Visitors bureau gets $1M in state cash

The Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau snagged $1 million of new state money last week to lure travelers to our beautifully buckled sidewalks and bustling shops, restaurants and attractions.

The CVB had to make a good pitch to get the cash and had to bring $2 million in matching funds to the table, money it collected by passing the hat to area hospitality companies.

The tourism industry in Myrtle Beach — clacking and whirring like a boardwalk roller coaster — was able to scratch up $10 million and thus grabbed a $5 million check from Columbia.

The CVB will use the money to buy and produce new ads in target markets, with a particular focus on cities with nonstop commercial flights to Charleston. The group plans to spread its marketing through more television and Internet ads, according to Executive Director Helen Hill.

"We're going broader and deeper," Hill said.

The CVB has long won state tourism grants, including $470,000 in the current fiscal year. But this latest round comes from a new $10 million bucket of funds.

A boost, not a blockbuster

Coming into the home stretch of the year, Charleston attractions are on pace to best their ticket sales in the previous lap for the first time since 2002.

Ticket sales at the area's 16 most-popular tourist draws were up 2 percent from January through October, according to figures released last week by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. That's a little bump, but a huge morale boost for those manning the booths at Holy City museums and plantations

Attraction attendance has dropped steadily in each of the last four years, bottoming out last year 19 percent below its 2002 level.

Almost 408,000 fewer tickets were sold in 2006 than in 2002, which equates to at least $4 million in missing revenue, if one assumes a conservative $10 average admission.

Area hotels, meanwhile, have not seen that slump. They've steadily put more heads in beds and collected higher rates at the same time. This year has been no different. Charleston County lodgings posted a 2 percent increase in room-nights sold in January through October — a whopping 3.1 million keys handed over.

And their rates have blown past inflation with a 9.6 percent jump in the first 10 months of the year. If that pace holds through November and December, the average Charleston County hotel room will have rented for $152 a night.

In comparison, that's almost as much as the average round-trip AirTran Airways ticket in that time.

A toast

The College of Charleston's budding Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management gave its mentors a big thank-you party at Boone Hall Plantation last week.

A growing number of local hospitality honchos are speaking at the college, donating to the Hospitality Department and making room in their ranks for Cougar interns, offering class credit and school-of-hard-knocks work experience in exchange for free or cheap labor.

Those connections have helped cultivate the entire department at the college, which has grown from two faculty to six in the past few years and now boasts about 200 majors.

Some 100 of those students will intern at area hotels, restaurants and attractions this year, according to Andrea S. Canberg, the instructor who manages the program.

Some 150 guests showed up for the Boone Hall fete, including industry heavyweights like Dick Elliott and Hank Holliday.

Reach Kyle Stock at 937-5763 or kstock@postandcourier.com.