By Maddy Vitale
Sea Isle City is appealing to an audience in the South. Not South Jersey, but the deep South – Nashville, Tennessee.
The most recent demographic statistics for the www.visitsicnj.com tourism website show that people from Tennessee are now checking out Sea Isle’s concerts, special events and activities.
Traffic shows that 2.5 percent of the people who clicked on the site in March and April were from Tennessee.
Board members of Sea Isle’s Tourism Commission said during their meeting Thursday that it appears the audience is based in Nashville, the capital of country music.
Tourism officials were surprised but happy to see the figure. Tourism Chairman James Bennett asked the commission’s marketing consultant, Mickey Coskey, why Sea Isle’s website is suddenly attracting people from Tennessee.
Coskey responded that her company didn’t delve into the Tennessee web hits. Bennett wondered if it was Sea Isle’s summer concert lineup that resonated with the Nashville crowd.
The main portion of the web traffic is from Pennsylvania, nearly 45 percent.
The New Jersey market is second with 33 percent, followed by Washington, D.C., at 5 percent and New York at a little more than 3 percent, according to statistics presented by Coskey during the Tourism Commission meeting.
The statistics were from March 1 to April 30.
Tourism officials are also looking north for potential visitors to Sea Isle.
Tourism Commission member Stephanie Smith asked if there were any Canadian tourists venturing to the beach resort.
Coskey noted that there weren’t many during the March-April timeframe, adding that that Canadian customer base heads farther south to the Wildwoods.
In addition to showing the demographics and where users were coming from, Coskey’s marketing report also revealed web views were up by 21 percent from the same time last year.
“It is doing well. Our sessions are up. So far, so good. As always, we look at industry trends,” Coskey pointed out during the meeting.
Sea Isle is also reaching out to visitors with 30-second commercials that highlight the beaches and Promenade, entertainment, shopping, restaurants and sports. There is also a new 15-second Sea Isle video on 6abc.com.
Here is the latest commercial.
“The idea is to have a quick video and get clicks and greater exposure,” Coskey said of the new 15-second video.
Sea Isle is in fierce competition with neighboring shore towns for tourism business. The Tourism Commission is promoting the city and its attractions with a nearly $100,000 marketing campaign to entice visitors and promote all the amenities the city has to offer.
As part of that effort, the city has come up with a new tourism slogan, “Reconnect in Sea Isle!”
The marketing strategy also includes a heavy social media component on Sea Isle’s Facebook page. Visitors are encouraged to submit videos and photos of their vacations in Sea Isle and to post highlights of their family and friends “reconnecting” in Sea Isle.
The demographics for the tourism website show that there is a heavy interest in Sea Isle’s calendar of events, beach tags, the visitors guide and Girls Weekend as well as camps and clinics and Sea Isle’s Webcam.
The statistics indicate that women are the primary audience of web visitors. They represent 55 percent of web traffic compared to 45 percent for men.
The age demographics show 55-64 is the primary audience to the website, with 25-34 close behind, followed by 45-54 and then 35-44.
