• by Harvey Chipkin , Columnist, April 20, 2015

You might think that Philadelphia would be wary of its big-city neighbor, New York — both competing fiercely for tourists. But it turns out that Brotherly Love extends to Philadelphia’s long-running and persistent wooing of New York travel media. Visit Philadelphia, the tourism marketing arm for the city, has been sending delegations to New York since 1999 — sometimes once a year, sometimes more — rarely not at all. There are several consistencies around the events: an interesting venue, good food — and actual news.

Typical was a recent lunch held in event space above Carnegie Hall (long a destination for the Philadelphia Orchestra) where a cluster of speakers represented: the World Meeting of Families & The Papal Visit; the 50^th anniversary of the first gay rights demonstrations; the Rosenbach of the Free Library; African American Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Constitution Center. The food was from Steven Starr, Philadelphia’s celebrity chef (who also has a few outposts in New York. Dozens of New York travel media crowded the space. Typically, the event ran on time and there was ample opportunity for one-on-one talks afterward.

“We think of it as the original social media,” says Meryl Levitz, longtime head of Visit Philadelphia. “We have done these in other cities but there is so much travel media in New York we make it a priority.” Levitz said events are scheduled “only when we have enough beads on the necklace to make the event worthwhile to journalists; we want to make good use of their time.”

Of course, the Pope’s arrival in September would be enough for any city to make a splash. But there is lots more going on in Philadelphia in the coming months – major museum exhibitions, the gay rights celebration and the rest. The events have a lot more impact than just coverage in trade and consumer publications. Says Levitz, “It’s a rare opportunity for our own people to talk to one another; great partnerships have come out of these events.”

Also, many of these attractions could never afford to do a media visit to New York on their own. “In this economy,” says Levitz, “many of these institutions have lost their public relations people. They can’t keep up with what’s going on in media.”

The Philly folks are not looking toward instant, viral coverage. This is a long process. There might be a quick cluster of trade stories out of the events. Otherwise, it might take a year as journalists visit Philly and do stories. A fifth of the media at the lunches will eventually visit the city. “We really work hard on who the audience will be,” says Cara Schneider, media relations director for Visit Philadelphia. “We look for super freelancers who write for many outlets. And we love when journalists follow up directly with the attraction.”

“These events put a face on Philadelphia,” says Levitz. “We’ve had an intact team for years and the journalists know we are there for them.”

As for actual social media, Philadelphia is no piker there either. At the Carnegie Hall event on April 1, Levitz showed a slide of a new escalator to be built on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art — the so-called “Rocky steps.” 

She then called out: “April Fools.”

The escalator slide went viral.