The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1903-07-23
BOOM THE RESORTS.
NOW is THE sEAsoNAeLE TIME
TO DO IT.
Urgent Need of a Community Of In.
tsrest" Among Hotel and Boarding
House Proprietors-Every Town
Should Have Local Associations:

To those who have followed close
iy the development of the multitude OF
summer vacation resorts scattered
throughout New England, it is obvious
that the importance of cooperative
effort in the advertising of these re-
sorts les not sufficiently appreciated by
the people who are most interested in
that development.
This is essentially an age of adver>
tising-of printers ink-and 1t is like
wise an age Of combination and con.
centration and not even the summer
resort can escape the operations OF
this modern law of business:
In the old days the only advertising
a country hotel or inn INDUCED in or
needed was the painted sign which
creaked TO and fro above its entrance;
ofttimes keeping awake at night the
nervous guest. The modern summer
an evolution of the oldtime inn, but it's
proprietors can no longer afford to
carry on their advertising department
on any such primitive scale as that.
There Is in these days too much
competition to allow of this, but the
great trouble is that the individual
hotel or boarding house proprietor
loses sight of the fact that there is
competition between communities, as
well as between hostelries.
The result of this is that a great deal
of money and a great deal of energy
that might otherwise be made to count
is practically wasted. If all, or even
a part of the money that is annually
expended in advertising the different
hostelries in a given resort were
Jumped together, and under the direc,
ton Of a local committee, utilized for
the purpose of publishing abroad the
superior attractions of the town or vii
lage itself, there is no question that
the effect upon the summer business
of the community at large would be
beneficial and immediate.
A fairly large amoun of money de-
voted to booming a seashore OF
mountain town could not fail to accom-
plish much more good than an equal
sum expended in the resultory adver-
Using OF a couple of dozen hotels and
boarding house in the same place. 1t
is like the difference between aiming
ones gun at a definite mark, and of
shooting into the air, and it simply
illustrates q business principle that is
well understood by everyone in COM
mercial life.
In other words, it is the place that
needs to be firmly fixed in the mind
of the vacation-seeking public, and
when once that is accomplished the
filling Of the local hostelries is a mat
ter that will speedily adjust itself.
Every town and village in New Eng
land that makes any pretence to sum-
lei attractions should have such a
local tourist association. 1t is very
little trouble to organize one, and it
is sure to return big dividends on the
time and money invested.
All that is necessary is for some
public spirited hotel manager or bust
ness man to call a meeting of those
in the ~town who have the greatest
pecuniary interest in the entertain
ment of the ubiquitous summer board
err" talk the matter over, elect an eff
cient board of officers, taking care to
select the best that the town affords
in the way of a secretary, and start
a subscription paper for the funds nee
essary to carry out the work of boom
ing" the place.
The first and most necessary thing
to DO is to make an appropriation for
advertising, part to be expended in
buying space in the leading newspa-
pers of some of the cities and part to
be applied to getting out an illustrated
booklet that will be a credit to the
community and an attraction to those
by whom it is received.
This booklet or pamphlet should
contain a co~nservatively written and
concise description of the place and
it's outdoor attractions-don't indulge
in too fowery language or make
statements that cannot be substanti-
ated when the vacationist arrives. 1t
should also be embellished with good
half-tone cuts illustrating striking bits
of scenery, local places of historic in
terest, etc.
Advertising pages may be included,
In which the various local hostelries
or other subscribers to the fund may
be represented, and in this way a mir
ror CT the entire community, SO to
speak, will be sent into the outside
world.
Some of the New England resorts
have been doing this sort of thing for
several years, one of the most notable
examples being York and Ogunquit
beaches in Maine, whose hotel people
'clubbed together" and issued a very
striking publication, in which every es-
s~ential feature of the life, scenery and
history Of these popular resorts was
described and pictured.
A publication like this amounts to
a veritGble local encyclopedia, and is
esteemed by the summer visitor far
more than the ordinary leafet adver.
Using the individual house, its pure
water and the number and distances Of