New LI tourism campaign stars local biz owners

Local business owners are starring in a new Long Island tourism campaign designed to highlight the region as a destination.

The videos feature a diverse mix, including the owners of a bagel shop, two wineries – one with Italian roots, the other Mexican – an Indian restaurant, a chalk artist and children’s book author, and a DJ/chef.

In total, six three-minute videos, from the destination marketing organization Discover Long Island, are part of  the agency’s new “You BeLONG” campaign. The agency produced the videos in partnership with Paradise Advertising and EGC Group.

The videos were designed to tap into what people want to know about an area, whether they live nearby or are traveling a distance to get here, according to Kristen Reynolds, president and CEO of Discover Long Island.

“It’s a national trend – post-COVID, the traveler longs for authenticity and more of a localized experience,” Reynolds told Long island Business News.

Tourism brought in $6.3 billion in spending prior to the pandemic in 2019, and Long Island stands to exceed those numbers in 2023, Reynolds said. That expectation is based on current monthly data, and “as we grow and get more attractions,” and become “more strategic in how we market the destinations,” she said.

That strategy includes targeting areas that would bring in people who spend the most dollars on Long Island, with the goal of bringing more dollars but fewer people – “so there is less of a burden on residents,” including with traffic, here, Reynolds said.

“We’re not looking to bring more visitors,” she said. “We want visitors who want to especially appreciate this destination, the authentic traveler who wants to come in and enjoy the local community.”

“We have a booming tourism economy here on Long Island, with Discover LI working tirelessly to promote and highlight all of our world-class attractions,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in statement.

The campaign “showcases all that Long Island has to offer from our scenic vineyards to our waterfront restaurants and will encourage new visitors from near and far to discover these local treasures,” he said.

Discover Long Island has a contract with Suffolk County, and up until Dec. 31, 2022, a contract with Nassau County. The agency has since responded to a request for proposal from Nassau County.

“We’re waiting to hear back,” Reynolds said about the proposal submitted to Nassau.

Reynolds said that she hopes Discover Long Island would be Nassau’s “contractor of choice.” Right now, visitors to the tourism organization’s website would still see all of the county’s parks and beaches included, “but that will change if we don’t get the contract,” she said. Meanwhile the organization has business partnerships with organizations in Nassau that include Old Westbury Gardens, restaurants and other venues.

Nassau plans to announce a decision on tourism “shortly,” a county spokesman told Newsday.

Suffolk County money was used for the recently debuted campaign, according to Discover Long Island.  Newsday reported that the organization garnered $2 million from Suffolk, and $1 million from Nassau each year from the hotel-and-motel tax.

Meanwhile, since the videos went live on June 1, they have drawn more than 61,000 viewers. Through paid advertisement, Reynolds expects to reach an audience of more than 6 million impressions across multiple platforms that include YouTube, Meta, TikTok and Google, she said.  The videos can be viewed on Discover Long Island’s YouTube page and  on discoverlongisland.com/youbelong.

“We have a booming tourism economy here on Long Island, with Discover LI working tirelessly to promote and highlight all of our world-class attractions,”  Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in a statement.

The campaign, he said, “showcases all that Long Island has to offer from our scenic vineyards to our waterfront restaurants and will encourage new visitors from near and far to discover these local treasures.”

Viewers of the videos will learn all about why Long Island bagels have such a following, in a clip featuring David Prestia and Eric Keller the  co-owners of Bagel Express in East Setauket.

They will discover what drew Maria Rivero Gonzales, owner and winemaker at RG|NY, from Mexico to Riverhead.

They will meet Fred Giachetti, owner and winemaker of Del Vino Vineyards in Northport.

They will also meet Kara Hoblin, a chalk artist and the author of “The East End A to Z,” from Greenport.

They will have the chance to hear from Indu Kaur, co-owner of Curry Club at Saghar in Port Jefferson.

And they will hear to from Marc “DJ Chef” Weiss, the owner of The Chef That Rocks from Long Beach.

These kinds of videos are compelling to travelers and locals, Reynolds said.

“What travelers are looking for, especially on Long Island, is that they can come and meet those actual people” that they see on the videos, she said.  “People love to travel to places they see in movies” and other platforms.

The videos strike a chord with locals as well.

“Residents are excited to see their favorite vineyard and bagel shop,” Reynolds said, citing “community pride.” Already, she said, Curry Club at Saghar has seen an increase in revenues, with diners coming in and saying “I saw your video.”

The organization plans to do additional videos this year, Reynolds said.

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