ALBANY — The famed "I Love New York" marketing campaign gets its new makeover starting today.
State marketing officials are rolling out the new "I Love New York" logo later today and announcing new marketing strategies to entice New Yorkers to travel to upstate and to lure visitors from neighboring states and Canada.
The logo, first launched in 1977, will basically stay the same, but adds a squirrel and butterfly to suggest that New York is more than New York City.
The effort is part of a $15 million-a-year ad campaign to bolster New York’s $43 billion a year tourism industry, especially targeted to upstate New York. Nearly 80 percent of the tourism spending in the state occurs in the New York City, Hudson Valley and Long Island areas.
The timing couldn’t be better to expand New York’s tourism, said Thomas Ranese, chief marketing officer for the state Empire State Development Corp.
With rising gas prices, Ranese said tourists want to look for shorter trips. He said there are 80 million people who live within a three-to five-hour drive of New York’s borders.
"If we can just capture some of those folks to either stay in New York or to come across the border this summer, that can be a huge win for New York’s economy," he said.
The campaign will include a new travel guide, a redevelopment of the "I Love New York" website (iloveny.com) and partnerships with Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue for travel promotions.
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