State sells charm in holiday season

TAKE A BOW: Fred Goodwin, owner and general manager of Bravo Brasserie, left, speaks with former owner Peter J. Rotelli. The restaurant benefits from holiday-season performances at PPAC and Trinity. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT
TAKE A BOW: Fred Goodwin, owner and general manager of Bravo Brasserie, left, speaks with former owner Peter J. Rotelli. The restaurant benefits from holiday-season performances at PPAC and Trinity. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT

Though holiday-season tourism in the state encompasses much more than December tidings, it still comes down to tying up a package with a nice, pretty bow. Only when you’re talking tourism, the package is a grouping of activities, attractions, eateries and hotels.
The bow is a discount offered to entice travelers to take a chance on a state that won’t exactly offer a respite from the chilly, snowy weather that winter vacationers are looking to escape.
But, say tourism industry leaders here, the state and region have much to offer from late fall through the winter, and Rhode Island benefits from drawing visitors with unique-to-the-state events and deals.
“We have these authentic locations. You can’t go to Florida or Texas and get that wonderful, romantic, authentic, century-old charm Rhode Island is able to provide,” said Mark Brodeur, director of tourism with the R.I. Economic Development Corporation. “The [tourism] industry has developed events to bring people in that time of year and messaging [on] how different it is to come to Rhode Island and New England at that time of year.”
Marketing that charm begins when the traditional New England tourist season ends after the fall season ushers in foliage, college students and seasonal festivals.
Brodeur said the Halloween season is distinctly one of the region’s best, with Roger Williams Park Zoo’s Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, which organizers said annually draws out-of-state spectators, and ample opportunities for apple picking, pumpkin picking and other fall-related activities.
“The largest draw in media to this destination is October and the fall season,” Brodeur said. “I [read] a lot [about] haunted happenings. It’s absolutely where we get our bang for our buck.”
But Brodeur doesn’t have a dollar figure to attach to fall – or winter seasonal draws. Instead he and others rely more on the changes and additions in package-type deals tourism-related businesses offer during those months.
“If we look back 20 years, the [tourist] season was May to October and that was the end,” he said. “As we look at industry growth, one thing we look at is the off-season … and how we can optimize the holidays and any type of draw we would have to the destination.” Trudy Coxe, CEO and executive director of the The Preservation Society of Newport County, points to increased attendance at the Newport mansions during the city’s annual Christmas in Newport, a more than month-long, holiday-season celebration that runs this year from Nov. 17 through Dec. 31.
There was a 17 percent increase during the 2011 season over the 2010 season. Last year close to 86,000 people visited one of the mansions from the weekend before Thanksgiving through the end of the year.
Given that there was about the same number of bus or group tours between both years, the increase came in day-trip travelers, Coxe said.
“Newport, as you know, is a summer and fall community, so things can get very quiet from November on,” Coxe said. “That period of time traditionally would not be heavily active for Newport or the mansions. We have worked really hard in spectacular design to make the houses really appealing and unique.”
Zip codes from ticket sales indicate that the vast majority of holiday mansion visitors come from the Northeast, from Philadelphia to Ohio and Maine.
The Breakers, Elms and Marble House mansions all are decorated to resemble Christmas during the Gilded Age. Some decorations are kept the same year after year, including a poinsettia tree in white or red.
Coxe said yearly updates include spontaneous decoration by horticulturist James Donahue that allows return visitors something new each time. Last year featured antique sleds.
The Breakers will host a holiday evening on several dates with live music, sweets, eggnog and cider, and The Elms and Marble House will offer two-for-one admission on Dec. 15.
“[People] come because they want the fantasy,” Coxe said.
Newport also capitalizes on the holiday season, said Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport, with concerts, craft fairs and Newport’s Polar Express.
Unlike mansion-specific visitors, everyday tourists in Newport during the winter months tend to be locals, Smith said.
“Rhode Islanders prefer to visit Newport in the winter rather than in summer. Rhode Islander’s feel it’s ‘their’ Newport in the winter.”
Dale Venturini, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, is equally optimistic about this year’s shopping season, which the National Retail Federation forecasts will see a 4.1 percent increase in spending though the organization also reports 51.8 percent of shoppers will turn to online outlets. Thanksgiving can prove a boost for business as well since it is traditionally a travel-heavy holiday and Ocean State residents may be welcoming family into town.
Bravo Brasserie, a French-American bistro on Providence’s Empire Street, has had increasing success over the last few years with its Thanksgiving-dinner offering, according to general manager Fred Goodwin.
Holiday-time shows at Providence Performing Arts Center and Trinity Repertory Company also help boost business.
“They help stimulate our business dramatically,” Goodwin said. “Financially, we’re in our busy time of year [then], especially when you get into late November and December.”
Smith and Brodeur both said that hotels, inns and bed-and-breakfasts are upping the number of holiday-themed packages.
In Newport, 41 North is offering two elaborate packages, one through Nov. 30 and one from December through April 1 that combine two-night stays, meals and season-related activities.
Brodeur said Rhode Island has had some luck marketing such packages to international travelers, but that the state remains a tough sell internationally. There has been, he said, an increased effort to engage tour operators and travel writers abroad.
New Year’s Eve, coming this year on a Monday and making a long weekend easy and appealing for travelers, also draws out-of-towners here on family visits.
Ali Kreher, festival director for Bright Night Providence, said performing artists often come with friends and family from outside Rhode Island.
For the past two years, the festival has drawn between 5,000 and 7,000 people. Many of them, Kreher said, will also visit local eateries or stay over in the city.
“You have people walking around Providence, which is really our goal,” she said. “We get a lot of support from hotels and restaurants, because they are happy to have all those extra people in the city and visiting their places.” •

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