GENESEO — Arleen Somerville came before the Geneseo Village Board of Trustees tonight in order to present a summary of the Geneseo Tourism Committee’s 2012 advertising and marketing campaign. She was accompanied by several members of the committee.
Somerville explained to the Board, who contribute $5000 to the Geneseo Tourism Committee’s efforts, what the committee has done to promote Geneseo in the past year. Efforts include a table at the SUNY Geneseo information fair for new students and parents, the Finger Lakes Tourism Alliance literature exchange, showing SUNY Geneseo students around on a tour of Main Street businesses, a table at the first Geneseo farmers’ market shared with the Geneseo Welcome Center, table tents listing upcoming events at restaurants, giving welcome packets to RV attendees at the Geneseo Air Show and to members of the Flying Aces club, and publishing ads in the Letchworth State Park guide, the Livingston County Tourism visitors guide and in Life in the Finger Lakes’ magazine and website.
Fratelli's Restaurant, Now hiring !!
(585) 749-7357
In addition to those efforts, the committee has also redesigned the Geneseo website and updated the calendar to a county-wide one. They’ve also posted more content to Facebook, including photos by committee member Larry Tetamore. The committee printed the Geneseo brochure and distributed around 8,000 copies. They also, with the help of a SUNY Geneseo class, came up with a new logo and tagline “Become part of our tradition.”
According to Somerville, the website received 14,700 visits in October, with the most visited page — the business directory — receiving 2,600 visits in October. The second most visited page was the “Where to Eat” page, which received 2,100 visits in October. The “Where to Shop” page received 1,800 visits during October. Somerville said that many of the website’s visitors were from Geneseo and neighboring towns like Livonia, Avon, Honeoye Falls, Lima and Dansville. Virtually every town in the county had visited the site, as well as people from 23 states and seven countries, with Canada bringing in the most site visitors.
Somerville outlined some changes the committee want to implement next year including a new brochure that opens up into a single sheet. One half of the sheet will be maps of Geneseo and a directory, while the other half will feature things to do. Somerville believes the new brochure design may be less expensive than the current one.