Contact: Teresa Mitchell, 315-646-1000
SACKETS HARBOR, NY, June 01, 2008 - To celebrate 30 years of promoting travel along the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River freshwater shoreline of New York, Seaway Trail, Inc. is going on the road this summer. Several communities on the 518-mile byway will host Seaway Trail: Experience The Journey – an interactive booth that showcases the Trail in its 518-mile entirety with special maps and interpretive panels. Seaway Trail representatives will be available to answer questions, offer free prizes and collect valuable consumer data.
The first stop for Seaway Trail: Experience The Journey will be at The Landing at Pultneyville – in Pultneyville, NY, on June 14, and at the Henderson Harbor pull-off overlooking Lake Ontario on the byway on June 15. Visitors to the interactive Seaway Trail: Experience The Journey booth at events and attractions across the byway this summer will have the opportunity to win prizes and collect a free Great Lakes Seaway Trail Journey magazine.
Nanette Hance, owner of The Artisans’ Loft, a fine art and gift gallery at The Landing at Pultneyville, Pultneyville, NY, says, “The merchants here at The Landing are thrilled to host the debut of Seaway Trail: Experience The Journey as part of our tours of historic homes on Saturday, June 14. Having the interactive booth here gives us yet another reason to celebrate our place on the byway, the tourist business it brings us and the quality of life that living on the byway offers us year-round. By partnering with the Seaway Trail, the Landing has fast become a popular upstate New York destination offering a unique shopping and dining experience in our quaint lakeside hamlet.”
Seaway Trail, Inc. Chairman Chuck Krupke said, “Seaway Trail, Inc. is excited about taking our story on the road in this creative and interactive way. We see clear sailing ahead to not only strengthen the byway position in the marketplace, but to enhance the consumer travel experience and the opportunities for prosperity for Seaway Trail, Inc. member businesses, municipalities, services, and attractions.”
David G. White, a recreation and tourism specialist with New York Sea Grant, is coordinating the summer tour and the branding project on behalf of Seaway Trail, Inc. White says, “The Seaway Trail: Experience The Journey tour helps put the traveling public – including Seaway Trail residents who travel within the byway region – at the helm of this project. The Seaway Trail: Experience The Journey tour will be gathering critical data, anecdotes, and impressions from tourism consumers at multiple sites along this unique byway that parallels New York’s freshwater shoreline. We are pleased to engage the public alongside Seaway Trail board members, community leaders, and byway businesses in this exciting, creative interaction process that will help chart how Seaway Trail, Inc. and its member attractions, accommodations and services set their sails to deliver on and exceed consumer expectations over the next 30 years.”
Seaway Trail staff and branding consultant TippingSprung, which is helping with the evaluation and revitalization of the Seaway Trail brand, will be collecting consumer impressions about the essential qualities of the byway and the diversity of experiences on the Seaway Trail. The analysis of the Experience The Journey information coupled with online chat data that TippingSprung is collecting and the experiences of Seaway Trail staff since 1978 will help the Seaway Trail branding team assess the public expectations of the byway for the 21st century.
TippingSprung Vice President of Brand Strategy and Research Allan DeYoung says, “The public opinion research that will be gathered this summer on the Seaway Trail: Experience The Journey tour will help us chart a brand strategy to enhance the byway visitor experience and encourage Seaway Trail, Inc. member businesses and communities to embrace their positioning on this unique America’s Byway.”
The Seaway Trail in New York was among the first byways nationwide to receive National Scenic Byway status in 1996 from the Federal Highway Administration. The route was first signed as a driving destination in Cayuga, Oswego, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence counties in 1978. Today the byway stretches 454 miles across New York through St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Oswego, Cayuga, Wayne, Monroe, Orleans, Niagara, Erie, and Chautauqua counties, and includes 64 miles of Seaway Trail Pennsylvania along the Lake Erie shoreline.
The National Parks Service designated the Seaway Trail a National Recreation Trail in the 1980s. It is also a New York State Scenic Byway and a New York State Bicycle Route.
The nonprofit Seaway Trail, Inc. publicly launched the byway branding project in Oswego, NY, in February 29 at a Brand Story Workshop, a brainstorming and visioning session moderated by TippingSprung and attended by board and business members. TippingSprung, LLC is a New York-based brand consultancy that has worked with such travel-related industry leaders as AAA and Hyatt Hotels.
Learn more at www.seawaytrail.com.
