It’s no surprise that the Delaware Division of Tourism has no immediate plans to spend marketing dollars promoting Avelo’s nine new routes to and from Wilmington Airport.
“We do not currently have plans to focus marketing efforts on the new destinations announced recently by Avelo, but we are excited to see that airline service is once again available in Delaware,” Tourism Director Jessica Welch stated. “Avelo’s presence has real potential for boosting out-of-state travelers’ options, giving them convenient, fairly-priced ways to reach our state. This can only benefit the tourism industry when there is so much pent-up demand for travel.”
Welch does money for opportunities that may pop up. Delaware known nationally for its bare-bones tourism budgets, although it received added federal rescue funding due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That money is going away.
The current state tourism promotion budget is a hair over $1 million, with no increase in the proposed 2024 budget. This compares to a median state budget for tourism promotion of about $9 million among the 50 states. Even when accounting for the state’s small size, that’s on the stingy side for a key industry.
The situation was not helped by counties and municipalities in recent years. The Legislature, in an ill-advised move, allowed an additional hotel room tax on top of a state rate, a portion of which goes to county convention bureaus.
That local revenue goes straight to those units of government that pocket the money under the excuse that tourists add to the cost of government services.
By contrast, Ocean City, MD puts room tax revenues to work, with more than $10.5 million in promtional funding.
Delaware has been good at doing more with less. Recent, targeted tourism promotions have proved successful in drawing regional travelers. The election of Joe Biden to the nation’s highest office also provides a lot of free publicity.
Success in building Avelo service to cities like Nashville and Charleston, SC, will hinge on travelers heading north and boardings out of Wilmington.
Delaware is getting promotional help via social media from airports at new destinations. Locally, Avelo appears to have done an effective job locally via billboards and social media.
Avelo received an exemption on the fuel tax. That pales in comparison to the airport authority in Melbourne, FL offering Avelo half a million dollars to fly to the underused airport that will soon have nonstop flights from Wilmington.
No one is calling for that level of assistance. Still, the state and New Castle County could do more to aid an airline with the best chance of success and an ability to bring visitors to areas other than the beach. – Doug Rainey, chief content officer
