Dynamo Draw
Sun |
Kevin Dwyer — May 19th, 1997
The visitor and convention bureau has tapped into
Adean Hawkin's experience and energy to help attract tourists.
By Kevin Dwyer
Business Editor
Adean Hawkins is nothing if not enthusiastic.
During her first week as the Kitsap Peninsula Visitor & Convention Bureau's new tourism development manager, Hawkins used her previous contacts in the resort business to lure a somewhat reluctant German tour operator to West Sound.
"I took him all around -- to the Manor Farm Inn, Llamas Rose Farm, the Silver City Brewery -- he was blown away," Hawkins said. "He was going to spend a half day here, but he stayed the entire day and wants to come back to tour the shipyard, Bangor and Elandan Gardens."
Hawkins, who replaced Linda Miller in the key VCB post last month, said the Kitsap Peninsula has almost unlimited potential as a tourist destination area.
"I think it has a lot to offer," she said. "There's so much more to see out there than people realize."
Hawkins, a North Kitsap area resident for more than eight years, comes to the VCB with an impressive tourism and marketing background.
Most recently, she was regional sales manager with the Lake Quinault and Kalaloch Lodge on the Olympic Peninsula. Prior to that, she was marketing manager for the Port Ludlow Resort.
She's been in the hotel and tourism industry for more than 10 years and previously worked for Elkhorn Resort and the Central Idaho Rockies Tourism Region in Sun Valley, Idaho, and the Seattle Aquarium.
"We're excited about having Adean on board," said VCB Executive Director Grant Griffin. "Her past sales and marketing experience will enhance the overall package we offer to our members. She's got so many great ideas I can hardly keep up with her."
To help promote the region, Hawkins intends to borrow heavily from her past industry contacts and those she's cultivated as a board member with the Washington State Chapter of Meeting Professional's International.
In fact, it was a referral from the latter organization a few years ago that put Hawkins in touch with a group of Asian Pacific Economic Conference delegates while she was employed by the Lake Quinault/Kalaloch Lodge.
After spending three days in trade meetings in Seattle, Hawkins arranged for 60 or 70 delegates to visit the Olympic Peninsula resorts.
She arranged a similar trip for visiting members of the Zoological and Aquarium Society, following a conference in Tacoma.
"There's a zillion hooks out there, you just have to get excited about the area," she said.
Indeed, Hawkins believes there are opportunities for the Kitsap Peninsula to attract small meetings and conventions and specialty tours from corporate conferences regularly held in Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue.
She said one way to accomplish that is by helping tour guides to create itineraries for visiting groups that would take in sites in Kitsap County for people whose final destination may be the Hoh Rain Forest or Cape Flattery.
"I see ourselves (the combined Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas) as one big peninsula," she said. "We can sell ourselves along ... There's certainly enough to do here. (But) if you have more than one place to sell, it's a lot easier."
Hawkins believes the Kitsap Peninsula has a tremendous number of physical, cultural and historic assets exciting to visitors.
These include the region's waterfront communities, its waterways, beaches and parks, plus its Native American, naval and Scandinavian history.
Hawkins said the bureau's small staff of three full-timers and limited annual budget of $180,000 makes it imperative for VCB to prioritize its marketing efforts and be innovative with its promotions.
"The (VCB's) members say 'we'll go after anything,' " Hawkins said.
"(But) let's look at the time of year. On summer weekends, we don't need to do anything. But we should be cross-selling the off season."
"If the largest percentage of customers come in the summer months," added Hawkins, "why not give them a (promotional) certificate for events in the winter or the off-season. Instead of constantly going after new customers, we should be selling to existing ones."
The VCB now relies on wordof-mouth promotions, press releases, ads placed in guides and travel magazines and repeat business for its customer base.
But Hawkins hopes to add a few more wrinkles to VCB tourism strategies.
These include the organization's new kiosk at the Sheraton Hotel in Seattle that directs visitors to the ferries and tourism opportunities on West Sound, plus her connections with conventioneers, tour operators and meeting and planning specialists in the greater Seattle area.
Hawkins said a number of national travel trends play into the strength of the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas.
"The biggest new trend is that people want to go somewhere that when they come home, they've learned something," Hawkins said, referring to the emergence of "cultural tourism."
Places such as Port Gamble in North Kitsap, the Navy's mothball fleet in Bremerton, downtown Poulsbo, and the Suquamish Museum are prime examples of the area historic and cultural assets.
So excited is the VCB about the prospects of cultural tourism that it has created a task force to develop and promote it.
Another favorable trend is the lack of time people are spending on vacations.
People are taking long weekends or combining business and pleasure.
"With Seattle being such a hot destination town, there's great opportunities to promote the peninsula," Hawkins said.
She said the region is rife for drawing on the growing number of active seniors out there, families, individual conventioneers and institutional travelers.
Her biggest challenge, she said, will be capturing those people's attention in competition with other rural regions of the country.
"A lot of this is developing ideas in your head and doing creative promotions," Hawkins said.
Staff photo by Lynn DeLaney Saunders
welcoming all: The new tourism development manager for the Kitsap Peninsula Visitor & Convention Bureau, Adean Hawkins, wants to find ways to draw summer tourists back during the winter and use the area's cultural attractions to attract new visitors.
Adean Hawkins
Tourism Development Manager, Kitsap Peninsula Visitor & Convention Bureau
Background: Worked with the Lake Quin-ault/Kalaloch Lodge and at Port Ludlow
Notable: Has lived in the North Kitsap area for more than eight years
Quotable: "I was looking for an opportunity to promote my own community and an entire region. This is it."
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