The Tourism Commission members listen to the presentation Thursday.
By MADDY VITALE
Sea Isle City enjoyed another successful summer season. Visitors packed the beaches, Promenade, restaurants and shops, city tourism officials say.
And it seems that Sea Isle, which has been largely a vacation retreat for residents from Camden County, N.J., and Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania, is attracting crowds from New York now more than ever.
At least, that is what the web traffic to visitsicnj.com shows.
“The number of New York people has skyrocketed. It is 18 percent now,” explained marketing consultant Mickey Coskey during a Sea Isle City Tourism Commission meeting Thursday. “People from New York are coming.”
The statistic was part of Coskey's overview on how the 2022 marketing campaign went and a glimpse into what is in store for the 2023 season.
She noted that historically, when rolling out the city’s marketing campaign each year, the target audience for the website has "always been Pennsylvania and New Jersey."
"This is really very interesting," she said of the New York phenomenon. "People are looking down here.”
The breakdown for views to the website were Pennsylvania, 35.19 percent, New Jersey, 23.42 percent, New York, 18.32 percent and Virginia, 3.93 percent for 2022.
The marketing slogan "Reconnect in Sea Isle!" will return for the 2023 season. (Image courtesy of Mickey Coskey)
She said that while during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic the number of webpage views jumped dramatically, the figures for 2022 still were robust.
“Our numbers are really strong,” she said.
Coskey pointed to the nearly half a million page views of 487,629 page views for 2022.
In addition to digital and traditional print materials and advertising, the campaign focused on livestreaming tourism commercials. The same will begin in just months for next summer, she said.
The tourism slogan “Reconnect in Sea Isle!” continued to be the family-friendly invitation to enjoy the resort throughout 2022 and will do so again in 2023.
With some "refreshing," Coskey said that the slogan would be the continued theme for the resort to attract visitors in the 2023 summer season.
While the tried and true is the mainstay of the marketing campaign for 2023, there will be some new things in store, namely the revamping of the city's vacation website, 
The Tourism Commission members listen to the presentation Thursday.
And on Dec. 26, the city will roll out the digital billboard campaign when the words, “New Year’s Resolution, Spend More time in Sea Isle City, New Jersey,” will flash across the billboard on the Walt Whitman Bridge.
“We will continue to be the first ones out of the gate,” Coskey added. “We always remind people to spend more time in Sea Isle City for their New Year’s Eve resolution.”
James Bennett, chairman of the Tourism Commission and owner of the Oar House Pub restaurant, added that he also found that New Yorkers have made Sea Isle their newfound summer destination.
He also agreed with commission member Bill Kehner Jr. that more visitors to the island are not only from New York, but from the neighboring campgrounds.
Bennett said the number of visitors to the resort from the Cape May County campgrounds is nearly as strong as the number of second homeowners in Sea Isle who come down for the beaches, restaurants, shopping and more.
Tourism representative Chris Oney said that the Tourism Commission makes it a point to deliver rack cards to the campgrounds to promote Sea Isle to the neighboring residents.
For more information click, visitsicnj.com.
The beaches remain a major draw for Sea Isle's tourists.
