The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association knows vacations are becoming more expensive by the day.
With the national average gas price at $3.72 per gallon, according to AAA, BACVA realizes more people are looking for cost-effective, close-to-home getaways.
So with that in mind, the tourism group on Wednesday started an online program offering city hotel, shopping and attraction discounts.
“In this trying economic time, we’re trying to do anything we can to get ourselves an edge,” said BACVA President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Noonan.
A new tool on BACVA’s Web site called Deal Driver assists visitors in calculating the cost of driving from their hometown to downtown Baltimore. Visitors enter their home ZIP code on the site, and Deal Driver calculates the gas cost based on the current national average gas price.
Deal Driver then matches the cost of gas to get to Baltimore with free offers for city attractions, restaurants and shopping.
“We’re going to offset that cost with comps and discounts,” Noonan said. “This campaign has been in the works for a while.”
For a visitor planning a trip from New York City to Baltimore, the driving distance is about 400 miles round-trip. With a vehicle that gets 25 miles per gallon, the travel cost is about $60 plus tolls.
BACVA’s Deal Driver would then offer the visitor at least $60 worth of savings in Baltimore, such as a free dessert with the purchase of an entree at a participating restaurant, or a free ticket with the purchase of one ticket from a participating city attraction.
BACVA is targeting consumers in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, New Jersey and Maryland with print ads, radio promotions and Web marketing.
In July, BACVA said it closed fiscal 2008 with more than 451,000 future hotel room nights booked, an 18 percent increase from fiscal 2007. The future economic effect of the reservations is estimated at $422 million.
“This is an exciting time to be selling Baltimore, and in the past year we’ve set new goals and developed an aggressive action plan that will set the tone for Baltimore’s future success,” Mayor Sheila Dixon said in a statement.
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