Interview with Meryl Levitz
For my fall condominium newsletter, I had the honor of interviewing Meryl Levitz, President and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. Due to the length of the interview, I was not able to include everything in the newsletter. However, I am happy to share the entire piece with you here. Enjoy!
1. Philadelphians are always looking for a future vision for the city. Where do you see Philadelphia in five and ten years from now?
I see it as a place where there is always so much brewing, happening and growing, big and small. In the next couple of years, we will have the Barnes Collection on the Parkway, the President’s House, the National Museum of American Jewish History, the Underground Franklin Museum, the American Revolution Center, and the expanded Convention Center, as well as great new events like the West Oak Lane Jazz Festival, Philly Beer Week and the Kimmel Center’s new international festival of the arts.
In our focus groups in New York City and elsewhere, people see Philadelphia as a wonderful place to start your dream – whether it’s a BYOB, boutique, gallery, design shop or small business. Recently, Forbes.com named us as one of America’s Top Five Most Entertaining Cities because of our museums, restaurants, music and theater scene, and we were named as a great place to retire, according to CNNmoney.com. I’d like to see Philadelphia maintain that entrepreneurial spirit and image as a place where great ideas happened and continue to happen, and as a place we are all proud to call home.
2. Tell us about some of the latest and greatest GPTMC projects/initiatives.
Our new “With Love Philadelphia XOXO” campaign is a smasheroo. Everybody loves it – residents and visitors alike – and everyone seems to have a favorite love letter: “Dear World Champions – oh, wait, that’s us”; “Dear World Travelers, We miss yous”; “Dear tasteful and Refined, We have arts out the wazoo”; Dear Leaving Towners, We’ll never forget you”; and “Dear Guy who says he never cried during Rocky IV, We know you did” are some of the favorites, but there are over 60 of them and more all the time, all signed by Philadelphia itself. Over the past 12 years, the Philadelphia region went from hosting 6.5 million overnight visitors in 1997 (when GPTMC started advertising) to 10.4 million in 2008. (In 2008, Greater Philadelphia hosted nearly 30 million domestic visitors in all.) On the whole, this increase shows that tourism is an industry worth investing in and that if you invite people with warmth and humor and a good offer, they will come.
Philly 360° (giving the world a 360° view of our official and unofficial cultures) is the newest component of GPTMC’s African-American marketing campaign, spotlighting Philadelphia’s successful, creative entrepreneurs (musicians and producers, visual artists, and designers). It’s about telling new stories to a new generation because we love this place and the people who make it special - people like music producer King Britt, celebrity hair stylist Syreeta Scott and visual artist Stacey “Flygirrl” Wilson and our lead creative ambassadors, Philly’s own The Roots. The Roots take Philly with them when they travel around the globe and are currently drawing critical acclaim as the house band on NBC’s “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”.
Our two websites: gophila.com, the Official Visitor Site for Greater Philadelphia and uwishunu.com, our insider blog, are used by tourists and residents alike to find out what’s going on in the region, and last year alone, the sites received nearly 6 million visits. GPTMC was an early adopter of the Web, launching gophila.com in 1997, and we embraced social media early on. We are now considered leaders in social media use among destination marketing organizations—thanks to uwishunu.com, multiple Twitter accounts, a Facebook presence and more. In fact, we were just recognized as one of the Top 5 Tweet Elite in the country for putting our destination – Philadelphia and The Countryside® – top of mind in the influential social media world.
3. The GPTMC has done so much for expanding our regional tourism. What do you see as the key to continuing this growth?
Thank you so much. We have a passionate staff who keep GPTMC achieving its desired results. They love this city and region and believe in its potential as a top tourism destination, so it’s a labor of love to create great work that motivates Philadelphia visits. What’s more, GPTMCers, like all residents should, enjoy being tourists in their own town. After all, none of the great features of our city has a “visitors only” sign on it. That said, funding is always a big challenge. We operate in a very expensive media market and our competitors outspend us.
4. What has been your personal favorite and the most successful GPTMC ad campaign?
Picking a favorite is like picking my favorite child: I love them all equally. But since With Love has only been going since May, I’ll give you two older ones: Philly’s More Fun When You Sleep Over® (pajama man, pink slippers, free hotel parking) was the most successful post-9/11 campaign in the country, and it really helped put Philadelphia on the map as a destination. It’s so popular, it continues today. Number two would have to be our gay-friendly campaign called, Philadelphia - Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay®. We were the first destination on the planet to go on TV with a gay-friendly travel campaign, and it, too, was such a hit that it is still running.
5. Do you think the expansion to the Convention Center will be a big boon for our region’s tourism and how does the GPTMC plan to market this soon-to-be improved venue?
Yes, I do. PCVB does their marketing, but we all work together on convention conversion – turning a conventioneer into a leisure visitor with “Come early, Stay late, and Come back” - messaging. The image of the city is important to attracting conventions and also to attracting the largest number of attendees. These attendees can be great ambassadors for our city, for future meetings, vacations and getaways.
6. How can Philadelphians get involved and support the efforts of the GPTMC?
Thanks – none of this would have happened without the people who live here. Invite your friends and relatives to visit and don’t let them stay with you. Please think of one of our fine hotels as your spare bedroom – you will be boosting the economy and you’ll all have a better time with the help of a professional staff. Also, when you travel, talk up the city! Word of mouth is one of the most important influencers. Plus, everyone wants an insider’s view, and you have the power to influence their attitude towards us. Use gophila.com for all kinds of information when you or you guests want to enrich their experience, and spread the love by going to gophila.com/buy so that you and your customers and friends can literally wear your pride.
7. What do you think are the most sellable aspects of Philadelphia, both for luring residents and tourists?
Accessibility, affordability, authenticity, history and fun are the qualities most cited by our ever-increasing numbers of visitors. What a destination it has become! People frequently say it is “very European”, given the scale, the parks, the trees, the small streets ,the owner-operated boutiques, the personality of the neighborhoods, the window boxes, bike racks, addresses that make sense, the walkability, sidewalk dining (so important!), the music, the sports teams, and food food food – people eat their way through this town, encountering our friendliness and “attitude”, and enjoying the combination of the two, for the most part! They also marvel at our combination of preserved and modern architecture, and the sense that we are really a collection of small towns in a big city.
8. You have noted that partnerships have proven to be vital to the success of the regional tourism industry. What have been some of the most successful partnerships that the GPTMC has put together and what are some upcoming partnerships that both residents and tourists should look out for?
GPTMC works daily with hospitality partners in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, as well as with the City and the Commonwealth to make Philadelphia and The Countryside® a premier destination. We also work closely with local and national media outlets, transportation providers, tourist attractions, area corporations, the Cultural Alliance, Center City District, the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, the police department, the Parking Authority, our historical attractions, and our visual and performing arts communities. It truly does take a village. Philadelphia is a better place to live, work and visit because of all of them and all of you, and we love being able to shine a light on and invite people in to our ever-evolving city. Use gophila.com and uwishunu.com as a way to be a part of all that’s happening and let us hear from you. You are what makes Philly Philly.
1. Philadelphians are always looking for a future vision for the city. Where do you see Philadelphia in five and ten years from now?
I see it as a place where there is always so much brewing, happening and growing, big and small. In the next couple of years, we will have the Barnes Collection on the Parkway, the President’s House, the National Museum of American Jewish History, the Underground Franklin Museum, the American Revolution Center, and the expanded Convention Center, as well as great new events like the West Oak Lane Jazz Festival, Philly Beer Week and the Kimmel Center’s new international festival of the arts.
In our focus groups in New York City and elsewhere, people see Philadelphia as a wonderful place to start your dream – whether it’s a BYOB, boutique, gallery, design shop or small business. Recently, Forbes.com named us as one of America’s Top Five Most Entertaining Cities because of our museums, restaurants, music and theater scene, and we were named as a great place to retire, according to CNNmoney.com. I’d like to see Philadelphia maintain that entrepreneurial spirit and image as a place where great ideas happened and continue to happen, and as a place we are all proud to call home.
2. Tell us about some of the latest and greatest GPTMC projects/initiatives.
Our new “With Love Philadelphia XOXO” campaign is a smasheroo. Everybody loves it – residents and visitors alike – and everyone seems to have a favorite love letter: “Dear World Champions – oh, wait, that’s us”; “Dear World Travelers, We miss yous”; “Dear tasteful and Refined, We have arts out the wazoo”; Dear Leaving Towners, We’ll never forget you”; and “Dear Guy who says he never cried during Rocky IV, We know you did” are some of the favorites, but there are over 60 of them and more all the time, all signed by Philadelphia itself. Over the past 12 years, the Philadelphia region went from hosting 6.5 million overnight visitors in 1997 (when GPTMC started advertising) to 10.4 million in 2008. (In 2008, Greater Philadelphia hosted nearly 30 million domestic visitors in all.) On the whole, this increase shows that tourism is an industry worth investing in and that if you invite people with warmth and humor and a good offer, they will come.
Philly 360° (giving the world a 360° view of our official and unofficial cultures) is the newest component of GPTMC’s African-American marketing campaign, spotlighting Philadelphia’s successful, creative entrepreneurs (musicians and producers, visual artists, and designers). It’s about telling new stories to a new generation because we love this place and the people who make it special - people like music producer King Britt, celebrity hair stylist Syreeta Scott and visual artist Stacey “Flygirrl” Wilson and our lead creative ambassadors, Philly’s own The Roots. The Roots take Philly with them when they travel around the globe and are currently drawing critical acclaim as the house band on NBC’s “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”.
Our two websites: gophila.com, the Official Visitor Site for Greater Philadelphia and uwishunu.com, our insider blog, are used by tourists and residents alike to find out what’s going on in the region, and last year alone, the sites received nearly 6 million visits. GPTMC was an early adopter of the Web, launching gophila.com in 1997, and we embraced social media early on. We are now considered leaders in social media use among destination marketing organizations—thanks to uwishunu.com, multiple Twitter accounts, a Facebook presence and more. In fact, we were just recognized as one of the Top 5 Tweet Elite in the country for putting our destination – Philadelphia and The Countryside® – top of mind in the influential social media world.
3. The GPTMC has done so much for expanding our regional tourism. What do you see as the key to continuing this growth?
Thank you so much. We have a passionate staff who keep GPTMC achieving its desired results. They love this city and region and believe in its potential as a top tourism destination, so it’s a labor of love to create great work that motivates Philadelphia visits. What’s more, GPTMCers, like all residents should, enjoy being tourists in their own town. After all, none of the great features of our city has a “visitors only” sign on it. That said, funding is always a big challenge. We operate in a very expensive media market and our competitors outspend us.
4. What has been your personal favorite and the most successful GPTMC ad campaign?
Picking a favorite is like picking my favorite child: I love them all equally. But since With Love has only been going since May, I’ll give you two older ones: Philly’s More Fun When You Sleep Over® (pajama man, pink slippers, free hotel parking) was the most successful post-9/11 campaign in the country, and it really helped put Philadelphia on the map as a destination. It’s so popular, it continues today. Number two would have to be our gay-friendly campaign called, Philadelphia - Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay®. We were the first destination on the planet to go on TV with a gay-friendly travel campaign, and it, too, was such a hit that it is still running.
5. Do you think the expansion to the Convention Center will be a big boon for our region’s tourism and how does the GPTMC plan to market this soon-to-be improved venue?
Yes, I do. PCVB does their marketing, but we all work together on convention conversion – turning a conventioneer into a leisure visitor with “Come early, Stay late, and Come back” - messaging. The image of the city is important to attracting conventions and also to attracting the largest number of attendees. These attendees can be great ambassadors for our city, for future meetings, vacations and getaways.
6. How can Philadelphians get involved and support the efforts of the GPTMC?
Thanks – none of this would have happened without the people who live here. Invite your friends and relatives to visit and don’t let them stay with you. Please think of one of our fine hotels as your spare bedroom – you will be boosting the economy and you’ll all have a better time with the help of a professional staff. Also, when you travel, talk up the city! Word of mouth is one of the most important influencers. Plus, everyone wants an insider’s view, and you have the power to influence their attitude towards us. Use gophila.com for all kinds of information when you or you guests want to enrich their experience, and spread the love by going to gophila.com/buy so that you and your customers and friends can literally wear your pride.
7. What do you think are the most sellable aspects of Philadelphia, both for luring residents and tourists?
Accessibility, affordability, authenticity, history and fun are the qualities most cited by our ever-increasing numbers of visitors. What a destination it has become! People frequently say it is “very European”, given the scale, the parks, the trees, the small streets ,the owner-operated boutiques, the personality of the neighborhoods, the window boxes, bike racks, addresses that make sense, the walkability, sidewalk dining (so important!), the music, the sports teams, and food food food – people eat their way through this town, encountering our friendliness and “attitude”, and enjoying the combination of the two, for the most part! They also marvel at our combination of preserved and modern architecture, and the sense that we are really a collection of small towns in a big city.
8. You have noted that partnerships have proven to be vital to the success of the regional tourism industry. What have been some of the most successful partnerships that the GPTMC has put together and what are some upcoming partnerships that both residents and tourists should look out for?
GPTMC works daily with hospitality partners in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties, as well as with the City and the Commonwealth to make Philadelphia and The Countryside® a premier destination. We also work closely with local and national media outlets, transportation providers, tourist attractions, area corporations, the Cultural Alliance, Center City District, the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, the police department, the Parking Authority, our historical attractions, and our visual and performing arts communities. It truly does take a village. Philadelphia is a better place to live, work and visit because of all of them and all of you, and we love being able to shine a light on and invite people in to our ever-evolving city. Use gophila.com and uwishunu.com as a way to be a part of all that’s happening and let us hear from you. You are what makes Philly Philly.
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