Earlier this week, the Myrtle Beach City Council voted to create a
1 percent sales tax to pay for out-of-market tourism advertising. Proceeds from the tax will give the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce $172 million over 10 years for its marketing efforts.
The debate over the tax was somewhat polarizing, with supporters saying the money is needed to attract tourists and opponents saying local residents pay enough sales tax.
But there is another question that remains obscured: Do the marketing campaigns actually work?
The chamber says they do, and they have the numbers to back them up.
The chamber started running TV ads in the middle of May in about 60 markets, focusing on areas where visitors would be likely to visit Myrtle Beach and on markets where nonstop air service is offered to the Grand Strand. For the second part of the month, the ads cost about $300,000, said Scott Schult, the chamber's vice president for marketing.
Since the ads started running, the number of calls the chamber has received for vacation inquiries has skyrocketed. The most the chamber received before the campaign was 53 calls in a day; since then, it has gotten between 438 and 1,357.
Read full story [Sun News]
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