Happy July 4th! There is hope in the air. As of today, both See Plymouth Visitor Centers are open. Stop by and say hello to Jack Girard, Supervisor of the Waterfront Visitor Center who opened today. Ted Curtin, Supervisor of the MA Visitor Center on Route 3, Exit 5 has been open since last week and says he is already seeing a lot of action. Masks on, and social distancing, people are getting out again.
While we needed the rain to help with our drought here, it has hampered the efforts of restaurants both in the town and county of Plymouth as they have begun expanding outdoor dining areas. Last night, I took friends to one of our member’s restaurants on Court Street and it was great fun. The vibe of a downtown outdoor dining scene is inviting. I do hope our retail members will take advantage and set up outdoor retail opportunities as well. Surveys show us that people are still cautious about going inside but are anxious to wander outside.
A shout out this week to Plimoth Plantation. Rob Kluin tells us that visitors have begun exploring the villages there and the numbers are growing. With one of the best gift shops in New England coupled with experiences found nowhere else, they will climb back from COVID just as we all will. The big question, however, is, “When will the ship
Mayflower
return?” More on that soon…
Yesterday See Plymouth turned in its annual grant application to the MA Office of Travel & Tourism. In it, we shared our recovery strategy. It includes using 19/20FY advertising funding that we saved during COVID by doing only a social media campaign. By pre-purchasing ads this year, we have invested it across the 20/21FY so that if budgets are cut and funding is not available, we will still be top of mind throughout the recovery period. Whatever we do receive in our 20/21FY will be added to our marketing efforts. You may receive from us opportunities to be in the publications at a much lower rate than ever. If the money isn’t there this year, no worries. See Plymouth has it covered. Our job is to keep our tourism destination top of mind. You can always join in an ad when you can. You can view a list of the 18 ads we've planned
here
. Let me know if you have questions about our list and I will explain the rationale, statistics, and reasons we made the choices we made.
