Board members of the Chamber of Commerce get their first look at the new publication during their monthly meeting Tuesday.
By Donald Wittkowski
A glossy, magazine-style vacation guide produced by the Sea Isle City Chamber of Commerce and Revitalization will soon make its debut.
Called “Explore Sea Isle,” 20,000 copies of the publication will be distributed to promote the city’s businesses and tourist attractions.
The Chamber of Commerce’s marketing consultant gave a sneak preview of the 40-page magazine Tuesday in advance of its printing this month. It is expected to be out in March.
Mickey Coskey, owner of Seven Mile Publishing & Creative LLC, said some last-minute “tweaking” needs to be done before the magazine is ready.
“We’re making sure everything’s together,” Coskey told the Chamber’s board members during their monthly meeting Tuesday.
The tourist-friendly publication will showcase the city’s shopping, dining, lodging and entertainment attractions. It will also include a listing of community events in 2018 sponsored by the Chamber and the city.
“It looks great,” Katherine Custer, Sea Isle’s public relations director, said after Coskey unveiled the magazine to the Chamber’s board.
The publication will be distributed to hotels, real estate offices, local businesses, highway rest stops and the Sea Isle City Welcome Center. There are also plans to mail copies directly to every one of Sea Isle’s 7,000 homes.
Board members of the Chamber of Commerce get their first look at the new publication during their monthly meeting Tuesday.
The Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the city, launched a visitors guide five years ago in a brochure-size format. Wanting a bigger publication, the Chamber created the magazine-like “Explore Sea Isle,” allowing the town to showcase its attractions in a more eye-catching design.
“What we felt was really important was to highlight the Chamber,” Coskey said.
Advertisers will also benefit from the bigger format, giving them more space to feature their products and services.
“Explore Sea Isle” will also be available online at www.seaislechamber.com. The digital edition will include links to local businesses.
A calendar of events, beach information, details about the city’s recreation programs, a listing of places to stay and other handy tips for tourists will also be part of the guide.
Separate from the Chamber’s publication, the Sea Isle Tourism Office will continue to publish the city’s own visitors guide. The guide will also be available on the Sea Isle tourism website at www.visitsicnj.com.
The vacation guides by the city and the Chamber are key pieces of Sea Isle’s strategy to distinguish itself from other seashore towns in the fierce competition for tourism during the all-important summer vacation season.
Hoping to get off to a fast start, the Sea Isle Tourism Commission placed a digital billboard on the Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia on Christmas Day. It beckons visitors with a summer beach scene and the words, “New Year’s Resolution – Spend more time in Sea Isle City.”
The commission is ratcheting up its marketing campaign this month by placing two more strategically located digital billboards on the I-95 corridor in Philadelphia to entice tourists to Sea Isle.
The commission will spend $100,000 for its 2018 “The Forecast is Fun!” tourism campaign. The publicity blitz blends more traditional forms of advertising, such as billboards, print media and visitor guides, with a digital marketing strategy that recognizes the upward trend in social media and mobile communications.
On a typical summer weekend, about 50,000 to 60,000 visitors will pour into Sea Isle, a town with a year-round population of 2,100. During peak summer weekends, such as the Fourth of July, the number of tourists will balloon to 65,000 to 75,000, city officials say.
