PHILADELPHIA, July 10, 2001 – It’s an age-old story: residents often know less about the events and attractions in their own backyard than visitors do. But the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC), which for five years has focused its efforts on selling the Philadelphia region to those who live outside the market, will now be reaching out to Philadelphians to convince them to be tourists in their own town. A recently approved $2.25 million grant from the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) will enable GPTMC to launch a media campaign in spring 2002 to entice Philadelphia residents to discover the riches of the region where they live and to share it with visiting friends and relatives.

"As you know the DRPA’s motto is ‘We keep the region moving,’ and we’re not only talking about bridges and Patco this time. We’re talking about moving our citizens, encouraging them to get out and explore all the region," said Manny Stamatakis, DRPA chairman.

"We’ve wanted to advertise in the Philadelphia market for a long time but couldn’t because of the expense," said Meryl Levitz, president and CEO of GPTMC. "The DRPA is really the local hero here because we know from research that the people who live here are predisposed to vacationing close to home and that 40% of all our overnight visitors are visiting friends and relatives who could be staying in hotels more often and seeing more of what we have to offer. With these additional funds, we will be able to advertise locally within the very powerful Philadelphia media market."

As the fifth largest region in the nation, the Philadelphia region (for advertising purposes) encompasses 5.6 million people in the Philadelphia advertising market, living in 18 counties of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. According to Scarborough Research, 31.8% of all regional residents traveled in the last 12 months to the Jersey Shore, 21.7% to Atlantic City, 17.6% to the Pocono Mountains, 14.7% to Lancaster County, 12.3% to Delaware and 18.1% to "other Pennsylvania" places.

Toward the end of this summer, GPTMC plans to issue a request for proposal from local advertising agencies to solicit their campaign ideas. Focus group research involving local residents will then be used to evaluate the effectiveness of each campaign.

"We’ll want to be sure we know what would get people to move around more and bring their visiting friends and relatives out into the region," said Levitz. "We also want to learn what the barriers are. Is it not knowing where to go or maybe not knowing what is actually here? Or is it thinking that you already know what’s out there and don’t need to make another trip?"

The campaign, when completed, will run throughout 2002 in newspapers, magazines, television, radio and online media in the Philadelphia region.

Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation is a non-profit organization dedicated to generating awareness of and visitation to Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties. For more information about travel to Philadelphia visit www.gophila.com or call (877) GO-PHILA.

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

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