audience, says Gustke. 



Tourism representatives are 

 marketing with rifles these days, 

 gathering data about tourists and 

 targeting their message to specific 

 audiences. 



"They are spending more energy 

 to establish market profiles and 

 preferences," he says. 



Gustke' s department contracts 

 with travel and tourism agencies in 

 North Carolina to conduct research 

 and gather and interpret data on 

 economic impacts of tourism. The 

 information helps communities make 

 better marketing decisions, tailor 

 promotional materials and develop 

 more effective strategies. 



Another trend in coastal tourism is 

 the heavy emphasis on promoting the 

 shoulder seasons of spring and fall. 



"In 1989 when I came here, the 



promoting the shoulder seasons. The 

 bureau spends 75 percent of its 

 budget to sell the seashore in spring 

 and fall. Residual impact of off- 

 season advertising keeps vacationers 

 coming in the summertime. 



The other 25 percent is earmarked 

 for special projects created by the 

 impacts of the tourism industry. They 

 could range from beach renourish- 

 ment to a windsurfing museum, says 

 O'Bleness. 



"When we were able to capitalize 

 on getting 1 percent of the occupancy 

 tax and the new meals tax, that 

 eliminated the difficulty in seeking 

 national paid advertising," he says. 

 "That put us in competition with 

 other major areas like Myrtle Beach, 

 Atlantic City and Ocean City." 



O'Bleness says the bureau 

 advertises in more than 20 regional 



Hang gliding at Jockey's Ridge 



vast majority of the state travel and 

 tourism budget was spent promoting 

 the traditional vacation seasons," says 

 Dick Trammell, director of North 

 Carolina's Division of Travel and 

 Tourism. "Now instead of having 

 feast and famine, you have a more 

 balanced travel industry." 



With its funding in order, the Dare 

 County Tourist Bureau created a 13- 

 member tourism board charged with 



and national magazines, including 

 Southern Living, The Saturday 

 Evening Post and Mature Outlook. 

 Response coupons help track who is 

 using the ads. And callers who use 

 the bureau's toll-free number are 

 asked to supply their name, address, 

 time of planned visit, any special 

 interests and how they learned about 

 the Dare County hotline. 



Other North Carolina coastal 



areas are also using occupancy taxes 

 to fund promotion of the shoulder 

 seasons. The Cape Fear Coast 

 Convention and Visitors Bureau, 

 which covers the town of Wilmington 

 and the beaches of Carolina, 

 Wrightsville and Kure, spends 



The business 

 and convention market 



is feeding travel 

 and tourism industry 

 in all coastal areas. 



$370,000 on its marketing efforts. 

 President Jane Peterson estimates the 

 economic impact of travel and 

 tourism in the county at around $200 

 million. 



The board of the Carteret County 

 Tourism Development Bureau gets 

 55 percent of the revenues generated 

 by the county's 3 percent room tax, 

 which translates to about $650,000 to 

 spend on promoting the Crystal Coast 

 each year. Director of Tourism Carol 

 Lohr estimates travel and tourism 

 revenues at around $150 million. 



All three areas issue press releases 

 and offer toll-free telephone numbers. 

 Dare's tourist bureau has received 

 more than 50,000 calls since install- 

 ing its hotline the first of the year. 

 Nearly 15,000 callers dialed the 

 number in February alone. 



New Hanover County even has a 

 hotline just for Canadians. Because if 

 tourism promoters have learned 

 anything from research, it's that 

 vacationers tend to travel north to see 

 mountains and south to see the sea. 



In March, the Cape Fear Coast 

 Convention and Visitors Bureau 

 promoted the first "Southern Lights" 

 festival. Our Canadian neighbors to 

 the north enjoyed folk, bluegrass and 

 blues music at Wilmington's historic 

 Thalian Hall; late-night downtown 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 9 



