OCEAN CITY – Ocean City could soon be sending out a big thank you to all its visitors.
During Monday evening’s Mayor and City Council meeting, Councilman Brent Ashley proposed a “thank you” campaign.
“As you all know, the strongest word in advertising is ‘you’,” Ashley said during the meeting.
Ashley said that during the 1980’s different tourist organizations in town did a “Thank You for Visiting Ocean City” campaign and suggested to revive that campaign.
Ashley recommended displaying the message on hanging signs at transit stops, on the buses and trams, in the comfort stations, on the light poles on the Boardwalk and the Route 50 Bridge, a banner hanging across Baltimore Avenue or on message boards.
“I think customer service could be spruced up a little bit more to thank the people for coming here,” he said.
Ashley even wore a “Thank You for Visiting Ocean City” button from the 1980’s on his jacket during the meeting. He also suggested re-creating the thank you buttons.
“I think we should be thanking the people for coming here particularly in hard times and we should be thankful that they choose us for a destination,” Ashley said.
Mayor Rick Meehan agreed with Ashley’s suggestion in reviving the “thank you” campaign.
“I think the buttons are a great idea,” the mayor said. “When I go anywhere or do anything one of the things I say is ‘we do what we do to thank the people for coming to Ocean City’ and I think that should reinforce that message.”
On Tuesday Ashley added the Dew Tour, an extreme sports event coming to Ocean City in July, shares the interest in thanking Ocean City visitors.
“The Dew Tour wants to paint the water tower as you come into town with a thank you,” he said. “We are all tourism dependent and sometimes I think we take our guests for granted. Its human nature, everybody likes to hear thank you.”
Tourism Director Deborah Turk supports the thank you campaign and said, “I love it. I don’t think you can ever thank people enough for visiting.”
She also confirmed the Dew Tour’s intention to paint Worcester Street’s water tower.
“It’s a prime place to say thank you and welcome,” Turk said. “If the Dew Tour has the funding to do it and with the approval of the Mayor and City Council, that would be really noteworthy … additionally it is one of those great shots that television cameras love to zoom in on during the tour so I’m sure that would get some attention as well.”