USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C o m mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia-S a n t a Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Se r v i ng t he Fi r st Jud icial Ci rcu it
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 19, No. 29
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
PNS to NYC:
July 17, 2019
1 Section, 12 Pages
by Will Isern
How Marketers are Selling Pensacola in the Big Apple Pensacola has long been a popular vacation destination for families throughout the southeast, but the addition of a new nonstop flight to Newark, New Jersey has local travel promoters marketing the city further away than ever before in the nation’s most iconic mecca. United Airlines announced last October that it would add daily nonstop service between Pensacola International Airport and Newark Liberty International. The inaugural flight landed in Pensacola on June 6. The Newark airport is 45 minutes from downtown Manhattan in New York City, making the United flight a direct link between snowbirds looking to dip their toes in the Gulf and Pensacolians pining for a taste of the Big Apple. For the folks whose job it is to promote travel here, the flight has provided an opportunity to show off all Pensacola has to offer in one of the nation’s biggest metropolitan markets. “In the last couple years we’ve started to see New York creep up into our top 25 destinations for visitation,” said Steve Hayes, president of Visit Pensacola. “Chicago, Dallas and Houston are still higher up, but with an important market like New York showing up and United saying we’re going to offer this route, we knew we wanted to do anything we could to share all that Pensacola has to offer.” In conjunction with the inaugural United flight, Hayes and other Visit Pensacola staff traveled with chefs from Pensacola to offer a taste
of Pensacola to New York travel writers, influencers and media. Among the delegation were Irv Miller of Jackson’s Steakhouse, Dan Dunn of Big Top Brewing Co., Gus Silivos of Skopelos and James Briscione of the forthcoming Angelena’s Italian Ristorante. “I think some people who are coming to the South think they’re getting all fried food, and we know that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Hayes said. “So we had three chefs serving seafood.” Visit Pensacola also took a Pensacola virtual reality experience to New York to show off our white sands and amenities like the Pensacola Bay Cruises, Palafox Street and the Blue Angels flying overhead. “It’s funny, they actually think
we Photoshop the white sand on the beaches,” Hayes said. “It was to show them that, ‘No, this is really what you get.” Visit Pensacola also secured an $87,500 grant from Visit Florida, which it matched, to run a targeted digital advertising campaign in New York City encouraging travelers to consider Pensacola for the summer. The campaign ran from May through June. The hope in selling Pensacola as travel destination to New Yorkers is two-fold. Even a small slice of such a large market could be a boon to the local tourism economy. Secondly, the new United route is seasonal and will end in August. If the route can be made popular, the company is more likely to bring it back in the future.
The Pensacola International Airport is promoting the route locally on its billboards, social media and in email campaigns. The Newark route is the airport’s 20th direct flight. Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson celebrated the new route at a ribbon cutting ceremony coinciding with the first arrival on the new route. “We really appreciate this with United putting another city and another way for us to connect Pensacola to the rest of the country and the rest of the world,” Robinson said. “So we hope that you will take the chance to fly out of here directly to New York.” United’s Pensacola to Newark route offers daily flights with ticket prices averaging around $350 for a round trip.
United Airlines is offering nonstop flights to and from Newark, New Jersey and the Pensacola International Airport during the summer months. Depending on the popularity of the route, it could become a permenant addition to the flight itinerary.
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