3 min read March 2024 — Invest: spoke with Crystal Seitz, president of Pennsylvania’s Americana Region, about the benefits of establishing a tourism improvement district, why longevity is the success of local festivals, and what makes its main streets a vibrant part of the region’s culture.
When are some key accomplishments you have achieved with the bureau?
When I started in the tourism/hospitality field, Vanity Fair outlets were one of Reading’s main draws. We were the first outlet center in the country and known as Outlet Capital of the World. There were hundreds of buses a week that would come to Reading to shop in those outlets. Of course, outlets started to appear everywhere due to our success. As the outlets were slowing down as a visitor attraction, we needed to shift our focus. When I started at the DMO and reviewed the economic impact numbers and the dollars spent by visitors, I wondered why nobody was talking about that part of the story. We were an economic growth engine. We have a $1.3 billion total economic impact as an industry in Berks County annually. It is a mid-sized county, and the direct visitor spend is over $900 million, even after the pandemic. Not something you could afford to lose. My team looked at how to promote the rest of the story. We took that and ran with it. Our occupancy and economic impact now is very strong, as we found a way to shift from the outlet mentality to outdoor recreation, festivals and other major attractions in Reading, Berks County. Our audience is 25-55 years old, and they all like the same things, just at different levels, such as outdoor activities, concerts, food, breweries, and festivals. We needed additional dollars for marketing, so we worked with our hotel partners to develop a tourism improvement district three years ago. This doubled our budget for marketing and has allowed us to engage more visitors. We were able to put another half million dollars into marketing the county.
What is the recipe for success with festivals and other big events?
Our festivals have longevity and they are unique. One successful festival is called Taste of Hamburg-er, with Hamburg being one of our local mainstreet downtowns. The festival went from 8,000 to 40,000 people in a few years. We also have the Berks Jazz Fest, which attracts festival goers from all over-the-world. It is 10 days long, and has been running for 30 years. Another unique event is WWII days. It’s the first weekend in June every year. It is the largest re-enactment of WWII in the country. They re-enact French, German, and American camps and they have aircraft on display from our air museum, which has authentic WWII planes. You can take a ride in a B-52, for example. There are many more festivals/events like the Reading Liederkranz Oktoberfest – you’ll have to visit the website to see them all. We have many festivals starting in Spring into November, which helps with continual visitor traffic. The real recipe for success is the teams in-charge are passionate and committed to what they do and the many, many volunteers help them make it happen.
How will passenger rail impact your efforts to bring in new visitors?
It will allow easy access to Reading for those wishing to travel from New York and Philadelphia areas. Not everyone drives or owns a car today, the rail will help bring visitors to the area from new places. We are an easy getaway, and visitors could easily join us for a weekend or an overnight visit to see a concert, ride or hike our trails or join in on a festival for example. Our arena has top performers and most times, more affordable ticket pricing, making it more attractive. Our arena events aren’t as overwhelming as larger cities. Elton John and Rod Stewart have been here, our comedians who come are well known and sell out. We also have manyLatino artists performing here. The cost of living and commercial buildings here are more reasonable than many locations. The rail could open us up to more talent from Philly which could open us up to new business development.We would also like to see a commercial airline come here to our airport, and the train would help with that too.
The rail would allow us to bring smaller conventions to the area from the major airports without other transportation. We are lucky to have The Doubletree by Hilton Reading here. It is a full-service hotel that hosts conferences and conventions. It is ranked among the top DoubleTrees in customer service and cleanliness in North America. It was built in downtown Reading to draw more visitors to the city’s downtown. It is across from the arena, which is located very close to a train stop.
The train has passed the study stage and is in planning. Most likely, it will take at least another five years before we see it complete.
How has the Josh Shapiro administration helped move the needle on tourism throughout the last few years?
Gov. Shapiro has increased tourism funding dramatically. When I started, the state funded tourism marketing with around $30 million a year. At some point, we were down to several million for marketing the state and counties. He has included a significant amount for tourism in his current budget. We also have four Main Streets and one downtown in our region, with West Reading being the more developed main street and center to several hotels. It is busy all the time. Boyertown is another more developed main street where new businesses are popping up all the time. It also has several major attractions like the Colebrookdale Railroad. Two other main streets are Hamburg and Kutztown. They are working to bring in new business. During the pandemic, main streets everywhere suffered the loss of small businesses. Shapiro’s funding earmarked for main streets and for outdoor recreation will help infuse monies into revitalization and tourism activities that have long been bypassed. There are five colleges/universities located here, and the main streets are important to the college community. There are always activities like: music, art, beer and wine crawls, festivals and something new going on weekly. Main streets are a vibrant part of our culture here, so we need to protect them and help to grow them. They are part of the tourism economy.
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