By MADDY VITALE
Sea Isle City tourism officials are gearing up for what they are anticipating will be a blockbuster summer.
In just a little over two months, the city will welcome back summer vacationers and give them and the year-round residents plenty of entertainment, shopping and dining.
The summer season was the topic at the city’s Tourism Commission meeting Thursday, where new events were announced, including a free carnival-style family night and face painting and other fun activities the day before Easter.
“We are getting ready,” said James Bennett, chairman of the Tourism Commission. “It’s going to be a big season.”
The tourism slogan “Reconnect in Sea Isle!” will continue to be the family-friendly invitation to enjoy the resort. With its $95,000 budget, the tourism campaign is already underway, giving vacationers an array of reasons to select Sea Isle for their destination.
Marketing consultant Mickey Coskey and Tourism Representative Chris Oney each gave an overview of where the campaign is for the 2022 summer season.
There are new rack cards displayed in local businesses and the Welcome Center, a reference guide complete with a fold-out map of Sea Isle, and two billboards, one on the Walt Whitman Bridge in Philadelphia and the other on I-95 South in Philadelphia featuring the slogan, “Reconnect in Sea Isle!”
“We will introduce a couple of new billboards as the summer comes,” Oney said.
The money saved through “shaving off” a third billboard used in the past gave the city added money to target potential vacationers from areas that make up a portion of Sea Isle’s tourists.
Coskey said the marketing campaign kicked off in December and has been going steady ever since. She also noted some new ways the resort is reaching potential vacationers.
In addition to digital and traditional print materials and advertising, the campaign is also livestreaming tourism commercials.
The target areas from April 4 through May 22 will be Camden County, N.J., and Delaware, Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties in Pennsylvania to reach 156,250 viewers.
The demographics for the visitors to Sea Isle continue to overwhelmingly be from Pennsylvania, then New Jersey, Virginia and New York.
And with the vacationers ready for a lineup of musical entertainment and family-friendly entertainment, Oney rolled out two new events.
On Saturday, April 16, the day before Easter, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., there will be the first “Spring Fling Family Fun Day.”
The free event will feature music, dancing, an egg decorating contest and a holiday stroll.
And on Friday, July 22, Sea Isle will host “Carnival by the Sea,” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., also a free event, Oney said.
Some of the possible entertainment and activities for the carnival include a magician, a stilt walker, a bounce house, an obstacle course, carnival-style games and inflatable basketball hoop.
“We are trying to get local vendors for hot dogs,” Oney added. “There will be no tickets. Everything is free to families.”
