Surf City works on its a-peel
Eron Ben-Yehuda
HUNTINGTON BEACH -- A promotional campaign designed to attract more
tourists to Surf City is already is bearing fruit -- literally.
The city has joined other popular Orange County visitor destination spots
like Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm in an advertising campaign that
features their photographs on a box of oranges. A sample box was unveiled
at the city’s Downtown Subcommittee meeting Friday.
“You know, when you leave Hawaii, you buy pineapples,” said Diane Baker,
president of the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitor Bureau. “We’re
hoping you buy oranges.”
Baker will encourage local businesses to display brochures aimed at
catching the eye of the city’s 11 million annual visitors, who can then
call a toll-free number and for about $25 have a box of 16 oranges sent
anywhere in the United States within a few days, said Gary Mead, who
conceived the idea.
Ironically, the county is no longer a major producer of the fruit that
inspires its name. Over the years, the land became too valuable for
agricultural uses. So the oranges used for the promotion come from San
Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego, Mead said. But they are packed and
shipped out of Orange County -- at Orange-based Quality Citrus Packs, a
company owned by Mead.
The city paid $1,000 for 5,000 boxes with a photo of the pier at sunset
and a caption touting Huntington Beach as “The Southern California
Experience with 8 1/2 miles of pristine beach where the surf is always
up.”
Proceeds from every box sold will help pay for a new box, so the city can
expect even more of them to be produced at no extra cost, Mead said.
While city officials don’t expect to make a lot of money on the orange
box sales, they do expect it to pay off in tourism dollars.
And joining other tourist attractions in a coordinated campaign is a
great way to pool resources and save money, Baker said.
“It shows [the benefits of] everybody working together,” she said.
FYI
To order a box of 16 oranges decorated with a picture of the Huntington
Beach Pier at sunset, call (800) 684-6000.
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