EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine November 2018 | Page 14

IN VOLUSIA COUNTY,
Beaches Beckon — and Kitsch is Cool
by Charles Newbery
Tourism is on the rise in Volusia County, boosting revenue for local businesses. What’s driving this? In part, it is the behind-the-
scenes work of our local tourism bureaus. Their strategies show that catchy phrases help, but success comes too from methodical
work that can at times uncover less traditional, even cool, ways to promote tourism.
A
couple of years ago, Erica Group drew a pair of angel
wings on an old garage door in DeLand, a small town
about halfway between Daytona Beach and Orlando.
For the artist, it was a quick assignment for a photo shoot
in her hometown. But word soon spread about the wings on the
weathered green industrial door in an alley. They became a must
for standing in front of to get a photo taken, making it seem like
the wings protrude from the shoulders.
The furor over the wings got Georgia Turner, executive
director of the West Volusia Tourism Advertising Authority,
thinking about how to harness it to promote tourism.
“It was a really cool little viral thing that happened, just kind
of by mistake,” Turner said. “It is one of those odd things that just
took off.”
Turner’s job is to promote tourism in West Volusia, a stretch of
14 communities along the St. Johns River that, as she confessed, is
not really that well known.
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Her budget is
only $900,000 a year,
a fraction of the $8
million in Daytona
Beach and $2 million
in New Smyrna Beach,
destinations in the
county that are far
better known.
The tight budget
means that taking
out ads in traditional
outlets like magazines,
newspapers and
television is largely
A visitor poses in front of the DeLand Wings
out of reach, and
created by area artist Erica Group
so Turner said she