San Antonio marketing man Steve Atkins will try to convince the world to come to South Padre Island with the help of a Dallas firm.
Atkins says tourism promotion today is generally geared to millennials, since older people generally have settled on their favorite travel destinations. And Atkins says today’s 18 to 35 year old is a different kind of customer when it comes to travel.
- “They’re looking for very unique experiences,” he said. “That could be something in highly active sports, water sports kinds of things, extreme sports.”
- Millennials are also interested in Eco-tourism. He says today’s tourists may be more interested in seeing a coral reef than with sitting in the sand drinking a beer.
Cinnamon Shore Port Aransas is Time Inc.’s 2015 coastal showhouse and Paez Development, South Padre’s largest developer, is up in Port A building for Mexican Nationals.
What South Padre also needs is new resort development,
as that is what leads the Texas coast markets.
He says since Millennials are less likely to have kids than their Baby Boomer and Generation X predecessors, he expects destination marketing to focus less on kids’ activities.
- Then there’s the matter of the way the message is delivered. Atkins says his campaign will focus on mobile devices, because today’s customers are much more spontaneous than those in previous years.
- “They are making decisions not only about the destination selection, but about the hotel and condominium property, even while they’re traveling to the destination.”
- South Padre Island is routinely voted one of the top beach destinations in North America, due largely to its miles of sandy beaches and its distinct lack of commercialism. It is also a major Spring Break destination.
- Atkins says he has already begun to work on a plan to deal with what is likely to be his number one challenge.
- With politicians like Donald Trump spreading the misinformation that South Texas is somehow more dangerous than other places in the USA simply because it is adjacent to Mexico.
Atkins admits that the old South Padre Island slogan of a ‘two nation vacation’ is not likely to be resurrected any time soon, as officials discourage tourists in south Texas from visiting northern Mexico.
ref www.woai.com/articles/woai-local-news-sponsored-by-five-119078/local-marketing-firm-wins-valuable-south-13809258/
South Padre real estate interest has been flat (dead) for years, yet their overall interest is high.
South Padre leaders have a lot to learn about what drives the market. Let’s hope they get business experts involved, before they put Atkins in the position to join other companies from San Antonio & Dallas who have had some of our biggest flops with marketing without the support of the local government and local business.