CONTACT:
Molly Belmont, Director of Marketing
Discover Albany
Phone: 518-434-1217 x 203
Email: mbelmont@albany.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 16, 2017
Albany, NY – Discover Albany is proud to announce that it has won the MARCOM Award for our 2017 Albany Visitors Guide, the official destination guide of Albany. This represents the second MARCOM Award the agency has won. Discover Albany also won an award for the ‘Hamilton in Albany’ campaign in 2016.
To attract visitors to Albany, the Albany County Convention & Visitors Bureau, in coordination with Slocum-Wander Publishing, produces the annual Albany Visitors Guide. This full-color, glossy, magazine-style publication has information about where to eat, what to do, and where to stay while visiting Albany. Along with important information for travelers.
In 2017, we launched a new Albany Visitor Kiosk program. These electronic kiosks provide in-market visitors with information about our destination at four of Albany’s busiest tourist destinations. We wanted to make sure that our Albany Visitor Guide was consistent with our Albany Visitor Kiosks, delivering information in the same easy-to-use format.
To do that, we had to reorganize our Visitors Guides, creating new categories and subcategories that were more in-line with our audience’s interests. We decided our former sections -- Attractions, Arts & Entertainment, Shopping, Parks & Sporting Events, Tours & Sightseeing Companies – were outmoded. People aren’t looking for ‘attractions’ or ‘sightseeing companies,’ they are looking for ‘Family Fun’ ‘Outdoor Adventures’ or ‘Museums and Historical Sites.’
We also reorganized the dining section of our guide. Previously, our restaurants were listed alphabetically according to area of the city. In our 2017 guide, we organized food according to cuisine. Categories like ‘American & Pubs’, ‘Family Friendly’ and ‘Mexican and Latin American’ help our visitors get exactly the kind of food they’re in the mood for.
But we didn’t just reorganize our listings. We also changed the way we provide content to readers. In 2017, we celebrated the bicentennial of the Erie Canal, and we wanted to have our guide honor that anniversary and offer content that would help visitors experience the canal. To do that, we created a kind of mini-guide to the Erie Canal within our annual Visitors Guide.
The resulting Albany Visitor Guide is more visitor-friendly, and keeps pace with today’s changing markets. By devoting more space to special editorial content, it also provides a useful model for content going forward.
About the ACCVB
The Albany County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc. was established in 1976 to promote the civic and commercial progress of the community through increased development of conventions and tourism. ACCVB currently represents more than 300 member businesses and assists each year in hundreds of regional meetings. ACCVB also operates the Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center, Henry Hudson Planetarium, and the Albany International Airport Information Center. For more information, call 518-434-1217 or 800-258-3582 or visit www.albany.org.
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