December 4, 2006 — Prominent guest speakers, including University of Utah President Michael K. Young; Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon; Utah State Senator Karen Hale and Scott Beck, President & CEO of the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as more than fifty invited guests and members of the media gathered at the Richard K. Hemingway Orangerie at Red Butte Garden today to celebrate the kick off campaign of Foothill Cultural District’s kick off marketing campaign.
Foothill Cultural District, formerly known as Emigration Visitors District, is a diverse alliance of arts, cultural, historical and entertainment venues situated at the mouth of Emigration Canyon in the eastern Salt Lake Valley. Its members include Ft. Douglas Military Museum; Red Butte Garden; This is the Place Heritage Park; University Guest House and Conference Center; Utah’s Hogle Zoo; Utah Museum of Fine Arts and Utah Museum of Natural History.
Today’s announcement signaled the renewal of the group’s marketing and outreach strategy designed to attract tourists and conventioneers as well as local area residents, school children and families.
“This is only the first phase of what promises to be an aggressive marketing campaign based on our mutual collaboration,” said Robert Voyles, Executive Director of the Ft. Douglas Military Museum and Foothill Cultural District’s Chairman. “As Emigration Visitors District, we spent the last several years establishing ourselves as a comprehensive, unified collection of vibrant cultural and historical institutions.”
“Now, Foothill Cultural District is setting its sites on Utah’s newest high growth market: tourism. At the same time, we also will renew our commitment to providing the very best in cultural experiences to our local visitors from along the Wasatch Front,” he said.
County Mayor Corroon, along with several school children, unveiled a facsimile of the newly installed Wayfinding signs, fabricated by Young Electric Sign Company for the Salt Lake Transportation Department and Foothill Cultural District. The Wayfinding signs direct visitors onto the university campus and up Sunnyside Avenue where the various venues are easily located.
Foothill’s member organizations featured a variety of displays and exhibits that attracted robust responses from the school children who were invited to participate in the celebration. At the same time, the University Guest House staff passed out complimentary hotel toiletries to the assembled audience.
As an integral part of its new campaign, the Foothill Cultural District announced a range of special holiday discounts available by downloading two coupons from the Foothill Cultural District website (www.foothillcd.com). Saturday, December 9 is “Holiday Shopping Day” at the participating gift shops. Every purchase is discounted 10%, with members receiving their additional membership discount as well.
Coupon bearers receive a two-for-one admission discount at Utah’s Hogle Zoo, Red Butte Garden, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and the Utah Museum of Natural History through January 2007. (Free admission must be of an equal or lesser value.) Ft. Douglas Military Museum is free year round. As part of its holiday participation, the University Guest House features a $59/night rate through January 4, 2007.
“We’re excited to be a part of the burgeoning arts, entertainment and cultural community that’s taking hold in the Salt Lake Valley,” said Linda Hunt, Executive Director of the Foothill Cultural District.
“With current economic growth and business expansion outpacing most of the country, the low unemployment rate and the skyrocketing increase in tourism, Salt Lake is poised to become among the West’s leading suppliers of leisure time activities. And Foothill Cultural District, with its creativity, diversity and accessibility, is destined to be a major contributor to the vitality of this high growth segment,” she concluded.