Helen Offers Good Picture of Charleston Tourism

February 7, 2012: Helen Hill, obviously proud of how Charleston last year became the top travel city by readers of Conde Naste Traveler magazine, offered a rosy tourism picture to members Tuesday.

Head of the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau for 25 years, Hill extolled the increasing professionalism of Charleston’s tourism outreach efforts and showed a great video commercial seen in other parts of the country. Its message: “Thanks, y’all” for visiting Charleston. To see the video that features Mike Lata of Fig restaurant, Mariana Hay of Croghan’s Jewel Box and Havin Turner of Market Pavilion Hotel, go here: http://www.charlestoncvb.com/visitors/video/#cn_thanks/

“Our industry is thriving,” Hill said, noting how a new report said more than 70 percent of Charleston’s hotel rooms were occupied in 2010 and revenues were up 6 percent.

Among the reasons Charleston won the top spot in the readers’ survey over San Francisco (which had won 18 years in a row) and other communities was Charleston’s friendliness. It also didn’t hurt that San Francisco’s homeless population apparently annoyed those voting in the study, which helped knock it off the top of the list.

Other contributing factors to taking the top spot were:

Communications: how the message about the city’s history and food was communicated. For the first time ever, they’re tied as top reasons for visiting Charleston.

More airline seats: The addition of Southwest to the market helped to add 350,000 more seats available to people traveling to the area, she said.

Good coverage. The area also has benefited on good stories by the media that have helped to get out the word about Charleston, as highlighted in a report on CBS News and during the recent GOP primary. “We’ve learned you can sell to the media just like you can sell to everyone else,” Hill said.

She said the community has three challenges to protect its “brand” for visitors. First, community bickering about cruise ships doesn’t look good to people who are considering a visit. Second, the CVB will need to be more creative about its sales effort. Third, the community has to deliver on what it sells.

In the coming year, Hill said she and her team would work harder and smarter to be the “front door of our community.” One big advantage: The PGA Championship coming this summer will expose Charleston to hundreds of millions of people across the world. And that can’t hurt.

Submitted by Andy Brack, Keyway Commttee