By Donald Wittkowski
Visits to Ocean City’s vacation website have nearly doubled this year as e-marketing continues to generate more business for the beach town during both the peak summer months and the off-season, tourism officials said Thursday.
Overall, hits on oceancityvacation.com are up 91 percent through the first 11 months of 2016 compared to the same period last year, according to figures released during a meeting of the Ocean City Tourism Development Commission.
“That’s a massive increase. It’s insane,” said Xander Becket, senior internet marketing strategist for Webpage FX, a web consulting firm for the tourism commission.
Buoyed by this year’s record results in Ocean City web traffic, Webpage FX is preparing to launch an aggressive online marketing campaign for 2017 that will take advantage of a panoply of social media platforms.
“Ocean City is at the forefront in Cape May County in being web-savvy,” declared Michele Gillian, executive director of the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Becket said the 2017 campaign will run the gamut, from placing Ocean City-themed advertisements on internet giants such as Google, Facebook and YouTube to making use of digital services such as Waze, a traffic and navigation app.
“Basically, everything applicable to Ocean City is in that campaign,” he said.
Becket explained that Ocean City will also use social media sites popular with millennials, such as Instagram and Snapchat, to target a younger demographic of vacationers.
The tourism campaign will also look to generate online traffic by linking to the powerful websites run by colleges and universities. Becket suggested having the tourism commission sponsor a $1,000 college scholarship promotion to help Ocean City latch on to university sites.
Underscoring the growing popularity of its online presence, Ocean City’s Facebook vacation page is getting one “like” for every dollar the town is spending to market itself to tourists, Becket said.
“Every ‘like’ we’re getting is a chance to promote Ocean City to that person,” he said.
Tourism officials attributed the jump in website traffic this year to the city’s strong economy. They also cited interest that was generated by an online Ocean City vacation giveaway contest and a promotion for free hotel stays.
Another big boost for web hits came from Ocean City’s selection as “Best Beach in America 2016” during a nationwide online poll conducted by Coastal Living magazine, Gillian said. Ocean City also racked up wins in other “Best Beach” contests, further helping to publicize the town, she added.
The tourism commission is funded by revenue from the city’s mercantile fees that are paid by local businesses. During its meeting Thursday, the commission approved a 2017 operating budget that pays for its marketing and advertising campaigns.
TV ads make up the biggest chunk of the operating budget, at $300,000. E-marketing is the second-largest expense, at $106,000. Burton Wilkins, chairman of the tourism commission, noted that some of the budget funding in 2017 is being shifted away from TV ads to help expand the e-marketing program.
“We’re constantly looking to bring new people to Ocean City,” Wilkins said, referring to the online audience.
The tourism budget also includes traditional forms of advertising, such as direct mail, brochures, billboards, magazines, newspapers and vacation guides. Wilkins pointed out that two new Ocean City billboards on the Walt Whitman Bridge and I-95 corridor in Philadelphia have been attracting a great deal of attention.
“I’ve had a lot of people commenting on the billboards,” he said.
The billboards are part of a holiday promotional campaign designed to draw shoppers and other visitors to town. TV ads, postcards and emails are other components of the holiday campaign, which Gillian branded a success.
“We seem to have done well over the holiday season,” Gillian said.
