By Rich Geiger
Buffalo, NY – Nobody does it like Buffalo when it comes to celebrating summer. I should know. I've lived and worked around the country. And as president of the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau, it's my job to sell our region's point of difference. And we've got many.
We have an extraordinary collection of great American architecture. One of the world's great repositories of modern art. Distinctive regional cuisine. A world-class symphony. Some of the best fishing on the East Coast. We even get more summertime sunshine than Atlanta, New York or Washington, D.C. And in Buffalo Niagara, we take advantage of it. There's a street fair, festival or outdoor concert every weekend of the summer. Whether it's Irish dancing, Polish sausage, Italian heritage or American history, there's always something to celebrate in Buffalo Niagara.
This year we've been given an extra boost. The entire season has been designated the 2003 I LOVE NY Summer Festival and an unprecedented collaboration of Buffalo Niagara cultural institutions, including the Albright-Knox, the Museum of Science, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Historical Society, the Zoo, the Burchfield-Penney, WNED, Shea's and the Olmsted Parks, have pooled their resources to help sell this wonderful region we all call home.
The New York State designation - and the One Summerlong Sensation marketing campaign we've created -- is helping the CVB to tell the Buffalo Niagara story and get the attention of tourists. We're advertising in markets such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh and New York. We've sent pitch letters and press kits to travel writers at nearly 300 newspapers and magazines. We've printed one million brochures that will be distributed in nearby drive markets in the United States and Canada. We've produced a video that we've screened for hundreds of group tour planners and media professionals.
But to really succeed, to truly begin to re-position Buffalo Niagara as a top-of-mind destination for the nation's travelers, we need to be even more aggressive, more creative in our approach. That's where Buffalo Niagara residents come in. We know Buffalonians have a fierce pride and passionate commitment to their city and region and want to see it thrive. That's why we're asking them to visit our new web site - gobuffaloniagara.com - beginning today - for information about personal e-mail postcards to out-of-town friends and family members.
Our goal is for every Buffalonian to send a postcard, and invite an out-of-town friend to Buffalo Niagara this summer. We want their friends and family who live around the country to know what an incredible summer we have planned. To know about the great acts performing at the Guitar Festival. To know their kids would love Dinomania at the Museum of Science, or that they should see Forever Plaid at Shea's. Show them there's never been a better time to hit the road by sending them an Art on Wheels passport. Remind them that the Freedom Schooner Amistad will be docking at the Erie Basin Marina.
We're hoping they'll join us for our summerlong party and spend some money on hotel rooms, entertainment, shopping and dining. Those are out-of-town dollars - new money - giving a much-needed shot in the arm to our local economy.
In additional to the e-mail option, traditional print postcards are available at the Visitor Centers in the Market Arcade and the Walden Galleria, and at libraries and other locations throughout the region.
By working together, we can bring people here. Again, our web site, gobuffaloniagara.com, has information about emailing a personal invitation to out-of-town friends to enjoy a Summerlong Sensation - and sunshine - like nowhere else on earth.
Guest Commentator Rich Geiger is president of the Buffalo Niagara Convention and Visitors Bureau.