By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Call it a combination of Broadway and the beach. More New Yorkers are vacationing in Sea Isle City.
Sea Isle is traditionally a summer vacation haven for visitors from South Jersey and the Philadelphia suburbs of Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania. But now it is drawing a lot more interest from New York tourists.
As Sea Isle gets ready to roll out its $100,000 summer marketing campaign for 2023, new data collected from the city’s tourism website shows that New Yorkers are becoming a larger part of the vacation market.
At a board meeting Thursday, members of the Sea Isle City Tourism Commission pointed out the surge in web traffic at visitsicnj.com that has been coming from New York in the past year.
“We saw a big jump in visitors from New York,” said Mickey Coskey, the commission’s marketing consultant.
The website provides a litany of information about Sea Isle and its attractions, including the beaches, special events, jitneys, recreation, parking and things to do.
In 2022, people living in Pennsylvania comprised the largest group of web traffic at 35 percent. New Jersey was second at 23 percent. New York soared to third at 17 percent after a lackluster 4 percent in 2021, according to the data.
“We’ve all been talking about it. We’re seeing more people from New York,” Coskey said.
New Jersey’s web traffic is going in the opposite direction of New York’s. In 2021, New Jersey represented the largest segment of web visitors at nearly 40 percent. Coskey noted the big drop in New Jersey web traffic in 2022 to 23 percent.
Historically, the target audience for the website has been tourists from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but now the trend is shifting to also include a large chunk from New York – strongly suggesting that Sea Isle is becoming the newfound vacation destination for more and more visitors from the Big Apple.
Another key piece of demographic data pulled from the website is that Sea Isle seems to be attracting large groups of young families for vacations. The 35 to 44 age group represented 22 percent of the visitors to the website in 2022 to come in at No. 1.
Coskey told the Tourism Commission board members that the 35 to 44 age group mainly includes young families. She characterized it as a “good trend” for Sea Isle’s vacation market.
The 45 to 54 age group was second in the number of visits to the website at 20 percent and the 55 to 64 age group was third at 18 percent.
The website is currently undergoing a redesign to include more information for visitors wanting to know more about Sea Isle’s vacation attractions.
“We’re going to expand it, so you’ll see everything you need. It’s easier to find everything off the front page,” said Chris Oney, the city’s tourism representative.
“We really want people to come to the site. It’s updated. It’s bright,” Coskey added.
Sea Isle uses the website, social media and digital marketing along with more traditional forms of advertising such as billboards, print publications, a reference guide and commercials as the foundation of its summer tourism campaign.
Another way Sea Isle promotes itself is by having its marketing and tourism materials displayed at U.S. travel shows in partnership with the Cape May County Department of Tourism and the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism.
Coskey also noted that Sea Isle’s marketing booth at the Philadelphia Flower Show is always packed.
“People love Sea Isle. That’s what we want to hear,” she said.
As in recent years, the 2023 tourism campaign will use the “Reconnect in Sea Isle!” slogan as the family-friendly catchphrase.
To kick off the campaign, the Tourism Commission has placed a digital billboard on the New Jersey-bound side of the Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia to beckon visitors with the words, “New Year’s Resolution … Spend More Time in Sea Isle City, New Jersey.” The billboard features a view of the ocean with a colorful beach umbrella in the foreground.
Sea Isle’s tourism market has bounced back strong from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another bustling vacation season is expected this summer, officials said.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio thanked the members of the Tourism Commission for their efforts to promote the resort town.
“We expect you to soar,” he told the members at their annual reorganization meeting Thursday. “We have a great crew, so we expect good things.”
Three new board members are joining the commission this year, including Toni Grdinich, Donna Miller and Carol Thompson. James Bennett was reappointed as the commission’s chairman and Bill Kehner Jr. as vice president.
