South Carolina spent nearly $1.5 million this fall promoting itself as a vacation destination in New York City, and Charleston was one of five places at the center of the pitch.
The campaign included seven digital billboards in the Times Square area starting Sept. 25 and a three-day showcase called “SC in the City” at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal on Sept. 25-27, The Post and Courier reported Nov. 7. The General Assembly paid for it with additional tourism marketing money, the newspaper reported. It promoted the state’s “Big 5” destinations: Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach.
Preliminary results from state tourism officials show an 84% increase in website traffic, more than 16 million impressions and 20,000 consumer interactions, the newspaper reported. It did not say what period the traffic gain was measured against, and it gave no figures for bookings, visits or individual cities.
Duane Parrish, director of the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, said it was the largest campaign he has seen in more than a decade, according to the newspaper. The New York area is the state’s largest visitor market outside the Southeast, with 75 weekly nonstop flights between the region and South Carolina airports, the paper reported.
Charleston International Airport’s nonstop list shows daily service to LaGuardia on Delta, to John F. Kennedy on Delta and JetBlue, and to Newark on United. American flies seasonally to LaGuardia. Breeze flies less than daily to Westchester County, Long Island MacArthur, New York Stewart and Trenton, N.J. The list doesn’t show how many of the 75 weekly flights use Charleston.
The airport had a record September, with 531,978 passengers, up 5% from a year earlier, The Post and Courier reported Oct. 30.
