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Cultural Tourism

 

Project description

The S.C. Arts Commission's Cultural Tourism program provides two online marketing resources that package the state's valuable arts products specifically for tourists and visitors to encourage their exploration of South Carolina's arts and culture.

 

The Arts Commission's Vacationers and Visitors web page provides tourists and visitors with a taste of our state's rich arts and cultural landscape. The web page also provides a marketing platform for the arts and arts organizations statewide.

 

The value of Vacationers and Visitors is enhanced through a partnership with the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism and eArts, an online newsletter and resource of arts and cultural attractions in South Carolina. eArts includes brief feature articles, perspectives from a "roving reporter," links to hotel accommodations and other deals, and an entry point to S. C. Arts Commission activities. eArts is distributed monthly to 10,000 consumers who have expressed significant interest in arts-related information about South Carolina.

 

Purpose

The Cultural Tourism Marketing Collaborative is designed to link the arts community to tourism promotion in ways that improve cultural resources and support economic vitality for artists and communities using the arts for economic development. Also, Vacationers and Visitors and eArts are designed to present a unified cultural identity for South Carolina.

 

Goals

• Attract new cultural tourists to S.C.
• Increase cultural tourism
• Encourage return visits
• Encourage increased expenditures during subsequent visits
• Promote a more unified cultural identity for the arts in S.C.
• Provide a reliable information source for tourists interested in S.C. arts

 

Background

This project is based on the growing recognition that arts and culture initiatives benefit communities across the state. Facilitating the exposure of creative works to the public enriches the educational process and provides new opportunities to shape a state cultural identity.

 

A strong and active state arts program stimulates intrastate, interstate and foreign tourism, which supports jobs, helps drive the economy, benefits the business sector and contributes to a vibrant arts scene.

 

Through this project, we encourage more culturally engaged and creatively competitive communities that attract members of the "creative class" and the industries that cluster around this highly educated and mobile workforce. As well, we can help create more wealth through entrepreneurial activity within the arts community.

 

Eligibility

To be considered for inclusion for Vacationers and Visitors and eArts, you must:

 

1. Be an arts or cultural attraction, destination or event.
2. Be able to demonstrate how your arts or cultural attraction, destination or event:
   • Attracts new cultural tourists to S.C.; or
   • Increases in-state cultural tourism by residents taking trips outside their home communities for any purpose, except daily commuting to and from work; or
   • Encourages repeat cultural tourists to increase expenditures during the next S.C. visit.
     
3. Submit your attraction, destination or event to Arts Daily. Submissions are only accepted online and must be received no later than 90 days before the date of the event.
4. Maintain an updated website where visitors can find details about attending your attraction, destination or event.
5. Include the S.C. Arts Commission’s logo on your website and link back to the S.C. Arts Commission’s Vacationers and Visitors web page.
6. Be located within the borders of the state of South Carolina and have a South Carolina site or street mailing address.
7. Have admissions available to the general public without discrimination on the basis of race, creed, age, sex, or nationality according to South Carolina law.
8. Not promote gaming/gambling, nudity, drunkenness or lewd behavior.
9. Be reasonably clean and meet S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control guidelines, if applicable.
10. Be able to provide, if requested, annual quantitative data on tourist participation, economic impact, economic stimulation, or growth to the local community.
11. Establish marketing or advertising partnerships (local businesses, restaurants, hotels, or other attractions, destinations, events) that support tourism. Partners may be asked to purchase advertising in eArts.

 

How to apply

Submissions are only accepted online.

 

• Submit your event(s) via this survey >>>

• Add your event(s) to Arts Daily

 

We will contact you if your event is selected for Vacationers and Visitors or eArts. At that time, we'll ask you to add the S.C. Arts Commission’s logo to your website and link back to the S.C. Arts Commission’s Vacationers and Visitors web page.

 

Deadline

Submissions must be received no later than 90 days before the date of the event.

 

Please note: Inclusion in Vactioners and Visitors and eArts may be based on monthly themes as well as geographic and artistic diversity. Four submissions per organization per calendar year are allowed.

 

 

 

 

 

Questions? You may find an answer in FAQs >>>

 

 

For more information about this Cultural Tourism Marketing Collaborative, e-mail tourism@arts.sc.gov. Contact Joy Young for information about Cultural Tourism.