By MADDY VITALE
Sea Isle City is a tourism destination where it’s all about having fun, making memories and, oh yes, smiling.
After five years of successful marketing with the “Reconnect in Sea Isle” slogan, tourism officials have switched it up to, “There’s Always a Reason to Smile in Sea Isle.”
And there’s a good reason for the change, Chris Oney, the city’s tourism representative, explained during a Sea Isle Tourism Commission meeting Thursday.
“Since COVID, we were doing ‘Reconnect in Sea Isle.’ Now you’re reconnected with the family. Now it’s about making memories with them,” Oney noted.
A commercial will air in the future as part of the summer tourism campaign. It will feature ordinary people interviewed around town and at special events who will answer, “What is your reason to smile in Sea Isle?”
“You see lots of smiling faces,” Oney said of the upcoming commercial. “The whole promotion here is to have people share their fun experiences.”
Mickey Coskey, the Tourism Commission’s marketing consultant, gave a presentation on the marketing plan and also a look back at 2023 and how things went.
Sea Isle is already getting vacationers interested in spending their summer of 2024 back in their favorite shore town.
The Tourism Commission kicked off the campaign with digital billboards focusing on visitors’ New Year’s resolution to “Spend More Time in Sea Isle City.”
The Walt Whitman Bridge billboard in Philadelphia has been up since Christmas and remains there until May 12.
Another billboard on I-95 in Philadelphia begins Feb. 2 and runs through Feb. 28. One billboard image features a woman smiling while jumping in the air at the water’s edge. The other image shows a little girl splashing in the water wearing floaties.
In addition to billboards and a commercial for the new slogan, the campaign also includes the promotions through social media, TV, digital and print, as well as a reference guide. The city also participates in travel shows in partnership with New Jersey.
Coskey noted that the commercial will be rolled out for the Tourism Commission to view at the next meeting, March 7.
She pointed out that all of the various forms of media promotions “pulls together to create our marketing campaign and keep residents informed and bring visitors to Sea Isle City.”
In addition to all of the new and upcoming highlights of the 2024 marketing campaign, was a look back at 2023 and some of the updates made, specifically with a redesign of the website visitsicnj.com.
Coskey said that the new website was launched in March of 2023 and just from that time through December, compared to that of January 2022 through December, there was a jump from 170,000 to 181,000 viewers.
There was also a look at where visitors came from on the website. The top three locations are New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.
And the top five visited areas on the website were events, web cams, weekly events, beach tags and the jitney service.
In addition to the discussion of the upcoming tourism season was the swearing-in ceremony for current board members and one new one.
The members were sworn in by City Clerk Shannon Romano. They are Jim Bennett, Bill Kehner Jr., Chris Donohue, John Felicetti, Tony Grdinich, Terese Jones-Anders, Donna Miller, Victoria Rutledge, Carol Thompson and Moira Kelly Smith.
In addition, Bennett, chairman of the commission, and Bill Kehner Jr., vice chairman, were each selected to serve another one-year-term in their posts.
“Thank you for having faith in us,” Bennett said of the commission members voting in favor of his and Kehner’s selections as chairman and vice chairman of the commission, moments before closing the meeting.
