growth over the past six years. There was also a record breaking number of over 110 million visitors to New Jersey in 2018, with 9.82 million trips in Cape May County. The second-home market also drives visitors to the shore.
The increase in the number of visitors was 7.4%. Typically the growth rate increases by 3-4% a year. Vasser attributed the doubled increase in visitors to two aspects.
The first was the two new casinos in Atlantic City, drumming up excitement and visitors in Atlantic County. Second was the state’s focus on the non-shore related amenities. “There’s a lot more than the shore,” Vasser said.
An important aspect for the future of tourism in Cape May County is focusing on the return on investment by promoting offshore activities outside of the beachfront, Vasser said.
For 2019, marketing goals for New Jersey include promotion of arts, culture and history.
“In seven short years, we are going to be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and New Jersey was central to that,” Vasser said. “We haven’t done a very good job of telling that story.  But we have 140 different Revolutionary War sites in New Jersey. And we’ve got to focus on that and really make sure that people know about it, because it’s a great story to tell.”
Another aspect of New Jersey promotion is the wineries. “If somebody hasn’t had a bottle of New Jersey wine lately, you don’t realize what you’re missing,” he said. New Jersey has been recognized as an emerging wine destination.
An essential new focus for New Jersey tourism is international visitors. This area is one in which a large amount of money will be focused.
International visitors stay longer and spend more money, Vasser said. “Almost 15 million visitors come into Newark Airport each year and another 4 million come into Philadelphia, and typically we have never spoken to them about stopping into New Jersey,” he said. “New Jersey offers the quaint small towns and shops they love; they like to experience farm to table, the breweries and our tax-free shopping, which is a big deal for them. They want to see how America lives and we have that right there.”
Vasser said they are working on a strategic plan to determine which states and countries they will market towards, and whether they will partner with states such as Pennsylvania, New York or Delaware. Part of the plan is to market New Jersey as the gateway to America, as it gets closer to the Revolutionary War anniversary.
Discussions of targeting consumers directly, travel and trades persons or representation firms will be in talks in the next few months, Vasser said. “We brought on a public relations (PR) firm, which is something we have done for the first time. The Lou Hammond Group in New York is one of the leading PR firms in the tourism industry. They are charged with helping us reach niche markets,” he said.
The PR firm will help tell the story of things other than the shore, Vasser said. “It’s a great opportunity to help us talk about our agritourism, ecotourism, the LGBT community. There is so much we can do here and we haven’t done a good job talking about all of these to different market segments.
“Keep an eye out for some great hits for Cape May County, because Lou Hammond is working hard to get what is a great destination, more exposure,” Vasser added.