OCEAN CITY — Tourism officials this month reviewed the results of the zip code collection efforts conducted to determine where the resorts visitors are coming from and the report contained no real surprises.
The Tourism Committee, as it does annually, reviewed the results of a summer-long survey of a large segment of the visitors to the resort, providing a snapshot of pertinent information including how often they come, how long they stay and perhaps more importantly where they are coming from. Throughout last summer, visitors were asked to submit their home zip code information at various locations including the Visitors Center, the Chamber of Commerce, the convention center, Boardwalk kiosks and one rental company that agreed to participate.
The results were not surprising, but rather predictable, revealing most visitors continue to come from areas closest to Ocean City. For example, among those who participated in the zip code collection, 38 percent came from Pennsylvania, while 35 percent came from Maryland. The next largest segments in descending order were Virginia, New York, New Jersey Delaware and Ohio.
Last year’s zip code survey followed a similar trend, but the percentages were slightly different. For example, Pennsylvania was still the largest at 34 percent, while Maryland was second at 27 percent. The third largest category in last year’s survey was simply filed under “other,” while New York came in at 12 percent, New Jersey came in at eight percent and Virginia at five percent.
It’s important to note the number of zip code collected represents a small number of the total visitors to the resort, but tourism officials believe the figures when extrapolated out provide a snapshot of the larger visitor population. Andy Malis, president of MGH, the town’s contracted advertising agency, said this year’s zip code collection effort represented a fair comparison to previous efforts.
“We tried to make sure we’re comparing apples to apples,” he said. “You collected 21,000 this year and around 30,000 last year, so the number is a little down, but the trends are the same. We getting more people from Pennsylvania and Maryland, but the website hits show we’re getting more interest from the other areas.”
Council Secretary and Tourism Committee Chair Mary Knight said an effort was made to getter broader sample of zip codes by obtaining information from gas stations in the resort. Almost everyone who drives to Ocean City needs to fill up at some point and nearly every pump now requires a zip code entry.
“We tried to get zip code information from the gas stations, but that’s proprietary and it’s so hard to get,” she said. “It’s really a shame because that would be a wealth of information.”
Carousel Resort Hotel owner and committee member Michael James said the zip code survey appears to mirror what he sees at the hotel.
“It’s really not much different than what we see at the hotel,” he said. “It looks like it follows the same pattern.”
The zip code collection is used in part to help determine where to direct the resort’s marketing effort. Councilman and committee member Dennis Dare said while the sample size was relatively small, it could still be an effective tool.
“It would be interesting to go back and look at the data,” he said. “We need to look at the advertising and see how many came from Pittsburgh, for example, and see how it compares to before we directed our advertising campaign that way. We could see if it was effective or not.”
