Where has the year gone?

Posted on July 20, 2015

Right around Christmas in July, our Tourism Commission begins thinking about next year’s budget. The commission is the board which oversees the Visitors Bureau. As we reviewed current standings, we came upon some interesting facts. We kicked off the year by printing 70,000 Lincoln’s Indiana Boyhood Home brochures.  Later in the spring we had 30,000 Santa Claus Christmas Celebration brochures printed. More than 60,000 of all our  brochures have been distributed to hotels and rest areas throughout the midwest. Since January 1st, we have mailed over 3,150 information requests! Those envelopes are full of brochures, rack cards, local maps, and more…totaling more than 37,840 pieces. WOW! Thankfully, no one had to lick all of those envelopes, but we’ve gone through seven bottles of envelope moistener. The Visitors Bureau creates monthly business hours fliers, which list local attractions and restaurants, and more than 2,100 have been distributed so far this year. Local maps help visitors easily move from one place to the next and we’ve provided more than 4,500 to visitors and local businesses. We launched #LincolnClaus365 this year to feature a daily photo.  We post the photo on our Instagram accounts and it feeds into our website. So far, we've increased our @SantaClausInd Instagram following by 92% and our @IndianasAbe account by 96%. Of course, that's because of our amazing visitors (and those of you who are still planning to visit soon!). The Bearded Blog is full of stories, videos, photos, and ideas we like to share with everyone, like this you're reading right now! So far in 2015, we have increased those subscribed by 24%. You can sign up to get emails of these posts delivered right to your inbox. Click on the red box that says "Get New Blogs by Email" toward the top of this page. As we enter the second half of the year, we look forward to many more requests for information about fall and Christmas, as well as from the detail-oriented visitors already planning next year’s vacation! Plus we have plenty of brochures, maps, fliers, and trip ideas ready for you while you're here; just stop by the Visitors Bureau located next to the Santa Claus Christmas Store. Have a great rest of the year!