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Nassau County has dumped the region’s tourism promotions agency, instead awarding a contract worth up to $1 million to market the county’s attractions to an advertising firm in Glen Head, according to documents obtained by Newsday.
The decision ends 45 years of unified marketing of the two-county region. At stake is the Island’s $6.6 billion tourism industry, which supports more than 100,000 local jobs.
County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s administration wrote to Discover Long Island executives on Dec. 27 informing them that the nonprofit promotions agency was an unsuccessful bidder in the Request for Proposals selection process for a new contract.
Separately, on Dec. 21, the administration told RRDA LI Inc., a for-profit advertising and marketing firm in Glen Head, that it was the successful bidder, the documents show.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Discover Long Island, the region’s tourism promotions agency, has lost the $1 million contract to promote Nassau County attractions.
- The county, under Democrat Laura Curran and Republican Bruce Blakeman, selected other vendors with the ultimate winner being RRDA LI, a Glen Head-based marketing firm.
- Nassau’s decision ends 45 years of unified marketing of the two-county region.
It was the second selection process for the tourism promotions contract in three years.
The administration of Blakeman’s predecessor, Laura Curran, had chosen an Orange County firm, the Niki Jones Agency, over Discover Long Island in August 2021, according to the documents. The agency’s founder and CEO Niki Jones said on Tuesday the Nassau contract wasn’t completed before Curran left office on Dec. 31, 2021 after losing her re-election bid to Blakeman.
“Because of the long record of service of Discover Long Island, I felt we should put out another RFP to make certain we were making the right choice,” said Blakeman, who has dubbed himself Nassau’s chief marketing officer. “The panel reviewing the proposals and companies recommended RRDA to implement the county’s tourism marketing plan.”
He did not participate in the RFP process, and the selection of RRDA “was consistent with the information that was garnered by the [Curran] administration,” said Blakeman spokesman Christopher Boyle.
Nassau ad airs
While the second RFP process was underway, Nassau rolled out a 30-second television commercial in May to lure tourists because Discover Long Island was no longer authorized to work on the county’s behalf.
The ad, with the tagline “Nassau County: Golden Coast to Coast,” aired in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona, upstate New York and the metropolitan area as well as on Newsmax, the right-wing news channel. It featured Blakeman at the end and was paid for using $600,000 in federal COVID-19 relief funds.
Kristen Reynolds, CEO and president of Discover Long Island, said on Tuesday that the agency was “disheartened that Nassau County no longer wants to partner with us.”
Kristen Reynolds, CEO and president of Discover Long Island, said a landscape where “Nassau County and Suffolk County are working against each other” will be confusing to potential visitors. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
She said the county’s decision “sets up a situation where Nassau County and Suffolk County are working against each other — and that’s confusing to the customer who knows Long Island but not necessarily the individual counties.”
Reynolds cited a 2017 poll of tourists which found 42% had visited Long Island but only about 10% could identify Nassau or Suffolk.
“It’s not about the money,” she said, referring to the lost Nassau contract. “It’s about the principle that Long Island shouldn’t be divided.”
Reynolds said Discover Long Island will continue to use the slogan, “Long Island: Where You BeLONG,” but going forward only lodging, eateries and attractions in Suffolk will be promoted. Sites in Nassau will have to pay a fee to be included, she said.
The Nassau contract is valued at up to $1 million per year, with the money coming from a portion of the county’s hotel and motel tax.
Suffolk retains Discover LI
In Suffolk, then-County Executive Steve Bellone extended its contract with Discover Long Island, which now totals up to $6 million from the hotel and motel tax. Suffolk raised the levy last year and at the time, there was a discussion in the County Legislature about whether Discover Long Island was the best vendor.
A spokesman for Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine declined to comment on Tuesday.
Discover Long Island is the successor agency to the Long Island Tourism Commission, established in 1978 to promote Nassau and Suffolk counties as a region with attractions and accommodations worthy of visits by out-of-towners.
Vacationers’ spending in the region generated $800 million in tax revenue in 2022, according to the most recent data from the research firm Tourism Economics in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Jaime Hollander, owner of winning bidder RRDA, said the agency will capitalize on her knowledge of area attractions in developing ad campaigns to “attract tourists, businesses and events, offering them a glimpse of the county through bold storytelling, rich media and immersive experiences.”
The Blakeman administration must still negotiate the terms of the contract and they must be approved by the County Legislature, according to officials.
Nassau tourism executives, reluctant to get caught up in the controversy, took a wait-and-see approach.
“At a time when how and where people receive tourism marketing continues to undergo dramatic transformation, Nassau County has made a calculus that they want to control their own messaging,” said Michael Sapraicone, senior trustee of the Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage. “With a far more modest budget, the Armor Museum has done something similar. While an enthusiastic member of Discover Long Island, we have also focused on marketing in outlets that specifically target military-heritage tourists.”
Adam Karp, manager of the WildPlay amusement park at Jones Beach, praised Discover Long Island, saying, “they’ve been amazing about getting the word out about what we have to offer… Being separate [from Suffolk] is not something that we’ve thought about. We’ve always seen Long Island as one unit.”
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