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Auburn’s Historic & Cultural Sites Commission Produces New Brochure and Launches Redesigned Website
The Commission, which is funded by the City of Auburn, has just printed 50,000 new brochures to lure visitors to the area to enjoy Auburn’s rich history. The brochure is now in its fourth reprint in five years. Over 15,000 brochures were distributed to potential visitors during 2007.
Improvements
Conversion Study & Brochure Distribution
History of the Commission
Website Redesign
“Passport to History” Program
Improvements
For this run, the brochure has been greatly improved upon. With information gleaned from a conversion study conducted by the Cayuga County Office of Tourism, visitors that received the brochure expected to see information on accommodations, which would allow them to make a buying decision with just one piece of literature. They also wanted a summary of other attractions, since visitors have different areas of interest. In response, the brochure lists hotels, motels and Bed & Breakfasts located in the City, and within a one-mile radius.
Additional attraction listed include City, County and State Parks, the Auburn Doubledays, wine trails, Fair Haven and the Sterling Renaissance Festival, the Village of Aurora, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Fingerlakes Mall and more. To make navigation to these sites easier, the new brochure has a bigger and better map that takes up the entire inside panel.
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Conversion Study & Brochure Distribution
In the conversion study, when visitors were asked what they liked best about their visit to Auburn, the largest majority responded the historic sites and museums. Another interesting statistic revealed was approximately 50% of the people that requested the brochure actually came to visit. This percentage, which calculates into new money being spent in the City, is very high. In addition to direct mailings, the brochures are distributed at numerous Thruway and visitor information centers, travel shows and regional attractions. The brochure also provides a nice opportunity for Auburn residents to learn more about what the sites offer for their own enjoyment, or when entertaining guests.
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History of the Commission
The Historic & Cultural Sites Commission was created by Auburn City Council and sponsored by Councilor Chuck Mason in 1999. The Commission works to ensure cooperative marketing of Auburn’s sites, which include Auburn Public Theater, Auburn Schine’s Theater, Case Research Lab & Cayuga Museum, Harriet Tubman Home, Seward House, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center and Willard Memorial Chapel. The Commission also has representatives from Cayuga County Historian’s Office, Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Auburn B.I.D. and Cayuga County Office of Tourism.
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Website Redesign
Just prior to reworking the brochure, the Commission’s website was also redesigned. Changes includes a new look, introduction on the homepage, the creation of additional pages, such as performing and visual arts venues, and featured events. Both the brochure and the website were designed by the Auburn-based graphic design company Coburn Design. Visit www.TourAuburnNY.com to check out the new look.
For a copy of the brochure, stop by the Office of Tourism, 131 Genesee St., Auburn, or call 315/255-1658.
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“Passport to History” Program
In hopes of encouraging fourth grade students and their families to visit the Auburn museums, members of Auburn’s Historic & Cultural Sites Commission created the “Passport to History” program seven years ago. Everyone quickly got on board, and the Commission has been the ongoing sponsor of this popular program ever since.
Participating “passport” sites include the Cayuga Museum, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Willard Memorial Chapel, Seward House, Harriet Tubman Home, Cayuga County Office of Tourism and the Auburn Schine’s Theater. The program allots for free admission to the sites for one student and one adult.
To quote Executive Director Eileen McHugh, “The Passport to History program brought hundreds of fourth grade students and their families into the Cayuga Museum. It created a fun, free activity that families could do together. Many children came in with a parent, grandparent and siblings. It is a great opportunity for the historic sites to really show Auburn families what we have to offer. It’s wonderful to see so many children in the Museum.”
“The Passport project is one of the most effective programs we have for encouraging not only children, but their parents to take advantage of the great historic and cultural resources we have in Auburn. For many, it was their first visit to the Art Center,” explains Donna Lamb, Executive Director of the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center.
The time frame for this year’s program started in February and ends just before Memorial Day. Before it started, committee members made presentations to the various schools to explain how the program works, and to get the students excited. The seven participating schools are St. Joseph’s School, Genesee Elementary, Herman Elementary, Seward Elementary, Casey Park Elementary, Owasco Elementary and St. Peter & Paul. The program has gained momentum each year, and over 140 completed passports were turned in ‘07.
After students pick up their passports at the first site they visit, they have approximately sixteen weeks to visit as many of the attractions that they can. In the passport, there are half a dozen questions pertaining to each site that need to be answered by the students, before their passport is stamped. Students that visited a large majority of the sites are given various prizes, plus grand prizes (MP3 players) are awarded to each school after the program is complete.
In ’07, Casey Park Elementary organized a field trip for their fourth grade students, and visited 4 sites in one day on the bus. Approximately 65 students took part in this trip, and it gave them an edge over the other schools in the program. Some of the students there wrote comments in their passports sharing that the sites were “amazing and exciting,” or that they enjoyed the, “interesting new things that I never knew about Auburn.”
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