Fresh from the printing press: The 2007 Greater Philadelphia Tourism Monitor: What’s in a Place? shows how our region’s character translates into numbers with up-to-date research findings.

The 48-page report covers:

• Understanding the Visitor
• Economic Impact: A $10 Billion Industry
• Hotels and the Leisure Traveler
• Marketing that Conveys a Sense of Place
• Neighborhoods, Towns and City
• Attractions, Exhibitions and Sights

To get the full report or the 11-page Executive Summary:

• Order them for FREE at gophila.com/monitor
• Download PDFs at gophila.com/research

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On November 7, GPTMC announced a brand new $350,000 campaign to showcase the city’s holiday experience. 50 days of holiday festivities will run from November 21 through January 9. During the promotion, visitors can gander at spectacular lighting displays along the Avenue of the Arts and Rittenhouse Square and peruse gophila.com/holidays for a list of 50 great presents available at the many independently owned boutiques around town. (Those who need help finding the shops can view a customized Google map at gophila.com/holidays. The map will feature all 50 stores and will be sortable by store name, gift category and neighborhood.) Some lucky person will win all 50 of the prized gifts, valued at $2,400. In addition, hotels are offering a $50 gift toward hotel accommodations valued at $150 or more. Support for this campaign is being provided by CBS3, our media partner.
gophila.com/holiday

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We all know that Philly’s more fun, more electric, more original, more classic, more out there, more rebellious, more impulsive and more cosmopolitan. But it’s a lot of other things too. That’s why we’ve charged LevLane Advertising with developing three new “words” to add to the “Philly’s More Fun” family. The new words will be implemented in time for the winter launch of the campaign in late November. Running through March, the push will include a variety of media tactics, including outdoor, cinema, print and online in New York, Philadelphia and Harrisburg.

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To promote the Philadelphia Marathon, GPTMC created Run With Olympians, an event that gave runners the chance to train alongside Olympic athletes on Saturday, November 17. The free, four-mile route along Martin Luther King Drive was part of Boundless Philadelphia’s™ year two strategy to build Philly’s image among runners and cyclists. The event generated publicity in several running magazines. In addition, GPTMC hosted a press trip for visiting journalists during the weekend, with an itinerary that showed off the Schuylkill River Trail, Valley Green and a mix of hotels, restaurants, museums and more. Run With Olympians was sponsored by Enterprise Rent-A-Car and PECO Wind.
boundlessphiladelphia.com

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Season two of Illadates, the uwishunu.com Web TV series formerly known as Cheap Dates, debuted on September 27 with a fun double-date episode at Bartram’s Garden. The new title, Illadates, is a play on Illadelph, a street term for Philadelphia. Hosts and newly married couple Mark and Audrey are back this season with 12 off-the-beaten-path dates (including double dates and celebrity dates) in the city’s many diverse neighborhoods.
uwishunu.com

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GPTMC's popular image library continues to expand. Since June 2007, we’ve updated classic shots such as Kelly Drive, Rittenhouse Square and the Philadelphia Zoo and added brand new offerings, including the Water Works Restaurant and Lounge, OutFest and Va La Vineyards. In total, we conducted about 45 shoots, including press conferences and special events. We’re currently focused on uploading these high-resolution images to gophila.com/pressroom, so that they’re easily accessible to the press. Members of the hospitality industry interested in using our images should contact Jason Smith at (267) 861-3449 or jason@gptmc.com.

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A trio of big award wins this fall recognizes three very different GPTMC projects. The Web Marketing Association, Inc. honored gophila.com with the Travel Standard of Excellence 2007 WebAward for outstanding achievement in Web site development based on its design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copywriting and ease of use. In addition, PR News presented SoundAboutPhilly™, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts created by GPTMC, the Platinum PR Award. Given by the PR industry’s leading industry publication, the honor recognizes soundaboutphilly.com for outstanding communications efforts surrounding a podcast in the PR arena. Finally, judges for the Travel Industry Association of America’s Odyssey Awards were so impressed with the Boundless Philadelphia™ campaign that they created a special award in its honor. GPTMC received an honorable mention called “Geotourism Award for Sustaining the Environment of a Place” for our campaign to promote the vast collection of natural assets, outdoor experiences and stewardship opportunities in the Philadelphia region.

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On October 24, 2007, gophila.com celebrated its 10th anniversary just like any other day—earnestly committed to producing the most effective and affecting destination Web site possible. In the same milestone month, gophila.com added some major new features to the site: a new booking widget powered by Travelocity that allows people to book a rental car and/or attraction tickets online, in addition to their hotel stay. The widget is just the latest example of ongoing Web site enhancements designed to make it easier for visitors to plan their trip to Philadelphia.

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• “There are signs of success: A record $10.4 billion in direct and indirect spending by visitors to Philadelphia and its four suburban Pennsylvania counties last year, the report said. That’s up 3.6 percent from 2005 and up 8 percent from 2004.” – USAtoday.com, November 1, 2007


• “I think it’s a stupid, dumb, stupid survey is what I think it is...It’s the birthplace of our nation, it’s the place of brotherly love, and the Liberty Bell is there.” (In reference to the Travel + Leisure survey that ranked Philadelphia last in the attractive people category.) – The Ellen DeGeneres Show, October 25, 2007


• “A blockbuster exhibit about a boy king and three major conventions over holiday weekends helped propel Philadelphia hotel occupancy and tourism to their best summer in recent memory.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer (352,593, circulation), October 24, 2007
  
  
• “Welcome to the diverse, thriving Philly music scene, where everyone knows each other (the Teeth worked with West Philly underground hip-hop producer RJD2), sounds cross-pollinate and commercialism hasn’t intruded on a grassroots DIY eithic: ‘This town created everything good it has all on its own,’ says rapper Amanda Blank.” – Rolling Stone (1,445,048 circulation), October 18, 2007
  
  
• “‘On a Saturday night in 1991, you could walk the mile from City Hall to Washington Avenue and you wouldn’t have seen 100 people,’ said Mr. Rendell, who is now Pennsylvania’s governor. ‘Now you walk around on a Thursday night, you see thousands of people on the street. It’s not yet complete, but it’s come a long way. If you had told me people would buy $1 million condos on the avenue, I wouldn’t have believed it.’”
  – The New York Times (1,120,420 circulation), October 17, 2007
  
  
• “‘This outdoor market [Italian Market] epitomizes the quintessential foods we associate with Little Italy, with stalls selling roasted red peppers, fresh mozzarella, cannoli, fresh pasta,’ Batali says.” – USA Today (2,278,022 circulation), October 5, 2007;
  
  
• “Thanks to the opening of fashionable shops around North Third Street, Old City is finding a new groove.” – Travel + Leisure (969,452 circulation), October 2007
  
  
• “…where will all the cool kids go? Philly?” – New York Magazine
  (435,113 circulation), September 9, 2007
  
  
• “Rocky! Rocky! Rocky! That is the chant heard all over Philly, but beyond the ring of the Liberty Bell, the eye of the tiger and a mouth watering cheese steak, there is an incredible indie fashion movement that is on the brink of breaking out of the city of brotherly love.”
  – Music Fashion Magazine (10,000 circulation), Summer/Fall 2007

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