Today's post was supposed to be answering the stockpile of questions we have from readers. But the best laid plans of mice and men, as Steinbeck said, often go awry, and recent news stories in the Star News, Wilmington's local paper, caught our eye--and we promise (promise, promise) that we will catch up on your questions next week.
Shannan Bowen, Star News' intrepid hospitality reporter, featured articles each of the last two days about the beach towns (Wrightsville, Carolina, and Kure Beaches) and their ongoing battle with the Wilmington CVB to re-brand the beaches and separate them from the CVB for marketing purposes. The articles describe the beach communities' fight to rebrand themselves and the response from a marketing expert.
This is territorialism run amok. The local town governments want to attract more visitors to their beaches, but they are doing so to the detriment of the entire area, and to their own detriment, which makes the whole mess even more frustrating.
The beaches are requesting a full re-branding, which would involve dropping the "Cape Fear Coast" portion of the CVB's logo and marketing materials and adding each of the beach names to the logo. All of the beaches already have their own websites, which link from and to the main Wilmington CVB page, and their own apportionments of county occupancy taxes for marketing purposes, but the new measures would effectively separate the beaches from the rest of the Wilmington community.
First, allow me to address the inherent biases that we have here. Each of the beaches and historic Wilmington already receive a portion of the county's occupancy tax dollars for their own marketing efforts which are managed by the CVB but directed by advisory committees from these localities. The actual amount (some of which is spelled out in the second of Shannan's articles) apportioned to the county destination marketing fund, which markets the greater Wilmington area as a whole, is $548,000. The collective amounts apportioned to the localities is over $1 million. The amounts dedicated to marketing communities from funds that belong to the county are already disproportionate, but the fact the the $548,000 allocated to the destination marketing fund by definition also markets the beaches and Historic Wilmington means that major portions of Wilmington are left out of the equation almost completely. Those in the UNCW area or "midtown" or Landfall/Mayfaire are left to ask "where are our marketing dollars, "where are our marketing advisory committees," and "why are our tax revenues going to market everyone but us?" All are legitimate questions, and questions that the county should tackle sooner rather than later.
The larger issue, however, is what will be the effect of these proposed changes and the continued pacification of the municipalities as they push ever-harder for seperate funds and treatment? As mentioned in the Star News article, Judy Randall of Randall Travel Marketing asserts that research indicates that "most people vacationing in the area refer to the area collectively as 'Wilmington'," a finding echoed by many outside of the beach communities. The effect of splitting off the beach communities, re-branding the area, and continuing to siphon off dollars from county occupancy taxes to the localities will be confusing travelers and diluting the purchasing power of the CVB's marketing dollars.
Our neighbor to the south, Myrtle Beach, is our most direct competition; they are better-funded than our CVB is, they consistently earn awards as a beach destination (currently the #1 "fun and sun" destination in America on Trip Advisor), and they are blocking Wilmington's path to being the destination that we ultimately want to be. Check out their website: they do not market themselves as Myrtle Beach, Pawley's Island, Surfside Beach, Murrell's Inlet, etc., etc. Click on the "About Us" header at the top of their website and read the very first line: "The Myrtle Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau is a non-profit organization that is the only officially recognized marketing organization for the Myrtle Beach Area known as the Grand Strand which represents the following areas:" This is not a city/area/destination stuck on battling over identity. They have banded together to form the strongest possible alliance of destination spots, and they market with panache and with an enormous war chest that is not diluted by expensive legislative nods to their beach communities. (We will acknowledge that they no longer use Grand Strand except as an occasional modifier to shorten wording--we have no objection to dropping "Cape Fear Coast" from the marketing materials as long as something strong and unified stands in its place.)
As a premiere east coast travel destination, we cannot allow ourselves to be drawn into a battle that divides our loyalties, our dollars, and our message. We must understand that New Hanover County and its associated localities and destination sites are in a fight over tourist dollars not against each other but against those to our north and south: Myrtle Beach, Charleston, the Outer Banks, Savannah, Virginia Beach, and so on. The greater Wilmington area has a better combination of cultural and historic sites, pristine beaches, family fun, educational institutions, historic downtown, military history, local restaurants and businesses, and fantastic people than any of those locations. We should come together, find a single voice as a community and destination, and trumpet our strengths--not divide ourselves in so many ways and show our weakness.
Scott
Comments? Questions? Email us at hgimayfaire@gmail.com.
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