Since Nassau County opted to not renew a virtually $1 million contract with Uncover Lengthy Island, an accredited vacation spot advertising and marketing group is figuring out work with companions within the county.
The group is making an attempt to “set up methods” through which companions in Nassau “can nonetheless obtain our advantages,” Kristen Reynolds, president and CEO of Uncover Lengthy Island, advised LIBN. However these efforts would require board approval, she mentioned.
These subsequent steps come at a time when tourism spending on Lengthy Island just lately hit $6.6 billion, up from $4.3 billion eight years in the past, Reynolds mentioned. She credited the group’s analysis and knowledge in attracting the out-of-town customer, who spends twice as a lot because the native staycationer, as they’re spending on accommodations and different bills.
This week Reynolds is assembly with the group’s board with the “hope to solidify funding alternatives for accommodations and points of interest” in order that they will “nonetheless take part” in Uncover Lengthy Island’s promotion alternatives, Reynolds mentioned. These alternatives embody constructing on the group’s strategic relationships – each nationally and internationally – in addition to reaching its 10 million followers throughout 11 social media platforms which can be designed to encourage guests to come back to the area and spend cash. Any new alternatives popping out of this week’s board assembly can be introduced at Friday’s legislative breakfast in Melville, she added.
The group has a devoted gross sales power that books resort rooms, group gross sales and assembly areas for conference-and-meeting planners, however it could not have the ability to refer lodging locations in Nassau with out partnering immediately with particular person properties within the county, Reynolds mentioned.
The brand new methods are being thought of after Nassau County chosen RRDA, a Glen Head-based promoting company, to deal with its tourism advertising and marketing, pending approval from the Nassau County Legislature. Whereas the county had aired a 30-second advert final spring, 2024 would mark what’s seemingly the primary in a very long time that Nassau spent advertising and marketing {dollars} to solely promote the county as a single entity.
Previously the Lengthy Island Conventions and Guests Bureau and Sports activities Fee, Uncover Lengthy Island is a nonprofit, whose roots date again to 1978 when it was first shaped because the Lengthy Island Tourism Fee tasked with bringing vacationers to Lengthy Island, and drive financial spending.
Funding for the group has stemmed from the counties’ resort and motel tax.
“Through the years each counties tweaked” their contributions, Reynolds mentioned, with, most just lately, $2 million paid by Suffolk, and $1 million by Nassau.
That discrepancy offered a problem, together with rumblings from some who mentioned the group confirmed a choice to Suffolk.
“For us as a Lengthy Island group, we all the time labored onerous to verify every thing we do is 50/50,” Reynolds mentioned. “Nassau is simply as necessary as Suffolk.” The group used the $1 million from every county to advertise the area as an entire, and the additional million from Suffolk to moreover promote its points of interest and companies.
However selling Lengthy Island as a area brings features to the whole area, Reynolds mentioned, declaring that out-of-town vacationers usually should not acquainted with the Island’s particular person counties. For instance, she mentioned, the group’s knowledge exhibits that phrases for fashionable natural searches embody “Lengthy Island seashores” and “Lengthy Island eating places.”
This yr, Nassau is celebrating its 125th anniversary, and in December the county permitted $10 million in COVID funding for the related occasions. These occasions embody automobile exhibits and golf tournaments, Nassau County Govt Bruce Blakeman advised News12 on Sunday. And in June, the Worldwide Cricket Council will maintain its T20 Males’s World Cup Qualifiers at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, for which Blakeman anticipates 1 billion folks can be watching to see the match between India and Pakistan. That platform will carry extra eyes – and ideally guests – to Lengthy Island, he mentioned. Blakeman referred to as the technique a clever funding, saying that The American Rescue Plan funding was meant to assist rebuild the financial system, post-COVID.