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Lake Placid in the Finger Lakes

March 28th, 2008 · 5 Comments · Destination Marketing

Villa Serendip, Lake Placid NY

For a variety of reasons, I should keep my mouth shut. Oh well.

In some previous post, I mentioned the selection of a new PR Agency of Record for our Empire State. If anyone has been following this stuff, even with a stable administration, there has been some big changes regarding state tourism marketing. New leadership, repositioning of the brand, Saatchi & Saatchi, etc. etc. Well, change is good, right?

I Love NYDon’t know if I mentioned, but we’ll be the first state in the nation to drop a comprehensive State Travel Guide. This year’s piece will be a “lure piece”. Bold move, I like it, but it challenges many old ways of thinking. Will it work? Do people still want or need such a gargantuan marketing brochure like a state travel guide? Can a PDF replace? There’s no scientific research to prove either way. What I do know is that there’s a lot of waste and cost in the advertising – printing – mailing paradigm. ROI and CPI are typically outlandish, but accepted by the industry. I’m ranting.

Back to the issue at hand. I don’t know who is at fault here, but I’m tempted to say it’s me. That would be dumb though, since I’m just the “Supervisor”. Check out this presser that landed in my inbox this morning:

NEW YORK STATE HOTELIERS WANT TRAVELERS TO SAY “I LOVE NY”

FOR SPRING GETAWAY VALUES

Up to 40 percent off Rooms, Hotels, B & Bs and Resorts

NEW YORK, March 28, 2008 – Hoteliers across New York State are hoping travelers will say “I Love NY” and book a getaway this spring. Seeking to entice vacationers with seasonal packages, hotel managers are offering savings of up to 40 percent on a range of interests, including family vacations, romantic getaways and golf outings.

Excellent values are available at a variety of accommodations, from B & Bs and country inns to name-brand hotels and private cottages. The following is a sampling of packages available in the Empire State through the spring season:

  • Villa Serendip, Lake Placid NY

    Book a “A Night to Remember” at the Villa Serendip, a Victorian Bed and Breakfast located in the heart of the Finger Lakes region. This spring they are offering 15 percent off their romantic, “A Night to Remember” package which includes a candlelit four-course dinner for two, an hour-long fireside couple’s massage in the Wine Cellar Spa Room, gourmet breakfast served in-room, a complimentary spa basket and overnight accommodations in the Jacuzzi Suite. The package is valid Sunday-Thursday nights only. Rates begin at $469. To book, visit www.VillaSerendip.com.

  • Radisson Hotel, Corning NY

    Located in the heart of downtown Corning, NY, the Radisson Hotel is offering a 20 percent savings that includes overnight accommodations, breakfast for two at the Radisson’s Grill 1-2-5 and tickets for two premier tourist attractions; the world famous Corning Museum of Glass and the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. This package is valid from April 1st – June 30th, rates begin at $191. To book, visit www.radison.com/corningny.

  • Mirror Lake Inn Resort and Spa, Adirondack Mountains

    Mirror Lake Inn is offering a 40 percent discount for a three night stay. The package includes three nights in a Noonmark Room, complimentary daily breakfast at The Mirror Lake’s Four Diamond restaurant, The View and a choice of one of the spas 50-minute services daily. This offer is valid Sunday-Tuesday, through June 17th rates begin at $890 per couple. To book, call 518-523-2544.

  • Fairfield Inn, East Greenbush NY

    The Fairfield Inn is offering 35 percent off its “Get Out and Play!” package which includes two nights’ accommodations and two rounds of golf at the Burden Lake Country Club’s semi-private golf course. The package also includes lunch at the club and dinner at Teagan’s Steak, Seafood and Pasta. Package is valid from April – October, rates begin at $370. To book, contact Kim Levy 518-477-7984.

  • Small Graces at Forget Me Not Farm, Tioga County

    The Small Graces at Forget Me Not Farm is offering three nights for the price of two in one of their private cottages set on an organic farm. Along with one night free, guests will enjoy a complimentary organic farm fresh breakfast each morning. All cottages include a kitchenette, deck and outdoor spa. Rates begin at $240, not available on weekends. To book, call 607-659-5630.

New York is America’s 27th largest state with 11 regions, 62 counties, 62 cities, 553 villages and 932 towns. From beautiful state parks to beaches, from shopping to wine tasting, and spectator sports to skiing, New York State offers diverse activities for all travelers. For more information visit: www.iloveny.com.

Me? The first thing I thought was, “Villa Serendip? Never heard of that one.” Next thing, I click through for geeky website analysis. Before I even noticed that it looked like a Blogger template, I saw this:

A Finger Lakes Bed and Breakfast in the Beautiful Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York

I would have dropped one of the “Finger Lakes”, but that’s just me. This would have been a post about how some Adirondack properties are being highlighted by our new PR Agency of Record, but obviously I’ve changed my tack. Now I’m just calling it “Lake Placid in the Finger Lakes”. At least they did say that Mirror Lake Inn was in the “Adirondack Mountains”.

I’m a control freak, if given the chance, and I need to see any official communication before it goes out. I can sympathize with the challenge of dealing with over whatever number of counties, 11 vacation regions, and your trying to learn your product in weeks, but not doing even a cursory fact-check is a grade-school mistake. Too bad because it might result in a Graduate level Incomplete.

I’m guessing a bunch of “reporters” or “travel writers” are staring at that press release right now and thinking of republishing this “news”. I’m going to dig a foxhole and avoid the shrapnel.

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5 Comments so far ↓

  • Mrs. Mecomber

    Great new blog look, by the way!

    I subscribed to ILoveNY emails a few weeks ago, but have only received one. :-p

    The Internet is so ubiquitous now that printing 100 page brochures sets NY back about 30 years. There should be some kind of hub online– not a HUGE state-run hub that tries to be-all and do-all (like our legislature does). Rather, there should be a hub that points in certain directions to other smaller sites (like my own blog, heh heh) that offer various input on a huge variety of topics. I am actually building one, but it’s very small scale and small budget– not to mention very difficult. But that’s the best way.

    But NY has a clasped fist and is trying to be a dictator in a world where everything is open source now. If they continue this suffocating policy, I expect other states to step up to the plate, and fast.

  • TourPro

    Eh, you know how it is when you start a new blog. There’s always a ‘content spurt’. I’m sure they’ll pick-up again.

    The marketing folks down there have actually asked about such things as web design, Web 2.0, and such. It’s really hard to change something like this, reasons given this year mostly relate to budget. Relatively speaking, tourism efforts at all levels are pretty poorly funded. How that money is spent is a whole other debate.

    Something I’d like to note, their site “The Beat“, was created and launched in record time. No surprise, it’s powered by WordPress. This gives me hope.

    Until we have a real alternative to paper (Kindle ?) I think we’ll continue to have a need for paper brochures, but most definitely those days are ending. Who prints what for who, why, and how many? I ask myself this everyday.

    Regarding blog changes. You know how it is when you get to moving the furniture around. Cool thing about WP, not only can you move stuff around, you can replace all the furniture anytime you want. I might upgrade today which could break everything!

  • City Mouse

    I had exactly the same reaction when reading through that stuff – Villa What? And at the simplest level – bad copy editing. But I guess the email creators simply swiped-and-pasted from whatever they found they wanted to include. No excuse for bad copy though. Especially coming from the state. I do agree with the move against paper mailing – and a clean up and reorg of the “I Love New York” website would be nice. I would call it a mess, but it’s certainly sprawling and hard to find your way around.

    And as you mention, you would hope that someone would at least know that Lake Placid is not in the Finger Lakes.

    (Glad I found your blog by the way!)

  • Finger Flakes

    Looks like at least one writer thinks Lake Placid is in the Finger Lakes – or maybe the Finger Lakes is in Lake Placid.

    Here, an editor from Woman’s Day magazine
    talks about her trip to Mirror Lake Inn, with a stop at Goose Watch Wineyer on Main Street in Lake Placid.

    The only problem? Goose Watch Winery is located in Romulus, in the Finger Lakes Region, five hours southwest!!!

    http://dailywd.womansday.com/blog/travel/index.html

  • Finger Flakes

    It looks like I’m the one who doesn’t know geography – Goose Watch Winery has a tasting room in Romulus after all.

    Hope some editors do make it to the Finger Lakes, though. I’d love to see more in the press about upstate New York’s wine regions.

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