News from Onslow County Tourism

Tourism Talk, Fall 2009

Greetings!

Last quarter I shared with you how the county collects funding for tourism and all the amazing things they do with that funding -through occupancy tax on hotel rooms within Onslow County. So today I want to share with you where some of our funding from the county goes and the mission of Onslow County Tourism.

"To provide economic impact through the hospitality industry by marketing and promoting tourism attractions, events, and opportunities throughout Onslow County."

This year we will spend $180,000 - marketing, promoting, advertising,
attractions, events, and opportunities throughout the county.

We will place signage on the New River and White Oak to help guide our visitors and citizens along the trails and educate them about the ecology, history, and wildlife abundant in our waters.

We will redesign and print 100,000 visitors guide so that we have materials to give to visitors about Onslow County. This amount allows us to only print every other year and saves us money because the cost per piece is reduced because of the large quantity printed. We are redesigning to match our new website that we launched in May 2009.

We will continue the Hospitality Mystery Shop Program, where we find 5 individuals per month within the county providing wonderful front line service to visitors. Rewarding these folks with local attraction tickets, gift cards, and information about the county and promising to re-shop at a later date. The next shop is graded and the winner wins the title of "Hospitality Person of the Year" and a cruise to the Bahamas. We will continue to partner with NC Cooperation to ensure that hospitality training can be done on a small scale at a reasonable cost to our local businesses.

We will provide packages of information for groups visiting our area. Attend conferences and promote our community at different events within the state (Governor's Conference, Coast Host, NC Festivals & Events Association). We will advertise in print, radio, and television within the state of NC to ensure that others know about things to do, places to eat, and places to stay!

We will continue our luncheon to recognize the best of the best in festivals and event planning within the county at the Artie's. We will take those winners and make sure they are entered into the state awards to ensure we are spreading the word on our unique offerings within the communities. We will do FAM tours for front line staff, State Welcome Center Staff, and bus and group planners looking
for new destinations to promote.

We will work regionally with our surrounding counties to develop projects that will enhance Hwy 17 and other possible partnerships. We will partner with Clean County to develop a program to encourage youth to volunteer and clean-up our roads and not to litter! This and so much more makes your Tourism office a very
busy place and a very good value for the local taxpayer - it does not come out of your pocket and you get to see the rewards!

Theresa L Carter
Onslow County Tourism
(800) 932-2144