Grow That Revenue Source! Move That Bus!

Sounds sort of like "Move That Bus!"

The ArtPRIDE NJ Foundation is presenting a workshop for cultural groups on May 22 from 10 am - 2 pm at Thomas Edison State College on "Positioning & Packaging Cultural Experiences for Travel & Tourism." The presenter is Joe Veneto, The Opportunity Guy, who comes with a wealth of information and insight into the tourism industry. Joe recently presented workshops at the NJ Governor's Tourism Conference and last fall did two highly successful seminars for ArtPRIDE to introduce cultural groups to the tourism industry. This is a chance to get "down and dirty" and start building cultural tourism packages with tourism industry providers like restaurants, accommodations, group tour operators and receptors.

The goal of this and the previous workshops is two-fold. First, arts, history and tourism groups need to work together so the dedicated revenue source (the hotel/motel occupancy fee) that feeds their state budgets GROWS. The law allows percentages of revenue from this source to fuel these industries once it passes $100 million. We're somewhere in the vicinity of $80 million at the moment (someone correct me if I'm wrong...) in revenue. The arts get $22.68 million (this year $20.68 as proposed by Gov. Corzine), history receives $3,840,000 ($3,456,000 as proposed by Gov. Corzine for FY07), the NJ Cultural Trust $720,000 and the tourism industry $12,760,000 (no cut proposed by Gov. Corzine). Hotels are springing up everywhere in New Jersey. Municipalities are getting their share--we need to make sure our share not only stays there but gets larger. "Move that bus!!"

The other goal driving these workshops, collectively called "Cultural Tourism--The Right Direction!" is the need for cultural groups to learn that they really CAN tap into the tourism market with the appropriate technical assistance. The non-profit arts (and historic sites) industry counts on cultural tourism to build audiences, so tourism should be part of a marketing strategy no matter the size of the cultural group.

The Opportunity Guy will use this workshop to help cultural groups strategize and position themselves for the tourism market. I guarantee positive results!! Space is limited but still available (as of May 4), so click on www.artpridenj.com and the Cultural Tourism logo for more info!!