Mobile area tourism officials are embarking on a campaign to get more people from around the southeast to come to the Alabama Gulf Coast for vacation.
It's sort of like selling ice cold lemonade to people in the hot summer sun. But then again, how many of us have terrific vacation attractions in our own backyards that we never get to because we're always thinking that vacation means traveling a long way?
A delegation of Mobile tourism officials heads to Chattanooga today to kick off a $120,000 marketing blitz designed to encourage people to drive to Mobile for vacation.
On Thursday night, the group will throw a Mexican-themed party for 55 travel agents to encourage them to sell trips to Mobile packaged with Carnival cruises to the Caribbean.
"We really want these travel agents not to just book a cruise but book a few nights in Mobile," said Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau spokeswoman Harriet Shade Sharer.
The campaign markets all of Mobile Bay, encouraging travelers to take a four- or five-day cruise on the Holiday and spend the rest of their vacation in Mobile, according to Mary Jackson, Carnival Cruise Lines' business development director for the Deep South.
The group includes representatives from the Riverview Plaza Hotel, the Holiday Inn Bellingrath Gardens, five of Mobile's largest attractions and three people from the visitors bureau. Carnival marketing representatives will also attend to promote the Holiday.
The visitor's bureau is partnering with Carnival and the Favorite Markets convenience store chain to place ads in stores and at gas pumps. Mobile Bay visitor guides will be available in each of the 108 Favorite Markets stores across Tennessee, north Alabama and northwest Georgia, and those buying gas or goods will hear Mobile advertised over the speaker systems, Sharer said.
A sweepstakes campaign will offer a cruise from Mobile Bay, a two-night stay and $200. The advertising blitz will run from July 17 to Aug. 12 and also includes radio and television spots, Sharer said. Read more