Inside Harford County - May 2025
[Music] hi I'm Mark Vernerelli and welcome to Inside Harford County a program where we sit down with our community leaders and discuss the issues important to the citizens of Harford County not only is Harvard County a great place to live of course it's also a great place to visit attracting visitors to our county is the job of tourism marketing and it's a very serious business because tourism supports local hotels restaurants museums all the festivals we have they all drive the local economy and add to everybody's quality of life joining us today in the studio to talk about an exciting new approach to tourism is County Executive Bob Cassilly and the county's new tourism manager Jody Marschhauser congratulations on your job first of all Jody it's great to have you here and we're looking forward to learning more about your background too mr county Executive how you doing everything going all right good to see you sir things are going well in the county good to see you i know you're a big booster of Harford County of course but the impact of tourism has to be significant what do you What do you say about that no it's a serious part of our economy and we we give it a lot of attention um we uh we host just an amazing array of museums and festivals and historic sites waterfront activities just many more outdoor activities and uh tourism marketing is funded by the hotel tax which is the tax imposed on people who visit Harford County it's a state tax and we uh a big part of our tourism effort is spending those monies appropriately to support the tourism industry now you originally moved tourism into Harford County government which is something that other jurisdictions have done why did you do that yeah well it it for many years it had been under Harford County government and the last administration decided to experiment with it a bit and put it outside under a a nonprofit and I came in with an open mind trying to learn all you know what's what's what's better how's this all look um and really took a full year to to analyze that and and we looking at uh the the facts of how things were going and after careful deliberation decided it would be better to move it back under county government um it just it gives better uh uh coordination of our tourism assets um tourism you know as Jody will tell you it's a it's a high-tech industry and and so uh we've been able as a county government to purchase a number of very valuable and expensive tourism softwares to assist our our tourism partners the industry and so we can in essence serve as a free library so those those many tourist destinations can can use those tools leverage those tools at no cost to themselves to really uh uh maximize their success and and uh it also gives the the county a better ability to coordinate venues and and and events with our own county staff or public works or parks and wreck and the like and and and public relations so we better coordinate that and not insignificantly it lets us better provides us better oversight of taxpayers dollars which when you're talking uh substantial taxpayers dollars seven eight $9 million $10 million it's that's a lot of money to account for so it's good to have that inside the county government with us paying attention to what's happening jodi the county executive touched on it but how has the county's approach to tourism marketing changed sure we're really focusing on three pillars um innovative technology strategic marketing and inclusive collaboration so we started with uh meeting with all of our stakeholders which include hotel years and event arrangers and um attraction owners and wanted to hear what was working for them what challenges they were having and how we could best support them we then um engaged with a marketing research firm that's uh specializes in tourism to hear a little bit more about who's coming to the county and where they're coming from and why they're coming so that we could use that information to get to be more strategic with our marketing and what did that research show i'm curious i'm sure it was probably very detailed and in depth it was it was very interesting um you know it a lot of things um that might not surprise you but there was a few that did so one of the great things that we have here is our proximity so um we are easy to get to up and down the east coast um you know 42 million people live within 175 short miles from here so that's less than a three-hour drive which is great for a weekend getaway um another great thing that set us apart is our event calendar we have a full calendar of events um something to do almost every weekend so that is you know a great asset that we are able to use and um bring people here to to enjoy it as well um we also just where we're located we have miles of shoreline so just beautiful parks and hiking and all kinds of different activities that families and individuals can come to enjoy and um finally our culture we just are a friendly culture and um welcoming and you know neighborly so it's a great place to to come and check out and the the local community is happy to have everybody mr cassilly your family goes back as we've discussed before generations in Harford County you're a big booster of the county how does this research resonate with you when you saw what they were coming up with as our strong points well Jody puts it forth very nicely and and succinctly there but uh you know I have to tell you it's Yeah this is a great place i've always known that to live work and play we have a fantastic county uh and then the challenge that that she and our tourism industry folks have is how do you convey that how do you convey that image to people who are outside of Maryland and maybe outside of the country to let them know that hey this is a great place to stop over for your visit and spend some money spend the night and and enjoy us and they're doing a great job they're doing a great job encapsulating the great stuff here in Harford County and laying out before the the potential tourists good things jodi the the word that marketing people use often is branding how do you brand how did you and how will you brand Harford County as a as a tourism destination sure well we started with our logo um our you know hello Harford and we found it as a perfect fit for us you know we um it's friendly it brings that friendly nod we have a sunflower which is a nod to our agriculture um as well as you know just a a fun thing to come and see um and then our colors you know we we went with blue as just again it's a little bit nod to water but it's calming and the orange is is more the fun and the vibrant so you know we're looking forward to um you know using that logo to drive us um and then of course using some of this technology that we've talked about to really push through with some strategic marketing how times have changed from the old days which are not that many years ago that we now we think about it but this websites and social media presence has changed everything talk a little bit about that yeah sure i mean look the tourism they're coming in with that iPhone that's what they're coming in with they they're and and that's how they're they're they're accessing stuff so um we we really designed our uh tourism website and Facebook around uh the to making this easy for folks uh we focused on their needs the visitors needs we didn't just say "Hey here's a list of hotels," but we we set up a table to say "Well if you need a pet you need a pet friendly hotel or other filters let you select the type of hotels the rooms and the like." um just makes it easier for folks to plan a trip with an interactive map folks can filter their maps for do you want breweries or or or egg tourism or parks or events um and then the master calendar which honestly is my favorite of just fun things to do when you're here you just click on a date you even for a local it's like "Hey I'm free on Saturday what's happening in Harford County?" You click on that it's a one-stop shop all the very many events and and I just think for for residents to you know do in their own backyard or for folks coming in from out of state it's all great stuff and it's a wonderful website works very well and Jody I'm almost afraid to mention it but I'm sure AI plays a role in your marketing and and you have some exciting new tools there too right we do so two of our um big technology tools that we've invested in one of them is called Placer AI so it it does use a little bit of of the AI um platform but what it really does is it helps us find the foot traffic so we're able to see where people are coming from we see how long they've been here we see how they move throughout the county and that allows again us to understand the patterns so that we could come up with the best reasons to get them here and to get them to come back um so you know we are we're using that the other tool that we're using is called Let's Rally and it's an app and we're using that more for engagement so we're using that so that um while you're here and you're here for an event you're able to see exactly where the vendors are laid out you're able to the event arrangers are able to send push notifications and um make announcements throughout and different ways just to to you know draw that engagement and have people really excited and have great experiences while they're here how long does that take to kind of get your feel for what these trends are showing does it take months does it take a year no we can we can go back um we can currently go back now it takes about from the time of the event it takes about 3 or 4 days but then we can pull the information from an event that just happened we can also pull something that happened last year now so we can look back at um events that are annual and let them know now what worked well last year um which is a great advantage to um to their marketing um toolbox as they go out and try to really um get the best they can for this year we've talked about technology the second pillar or big idea would be strategic marketing how do you see that fitting into this plan yeah so it's important for us to be able to work with folks who are I mean not not just marketing an event but looking at the the bigger picture of a strategy of marketing so we're able to work with the professional marketing organizations to go out and go after uh spec you know target a a broad market that we might want to reach um for a single event or for multiple events so it's it's really a strategy of marketing as opposed to just sort of one-offs and I I think these these tools all of these these high-tech tools that we're talking about enable us to do that to to gather the data that you need and to have the kind of influence that we need to effectively market things in a strategic fashion not just just the old days of you just you know you ran an ad you you put a flyer in the paper and just cross your fingers and hope for the best we we we can go after specific markets you know how did your how did your event do last year let's take a look at it who' you draw from what kind of people are you drawing what demographic let's target them and go after them so it really enables a strategic approach to marching marketing as opposed to spend some money and hope for the best jodi I guess you can even drill down to a geographic uh component to marketing and say that New Yorkers or New Jerseyians or people from Virginia like to come to such and such type of an event is it that specific it is that specific and that's what we've um we even started with that because our markets came back when we did the initial research of some areas in New York some areas in Philadelphia Baltimore and DC area so we really um you know we were able to see where people are coming from and then we're able to see what types of people are coming so that we can also look at some markets that are similar that maybe don't know about us yet so absolutely i mean you really get down to the some zip codes is really what Has anything really surprised you in the what you've discovered so far from all the research and the data i think location-wise not so much i think when we went to some um you know second tier areas um it was interesting to see there's Ohio you know was one of the places that came up ohio and even the Pittsburgh area which makes sense if they're coming across and coming towards this way um but that was a little interesting and it was interesting to see that and I think it was interesting the demographics of finding out um you know it was around I think it was 35 to around 55 was kind of the group of people which you know brings the families as well so that again that was you know a great tool for us to say you know keep up with these festivities that are family friendly um you know while still offering some of those things that you could bring if it was a guy's weekend or you know something like that for golf mr cassilly go back a minute to the talking about bringing tourism back under the county government umbrella what again are some of the advantages of that yeah so you know when we looked at all this the one of the big studies we read talked about the importance of unifying the efforts by your tourism folks and your county economic development folks and your chamber of commerce we're all trying to bring people in for different reasons but we're it's the same marketing approach bringing folks in and so by bringing tourism under the county we've got a lot of resources that we can use that indirectly promote tourism or directly if we choose so for example our county website that gets about 60 to 70,000 unique visitors uh each month and we have a a social media pages with another 30,000 followers and the county newsletter with 20,000 subscribers so leveraging all of those additional tools that we've got in the county government just to promote tourist events and activities uh gives you a free a freebie for the tourist side or the tourism industry side that we can leverage to help that that industry grow and bringing all those entities together is what you would call inclusive collaboration which is really exactly what it sounds like it's bringing groups that have the same goal and mission and can benefit from this together is that what it's all about absolutely and and while while we while I talked about bringing the the Chamber of Commerce and our tourism industry and and and and county government into it well it's also bringing the industry in and so we incorporate them into all that picture as well so yeah it's very inclusive and it's not you know it's not our plan we we we're looking at the data and what does the data show and what are the people involved in the industry what are their thoughts where what do they want us to do so it's very much a collaborative effort but we bring all the resources together under one umbrella to say "Let's all work together to make the tourism industry the most it can be." And Jody you recently had an event a nice event at Swan Harbor Farm which was an attempt to bring all those folks together uh talk about that and how that worked out sure it was it was a great event we had a little over 120 and it was a good mix of all the industry stakeholders which includes your hotel years your um event arrangers your um attraction owners um as well as you know some um legislation and some um dignitaries in the county so it was a great opportunity for us to show some of these reports that we're able to run off of these different platforms as well as just talk about what our initiatives are for the year and really get everybody to collaborate and meet with each other so you know back to we want them involved we want all the stakeholders involved and we want to find ways such as that event um we're hopeful to have more things like that where we can get the hotel years to be working with the event arrangers and the attraction owners and um you know looking at calendars together and doing things so that we are all getting the best support and the best we can out of all the events that we already have miss Cassilly any other support for tourism that you think needs to be pointed out well yeah we've got several grants that we are funded by the to the hotel tax uh and those are up for proposals now they the deadline is May 16th for for organizations to to submit their applications it's almost $900,000 that's awarded to uh 31 nonprofits and three three municipalities so on this year um and those are include what we call a partnership fund where the nonprofits plan events together so you know a music and a food venue perhaps planned event together to draw overnight guests and the goal of that one is let's get people staying overnight then we have a we call a community impact fund that helps more fled fledgling uh level tourism related nonprofits to bridge the gap to to grow their success um so both are very effective and and we kind of juggle which one gets funded more and how we do that but it's it's a a good use of those tourism dollars to help boost the boost our efforts jodi let's talk about you for a minute your background in in you're not a native Harford County but you've been here long enough you might as well qualify as one uh how did you end up doing tourism type work um I I've been in the industry i've been doing hospitality um meeting planning and global uh project management for over 20 years and um I've lived in this county for almost 20 years as well so it's been something that's a passion of mine so when this opportunity came along it was a great marryment of bringing some of my past experience with working with contracts and hotel years and um and different events and um projects to be more local and to be able to to help support and bring all that great stuff to the county miss Cassilly if you're just sitting down with a stranger and they don't know your county executive they just know you as Mr cassilly what do you tell them when you pitch Harford County what what would you tell a an out of town person about what's so great about Harford County Maryland so it's a place where I can take my own kids and grandkids to play and have fun have a great time so we're we're something for everyone and and and my my my mother and other you know people from all ages from little kids to to seniors and everyone in between just a great place to come and have fun and we have something for everybody whether you want to get out on the water and boat a little bit or sit in sit inside and have food or drink um go to see a play or an orchestra concert it's it's there a festival a music festival it's there it's pretty constant there's always something going in a in a great atmosphere uh where we've got we can offer you public safety great places to stay if you want to make an overnight we welcome you and we've got plenty of hotel spaces available in the county so it's a it's an awesome place to come and visit and hang out jodi we're over the hump weatherwise it's officially spring now feels like spring spring and summer are potentially big dollar times for tourism which events do we have coming up that come to mind i know there are a lot of things happening there is a lot on the calendar so definitely checking out our website is the best way to go to see all of them but um just in this month alone on the 17th we have uh Rowdy Rooster is having a musical festival at the Stepping Stone we have um the discovery center is having a science fair right here at the Towson um campus here in um off of Thomas Run and then we also have uh music on the point which is in uh Mariner uh park that is going to be a music and family festival so all three of those things are great family events that you can uh bring your family to on the 17th of May and then this summer we have a whole week planned for Army 250 celebrations that's the second week of June we have the Lafayette um biscentennial is in July and have it grace that's going to be a great um celebration and then in August we have our annual farm fair which is going to be at the county uh fairgrounds so that's just you know a very few to mention for the next uh few months but then we go into the fall and that's festival season so keep a lookout on the website um event page the county executive touched on it but there's so much diversity here in terms of activities geography you have a lot to work with absolutely great people and lots lots of things to um help promote because they're they're doing the hard work of putting these events on and we just want to make sure we share it with everybody back to the technology for a minute you talked about how specifically you can drill down into who comes where how long they stay it's astonishing the amount of data you can get out of some of these tools isn't it absolutely um it is and it's you know I think the the big thing is finding the patterns right right so lumping it together to see um really how long they're staying you know being using our filters because we know we are on 95 so making sure that we're not getting mixed into someone who's driving by really looking at those that are staying here for a few hours and seeing where they move across the county and um you know what they're engaging in because again that helps us um build those tool you know build those things that they're interested in and enhance them and that's you know I'm hopeful to be able to help support that sir when you became county executive you you you inherited as part of your job a public schedule and you're out all the time and I imagine you probably learned a lot about how much we really do have maybe even beyond what you knew when you came into office yeah my my my staff does a good job every week of doing strategic calendaring from me where they they literally go to the Hello Harford website helloford.com and look at that and say "Hey here's some more stuff." You know I get invites to go to things but some things are just advertised and things you get out because it's you know I like to show support for the the the folks who put these events on it's a lot of work and you know we advertise it but they got to put it on and staff it and take all the risks that maybe it's going to be a a hurricane and destroys their events but so we're there to help them get the most they can out of it and uh it's a it's a lot how can uh regular common folks like us figure out what's going on what's the best way for people to plug in and find out what's going on so we're trying to make this really easy for people and we put invested a fair amount and and got professionally done web page and Facebook page and our website is helloarford.com um and the same thing for our Facebook page and I encourage folks to go on to those i think you'll find they they both flow very nicely especially the web page uh no matter what your age group is it's simple you can find things that appeal to you there's it's categorized things that you might want to do and and I think it's just a a great tool for again for locals and for our visitors from out of town to use joe you've been around a long time you've seen a lot of events has anything popped up that surprised you you didn't know maybe didn't know as much about it or never thought about it till you became uh came into this role yes i think that the volume of the events same thing even living here I didn't realize how many events there really were um so that's been a little surprising and and you know in a good way um even some of just the markets that happen every weekend um they all have been expanding some of the farmers markets things like that um but I think for me it was the diversity of where they are located in the county so again sometimes people only think of um you know some of the municipalities but if you look at the calendar you could see that there's something almost in every area of the county and I think that's really unique and special um to be able to you know to to get all the different people that are coming from different ways army 250 is intriguing to me because it's very easy to overlook the importance of Aberdeen Proven Ground and all the military um Mr mr cassilly250 years of the Army we're going to capitalize on that it's a big deal june 14th Flag Day and the birthday of the Army um with Aberdeen Improving Ground here with the Maryland National Guard here uh and a huge veterans community harford's going to make uh the Army 250 a big deal we'll have concerts in the park in Bair there's um a slurry of activities uh for folks at local veterans organizations uh and and it it'll just be a great we'll even have a a military flyover in downtown Bair um and through the county so I'm looking forward to it i think it's pretty exciting and I'm just appreciative of the support we're getting from most of the you know the active duty folks at Aberdeen proving ground but also our national guard partners and then all the the very many many veteran service organizations throughout Harford County are getting involved in it it is a big deal 250 years of US Army that's a you think of all that they've been through and what that institution has meant for the for the entire world and certainly for our own country it's it's a a milestone well worth marking and we're going to do it right in Harford County jodi I would imagine some of these folks who come through here probably fall in love with Harford County and would move here and that's something that has to be in the back of your mind all the time it isn't just about people visiting it's about people maybe coming here for keeps absolutely um you know tourism falls under economic development and that's been a a great resource sharing because we are we're working together and you know that's that's a great goal right to have someone come here and say um you know I would love the opportunity to live here and and be a bigger part of this so um absolutely you know we work together all the time and try to come up with ways to showcase that so showcase how you could live here um or you could visit here you know we're'll take you either way you certainly don't have an easy job but I would think you have kind of a fun job because it's something that you I would think you come to work every day thinking how can I market this county today how can I take this this information and it must be a challenge but a fun challenge for you it is and I work with some of the great greatest people here so I think you know when you're working with people that are having the same goals and the same passion it it makes it easy um not an easy job but it makes it easier to to really um like what you're doing so absolutely you're the biggest booster of Harvard County because you have to be but not only because you have to be because you want to be your family goes back generations in the county and you know it very well and you feel like now you have a real handle on wrapping all these tourism elements together yeah look I I I mean Jodis our perfect salesperson while she's not a native she fully appreciates what we have to offer and the people that are offering it and the people that want to use those services and know she's a great salesperson out there and uh we've got an awesome product to sell we're selling it well and the benefit goes to all Harford County either in terms of the jobs they hold or the tax dollars that are raised or the fun they can have and and so this is a great endeavor that impacts everybody's lives in a positive way and that's the nice part and and to see how you know Jody talks about how it's throughout the county and it is and that's one of the real beauties of this going high-tech with this with your iPhones and stuff to be able to see where these things are because you may be going to a little ice cream parlor that you have no idea it's off on that little country road there but once you get there and the kids can pet some some little goats or sheep or or calves uh and have an ice cream cone it's well worth the drive it's well worth the trip so these things are they're nestled uh throughout our county and we like that that the diversity it brings us not just geographically but in what we can offer the our visitors is is really pretty astounding to what what what those little handheld computers mean to us and being able to share what we've got with a very wider audience is pretty neat and this technology Jody you can actually as the county executive said plug in a date and boom it all pops up what's going on on that date and you can pick your pick your pleasure so to speak absolutely yep we have that calendar kind of is very up to-date and you know pretty much every weekend you have several options and then we can go back and kind of look at where um where people went and you know where how long they stayed and those sort of things to see what's working well and again get that information quickly so that you can run with it and make adjustments or market something else absolutely yes it's great final thoughts sir on the tourism aspect of Harford County and where we go from here well remember it's hellhofarford.com and we need everybody to download that and and put that on your on your your handheld and and tell your friends about it uh a lot of great stuff happening uh this coming up for the rest of the spring and into the summer it's going to be a happening place and we want folks to come out and enjoy it and take all you can out of your Harford County experience whether you live here or you're a visitor come enjoy it have a good time and we got the tool to help you jodi it's been a pleasure having you here today thank you so much best of luck as you market our beloved Harford County and sir thank you so much for joining us again always a pleasure good to see you always our pleasure and thank you for watching Inside Harford County airing exclusively on Harford TV please join us again next month on behalf of the entire crew I'm Mark Vernerelli thanks for watching [Music]
2025-05-11 19:57
