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HomeMeeting InformationMeeting Make-UpsPresident's PageOfficers & DirectorsFour Avenues of ServicePhoto GalleryNewsletterCurrentArchiveEvents CalendarInternational OpportunitiesRaffle CalendarScholarship Information Club HistoryAbout RotaryUseful Links Contact UsSite MapFor members...Administration Login
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And the winner is..... Sandy Heaphy's windfall - $221.00
50-50 Pot: $0.00
Raffle Calendar: # 553 sold by Paul O'Toole to Jen Pafford & # 222 sold by ??? to Bruce Potter.
Recognitions and Fines:
Announcements:
President Juli reported some items from the district conference....
http://www.rotary.org/en/ServiceAndFellowship/Fellowship/GlobalNetworkingGroups/Pages/ridefault.aspx
Welcome to our newest member John Stueve Mark Shaw introduced John to the club and gave him his autograph book - It is suggested that you take an opportunity to meet John sooner rather than later; (it's much more economical for you). John's classification is contractor and was sponsored by Tim Clarke.
Program for the June 3rd Meeting:
Kate Fox and the "New" Destination Salem
Destination Salem cooperatively markets the City of Salem as one of Massachusetts’ best destinations for domestic and international travelers who are seeking an authentic New England experience, cultural enrichment, American history, fine dining, unique shopping, and fun. Funding for Destination Salem comes from advertising in the Salem Visitor & Travel Guide (66%), the City of Salem through hotel/motel tax revenues (27%), grants (5%), and cooperative advertising (1%). The annual budget is $240,000. Salem has changed tremendously since 1998. The PEM expansion has happened. We have had a restaurant and retail boom. We are now a two-trolley town. Visitors can choose from more than a half-dozen walking tours that will share stories both historic and hysterical, and some do both simultaneously. We now have two hotels downtown. And we have the Salem Ferry. In short, Salem has options. And that makes it a fun, exciting destination to market.
Tourism marketing has changed a lot since 1998, as well. In 1998 Salem was trying to capture the developing niche market for cultural travelers. We all wanted these high-end, high-spending empty nesters. In 1998, a tourist was defined as a person who traveled more than 50 miles and stayed overnight in their destination. If you didn’t do that, you didn’t get counted. Everything changed in 2001. After September 11 the face of travel and tourism in America changed. We started counting everyone. Destinations had to look closer to home for their audience, and everyone drew concentric circles around our destinations to determine how far the drive market would drive, because nobody wanted to fly. Salem visitation dropped an estimated 40% from its all-time high of more than one million visitors in 1995. When the fly market started to return, the American economy started to slip, and today Salem and all New England destinations are seeking out the lucrative international market – like cultural tourists, they spend more and stay longer, and their money is worth a lot in the US right now – to fill in where the domestic market is leaving some gaps.
“Staycations” are the theme for 2008, with families opting to stay close to home and explore their backyards instead of investing in the gas to go on long trips. We are optimistic that these local travelers will offset any downward trend in the traditional 4 to 6 hour drive vacations we usually see.
Destination Salem works with industry leaders at the North of Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau and Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism to ensure we are current with travel and tourism trends. We are incredibly fortunate to have a number of industry leaders in Salem, who continue to market their properties, museums, and attractions along with Salem to group travel, student and international markets through travel and trade shows. You may have noticed all of the buses in Salem during the month of May – May is one of Salem’s busiest months because it is field trip season. In a recent meeting when discussion turned to the uncertainty of Salem’s upcoming tourism season, one of Salem’s attraction owners quipped, “Thank goodness there’s a new sixth grade every year!”
With limited funds for marketing and advertising, Destination Salem has been doing as many familiarization – or FAM – tours as we can. Fam tours come through the North of Boston CVB, Greater Boston CVB, and Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism. They bring travel and lifestyle journalists to Salem to learn, experience, and we hope write about the destination. We have hosted journalists from Germany, Ireland, Dubai, and the United Kingdom, as well as New York, Miami, and the Boston Globe. In May Destination Salem worked with Where Magazine on the annual Destination Salem/Salem Ferry/Where Magazine Concierge Fam, which brought more than 30 Greater Boston concierge to Salem to explore, shop, eat and visit the sites. To facilitate these visits, Destination Salem manages and issues VIP and Hospitality Passes that provide complimentary admission to participating museums and attractions for visiting VIPs and for staff working in Salem’s tourism industry.
Destination Salem is working with the City of Salem on the new cruise initiative. As the City expands the Blaney Street pier and creates CruisePort Salem, Destination Salem is ready to market Salem as a perfect port of call. In June I will be attending a Cruise Symposium in Portland, Maine with others from Salem and the region. I look forward to learning about and cultivating this exciting new market. Right now I can estimate that 39% of the people planning to come to Salem are planning October visits. 30% are planning for July; and 27% for June. While this is not scientific data, it is on track, because historically about 35% of Salem’s annual visitation comes in October. During the past 5 months of visitor information requests, o 79% are interested in Salem for the Witch Trials of 1692; o 72% for Salem Haunted Happenings; o 63% for shopping; o 63% for the modern witch and metaphysical shops; o 48% for the maritime heritage; o 46% for the art and culture; o and 41% for the architecture. This isn’t scientific, and I most people who check one attribute check two or three, so further evaluation needs to be done. The 67 thousand-plus visits to Salem.org and requests for information have come from 136 countries this year to date. We have a “welcome to Salem’ page on the web site that is translated into 8 languages, all of which are visited. 84% of our visitors are from the US. The top five domestic origins for Salem’s visitors are: o Massachusettso New Yorko Pennsylvaniao New Jerseyo California International visitors hail from o Canadao United Kingdomo Indiao Franceo Germany I’ve heard from inn keepers that the dollar is so week, visitors from the UK are coming over with empty suitcases to shop for a weekend.
To ensure we are heading down the right road, Destination Salem has received a second Adams Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and during the next 6 to 8 months we will be undergoing a strategic and creative planning process that will provide a marketing road map for the City. This work will build upon the Tourism Strategy created by Christine Pappas in 2007 and the marketing research done by Minelli, Inc. in 2004.
Shopping, dining, going to the museums and attractions, staying overnight… all of these things fuel the economic engine that is tourism in Salem. The City’s investment of 25% of the annual hotel/motel tax into tourism marketing is a good investment. The Massachusetts Office of Tourism estimates a $7 return on every $1 invested in tourism marketing.
Highlights from Brenda Smith's Recent Iron Man in Brazil
Brenda shared her adventure with at this weeks meeting. This was by far her most mentally challenging Iron Man and she almost quit, this was due to the marking of the swim course and how it impacted her performance (she was not alone, many other swimmers were mislead). Although it was very tough mentally, she persevered, continued on her way and finished the race. It was one of the smaller races she has been in, approximately 1,250 racers down from the norm of 2,200 to 2,400. Brenda stated that of the 1,250 racers there were many “fabios” (???). The reason she continues to participate in these very challenging races is that she learns something new about herself each time she competes. While in Brazil Brenda also had the opportunity to travel down the Amazon River for six days visiting indigenous communities and seeing wildlife like toucans and monkeys. A few brave souls from Brenda’s boat swam in the Amazon River; Brenda kindly said “no thanks”. Brenda also declined to indulge in the piranha stew that was served (one cannot really blame her). Brenda informed us that Brazil is the 5th largest land mass in the world. Smack dab in the middle of that land mass right on the Amazon River is a very large city called Manaus; see website for more details (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manaus). Manaus is home to more that 2 million people and is economically driven by the natural resources of the rubber tree and natural gas. While in Manaus Brenda had visited the Teatro Amazonas Opera House, which was beautiful.
Weclome back Brenda and CONGRATS on a job well done! Lastly, we thank her for her tidbit of travel advice - DON'T DRINK THE WATER!
Rotary Minute for International Service - Sweden presented by Denise Flynn
Here are some interesting facts Denise reported on about Swenden with the help of her Swedish husbans Jeff's input - very good stuff Denise!
· Beautiful people · They have a very low crime rate · Socialism cradle to grave · Ice hockey is very popular · Sweden invented steel · Cash for kids $500-$600 per month · Unemployment 90% for 3 years · Gov’t pays you to go to school and retrains workers to re-enter the workforce · High taxes, top 60% · Sales tax 25.5% · Long cold winters, July “green winter”, winter 2 hours sun, summer 22 hours sun · Monolithic culture – little diversity · There has been an exodus of high earners, avoid taxes · Many restaurants have you bus your own dishes · Engineers abound – 50% of output and exports · Stockholm International Rotary Club – only English speaking - have sent 5000 students abroad and have hosted as many
For more information on Swenden visit the following link; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden
Upcoming Speakers
Events to be aware of -- Save the Dates!!
2007-2008 Board Meeting Schedule
June -- Joint board meeting with new board, date and time TBA
Please visit the calendar section of our web site for additional important dates.
And now a few announcements from the district....
From: Tom Elliott [mailto:telliott@danversauto.com]
Please visit the calendar section of our web site for additional important dates.
Stumpers
This week's stumper: How many nights did Brenda Smith on her recent Iron Man trip to Brazil spend in an open air boat on the Amazon River? And... how many hammocks were there?
Answer to last week's stumper: No stumper last week.
Happy Birthday to: none this week
Please email all announcements to be added to the Spoke and/or feedback to salem_rotary@yahoo.com by Noon on Wednesday. Also, feel free to contact any of the committee members listed below.
Committee Chair: Jim Haskell Editors: Jim Haskell Photos: John Quinn (Jay Cue), Carl Wathne, Trip Mason and File. Graphics and Photo Editing: Rich Eisner Members: Brenda Smith and James Cobb
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