PHILLY LAUNCHES $1.7 MILLION SUMMER ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
Effort Aims To Attract Family, Multicultural And Gay Travelers

PHILADELPHIA, May 21, 2004 – The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) is pulling out all the stops this summer to reach potential visitors to the region with the Philly’s More Fun When You Sleep Over® marketing campaign, beginning on June 7, 2004. The $1.7 million advertising buy, promoting the Philly—You Just Can’t Do It In A Day™ Hotel Package, includes two television spots, eight radio spots and print and transit advertising, along with a massive Lincoln Tunnel billboard, a first for the company. In addition, GPTMC will make the largest push ever in a single season aimed at multicultural travelers (with 30 percent of the buy going towards that market) and debut the world’s first gay television commercial for a tourist destination.

The advertising blitz, which begins with television and quickly moves to radio, is concentrated in Philadelphia, New York/Northern New Jersey and Harrisburg, Lancaster, Lebanon and York, Pennsylvania. The “Keep Up” television spot features a family running from attraction to attraction in an unsuccessful attempt to squeeze their vacation into one day. Targeted at multicultural travelers, the “Winds of Change” ad stars Philadelphia native Ayoka Dorsey, who performs a rhythmic poem to promote nightlife and jazz, while the “Pen Pals” spot, aiming to attract gay travelers, shows a man arranging to meet his love interest in Colonial Philadelphia. GPTMC will follow the television commercials with eight new radio ads highlighting everything from Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition at The Franklin Institute Science Museum to dining, shopping and historic attractions.

GPTMC will also spread the Philly – You Just Can’t Do It In A Day™ message on the ground and in the air through ads in publications on Southwest Airlines, USAirways and Amtrak. A new marketing program with the Philadelphia Phillies will bring the tourism message to baseball fans in New York, Chicago, Houston and Miami through online, radio and print promotions.

Passengers on USAirways will see a promotional video during all domestic and international flights, while those driving through the Lincoln Tunnel in July will be greeted by a giant 20’ x 60’ billboard featuring Philadelphia’s Boathouse Row. Print advertising will be seen in such publications as Better Homes and Gardens, The New Yorker, Country Home, Travel America and Pathfinders.

To complement the advertising, GPTMC, along with area attractions, accommodations and cultural organizations, will share the cost of full-page ads, known as cooperative advertising, in publications such as AAA Car & Travel, AAA Going Places, AAA World, American Legacy and Good Housekeeping. GPTMC will also simultaneously launch a strong public relations and Internet effort to drive sales for the Philly – You Just Can’t Do It In A Day™ Hotel Package.

The two-night package (with rates starting at around $169) is available Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, from June 17 through September 12, 2004. Offered at hotels in Philadelphia and Its Countryside, the package includes free hotel parking both nights and a “Bag Full of Summer,” filled with the following: a Philadelphia imap guide to the city, a colorful luggage tag featuring Philadelphia icons, coupons and many other goodies. Visitors can book the hotel package directly through their favorite participating hotel or online beginning on May 17, 2004, at www.gophila.com/summerpackage.

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The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC), Philadelphia’s regional tourism marketing agency, is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to building the region’s economy and positive image through tourism and destination marketing. For more information about travel to Philadelphia, call the new Independence Visitor Center, located in Independence National Historical Park, at (800) 537-7676, or visit www.gophila.com.

Note to Editors: For photos of Greater Philadelphia, visit the photo gallery of www.gophila.com/pressroom

May 2004

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