This discussion centers on the significance of seasonal tourism, particularly emphasizing the economic benefits derived from Halloween-themed events and attractions. We delve into the multifaceted nature of haunted tourism, exploring its capacity to enhance local economies through increased visitor numbers and engagement with unique cultural experiences. Our conversation traverses a variety of haunted locales, including ghost tours and amusement parks that offer thematic events designed to captivate audiences during this autumnal season. We reflect on the allure of these experiences, noting how they foster not only excitement but also a profound connection to history and storytelling. Ultimately, we advocate for the exploration of such seasonal opportunities as a means to enrich one's travel experiences while simultaneously supporting local businesses and communities.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• 00:07 - Introduction to Aqua Talks
• 03:14 - Transitioning to Haunted Tourism
• 11:51 - Exploring Halloween Tourism
• 17:50 - Exploring Haunted Locations and Their Histories
• 21:58 - The Thrill of Haunted Tourism

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Aqua Talks provides insightful strategies for marketers seeking to capture audience attention and drive engagement.
• Seasonal tourism, particularly around Halloween, significantly boosts local economies and tourism revenues.
• Haunted tourism and ghost tours serve as unique marketing tools that attract visitors and enhance destination appeal.
• The discussion emphasizes the importance of storytelling in marketing, particularly in evoking emotions and creating memorable experiences.
• Listeners are encouraged to explore seasonal events as a means of diversifying their travel experiences and supporting local communities.
• The podcast illustrates how immersive experiences, such as ghost tours, can enrich one's understanding of a destination's history and culture.

Welcome to Aqua Talks where marketing meets bold game changing ideas.

Join your hosts, Larry Aldrich and Maddie Dudley as they explore the art and science of cutting through the noise, capturing attention and fostering meaningful connections with your audience.

Whether you're a destination marketer, government contractor, or simply passionate about the transformative power of marketing, Aqua Talks offers engaging discussions, fresh insights and actionable strategies designed to inspire and inform.

Hi, welcome back to Aqua Talks. My name is Mady. I am the PR Director of Aqua Marketing and Communications. This is a podcast for marketers.

Whether you are just getting started or you are a marketing pro, this is a podcast brought to you by Bren Technology. I am joined by my co host as always, Larry Aldrich.

Thank you. My name is Larry Aldrich, President CEO of Aqua Marketing and Communications and Brensys Technology llc. Hello, Maddie.

How are you doing this afternoon?

I'm great. As I was saying, I'm a little cold, but that's okay. Yes.

Winter months, the fall months are coming up.

Yes. Yep. It's about to actually be sweater season, which is kind of perfect for a segue into what we're talking about today.

This time of year going into October and towards the end of October, the weather, the nights get a little crisp, they get a little darker. It always seemed like it's darker in October towards around Halloween and the leaves are falling specifically in the northeastern states.

Yep.

And it's. There's that little chill in the air. It's a little smoky.

You get that maybe because a lot of people were outside and there are fire pits and you smell that smoky air just blows all the way a couple miles down and it's colder and it just feels darker.

Like people having fires or witches making a brew.

Yeah, it feels a little scary. But that time of year, Halloween is a fun time of year for me. I love to watch horror movies. I love to scare myself a little bit.

What's your favorite?

My favorite scary movie. The Conjuring series.

Okay.

And there's. There's a new one that's out. Actually, I haven't seen it yet. I'm looking forward to it.

I haven't seen the, and I say the Conjuring series because there's.

You have the Conjuring and then you go into the Nun one and two, it goes into Annabelle, which I haven't seen either of the Annabelle's yet, but I still plan on watching them.

And then based off of this, the series is based off of True events, which it goes into Amityville Horror and like all of those movies that originally Came out are all based off of true events.

And the conjuring that that movie is based off of true events of the cast that was in or excuse me, the people they portray in that movie was a part of all of these. These events that come out. So.

Wow.

Taking this a step further, we're talking travel tourism marketing. We're going to talk about, you know, just have a little fun conversation about haunted tourism.

Yep. Importance of seasonal tourism. So how you can really spike traveler numbers and tourism and help the economy during fun times.

Like one of our favorites, Halloween.

Halloween. There's a lot of places that have events or. Excuse me. And amusement parks.

They have events going on through a couple weeks through the month of October. Spooky rides, spooky costumes. They set up basically haunted houses throughout the park or haunted parks, haunted hay rides.

One that I particularly like in Virginia. Alexandria, Virginia, Old Town. I went on a ghost tour.

Oh, tell me about it.

And we got there. It was a chilling. It was actually a very chilly October night. So it kind of fit.

So we met right there, maybe a block up from the fish market in Old town Alexandria, Virginia. Fish Market's great seafood restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia.

So basically we walked around to different locations in Old town, Virginia, you know, one of the first settlements in the state of. In Virginia. And they talked about some of the old buildings that were still up, some of the old architecture, what used to be in some of these areas.

And they talked about some of the ghost stories in some of these. These buildings and.

And taking it from what happened in the past and to what people were still seeing in some of these buildings and how some of the spirits that they're seeing still dressed and how they're dressed. And it was. It was fun. It was thrilling. It was scary. But, you know, getting spooked can be scary and thrilling all at once.

When you feel, like, your hair standing up and that little chill on your back because you're scared. But it's exciting and it's a thrill, I guess.

Yeah. Well, Larry, I'm on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I can't even chip.

One of our producers earlier was showing me a video his son made, and he had a little bit of blood on his head. And I just could barely even look at it. It's not my thing. I don't like horror. I don't like scary stuff.

I'm the type of person, if my friends see a scary movie, I love the creativity that goes into scary movies and just how thoughtful they are about every detail to really Mess with your psychology and to really spook people. So, like weapons. This new movie just came out and I had my friends describe it to me in exact detail because I will never see it.

If I see a visual of something, then it's just going to be stuck in my head and I'll never forget it and I'll just freak myself out when I'm home alone.

So when we think about it, destination marketing.

Yeah.

When you go to places like historic haunted hotels, haunted houses and castles, ghost tours, cemeteries, festivals and events, pumpkin patches and corn mazes and spooky culinary tourism events, that's all part of destiny. That's all marketing. That's all marketed towards tourism.

Yeah.

Economic development and localities and small towns and counties, and that's all part of destination marketing. Tourism marketing. But these are specific events that are bringing you to these locations for these events. Now, those might be some smaller events.

I mean, there's festivals out there that are all geared towards the horror theme or Halloween.

Yeah.

So that's all part of destination marketing. And it's fun and it is. It's a different aspect.

I know we talk about marketing and talking about beaches and the sunshine and the food at the restaurants in Putagorda beach or the food at Daytona Beach.

Yeah.

But they also have Halloween events.

Yes. Yeah. Punta Gorda actually does a ghost tour, similarly to what you were saying, like a haunted history tour.

And there's some cool stats, actually about these haunted tours.

According to Skift, ghost tours and paranormal events now contribute up to 20% of local tourism revenues in haunted hotspots like Salem and Sleepy Hollow. So they're really, you know, contributing a lot to the local economy.

There was actually a good movie that came out again. They remade Salem's Lot a couple years ago, which was a good movie.

Is that Stephen King?

I believe so.

Okay.

I'm not 100% sure. Don't quote me.

Okay.

I didn't write down those facts. But it was a good movie, was based off of. I think it was based off of Stephen King book. Right.

Okay.

And then I know there was a movie quite a few years ago. I don't want to say how long ago, but it was years ago.

And then I know that most recently, I'd say in the last two or three years, Netflix played another. Or put. I don't know if it came out on HBO Max or Netflix, but it was a recent. A somewhat recent remake of Salem's Lot. It was entertaining.

I enjoyed it a lot.

People were visiting destinations because of these events and these festivals they're having all focused around the Halloween horror theme.

Right. So a couple of.

I mean, it's crazy how many trips I've gone on and even out of season have experienced a ghost tour or like a cemetery tour in specific destinations.

So they're not Salem or Sleepy Hollow, but some that come to mind where I was there as a tourist staying nearby somewhere where I could get a ghost tour because I just wanted to do something different. It goes back to that experiential marketing. Like people really want to learn something and they really want to do something different.

I was even on a bachelorette trip in New Orleans and we went on a ghost tour. This group of like nine girls. We were like, let's go on a ghost tour. Because we didn't want to do the typical bachelorette thing.

And it was so cool and it was so fun. And they just really tell the history of the city through such an amazing lens.

And they also typically tend to have a lot of insights into just details of the city in general. And they're good resources. These ghost tour guides are really good resources for any questions you have about a new city. So did that in New Orleans.

I actually went on a cemetery tour and. Well, not a cemetery tour. It was technically like a Harry Potter tour of Edinburgh. And we went to this specific cemetery.

I can't remember the name of it exactly, it's escaping me. But in there is where the author went to find the names for Harry Potter. So you can see gravestones that say Tom Riddle on them.

And I think there was another name that they also had in there, but I can't remember it right now. But yeah, we went to a cemetery. I think Scrooge also was in the same cemetery. And it was just really fascinating.

And it's just added that much more value and importance to my trip because I have now learned about the history of so many different things and how this specific place has impacted certain mediums of culture.

A lot of organizations, a lot of destinations, they have events themed around Halloween. For example, the kid in me, I like to call him the Knucklehead. I love amusement parks and a Lot of amusement parks.

Probably towards mid August they start to decorate and have their Halloween themed promotions and tours going on. From Disney to Busch Gardens, Virginia and Tampa, Busch Gardens, King's Dominion and just outside of Richmond, Virginia. Really nice amusement park.

Even Kennywood smaller amusement park outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania they start to have their Halloween themed events and they bring in a large amount of visitors. Tourists just for their Halloween themed event.

So Halloween themed tourism, horror tourism is really big in the US and it's another fun way to visit locations to visit destinations and tourisms based off of different things, different times of year.

Yeah, yeah. Another good example is like how Europe specifically stretches out the Christmas markets.

So before Christmas as well as after Christmas, there are ice skating rinks and Christmas markets and it's just the dreamiest place you'll ever be. A little bit more my speed than Halloween.

Have you ever decided to visit a destination for Halloween based off of someone else's social media post or based off of an influencer social media post?

You know, I haven't visited a specific destination for Halloween, but I have in the past done a lot of Halloween things like I said in destinations where they just happened to be but it wasn't around the same season and it was just. Yeah. Because I wanted to experience it and thought it was cool.

One of the locations, one a place that I really want to visit. I've always heard there's a lot of history and this is on the same. When we're still talking social media.

Yeah.

Even before social media, years ago there were books. Before social media we used to read more books. In case you didn't know, that was Charleston, South Carolina.

Oh, and Charleston, South Carolina there was a, there is a history of. Basically they used to say all of Charleston is haunted.

Oh wow.

And the. I've never visited there yet. I haven't gotten there yet. But I definitely want to try some haunted tours through Charleston.

And they just say, you know, I mean, it's almost like you can feel someone walking next to you all the time.

In Charleston, South Carolina, that sent a shiver down my spine. I was just there and I don't think I felt anyone near me, but I was with a big group of people. So maybe I just.

A lot of those old colonial towns have that, that history and I lived in Virginia for 15 years and a lot of that area from the Civil War, a lot of the battlegrounds were there. So there's a lot of history there. There's. There's a lot of still open plains that you can just go visit and they were historic battlegrounds.

Wow.

And there's. There's still some old buildings that are standing there from the Civil War that you can visit and that you can tour.

There's a lot of history and a lot of places around the country, from north to west to south to east. Excuse me, north to south to east to west.

You know, can get that confused sometimes, especially when you're trying to picture it, that there's a lot of history. There's a lot of haunted history. There's a lot of spooky history.

Mm. What do you think are draws to that?

Like sometimes, like I said, I'm not into horror movies, but I sometimes like a true crime episode or like a TV show is what I'll watch. But. And you said something earlier about how it spooks you, but you also like it makes you alert. What do you think the draw is?

It's the story.

Yeah.

A lot of times we talk about the story and hearing that story makes it. You want to hear more. And then you start to get scared.

Like, you know, since we've been little kids and Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts or camping or being outside around the fire. It always watch in the movies. It always goes back to telling scary stories.

The one movie that came out years ago that was popular, you know, in the beginning was the Blair Witch Project.

Oh, yeah.

It was interesting when it was first coming out because they told a story then the way that they used the cameras to. To capture the movie made it even scarier. I thought that was when they first did it was brilliant.

Yeah.

But it was like telling a scary story while using your cell phone camera.

Yeah. Which is a good lesson for marketers like us because it's important how you deliver your message. Right.

Yes.

You want to invoke some sort of spooky feeling in people. Maybe that's the way to do it is recording and being like the lighting that, you know, our creative team is way better at it than I am.

But it's really important to tailor your message specifically to try to get the desired result. Essentially is what I'm gathering from that.

So it's that time of year. Get out. You want to do some travel, look for some haunted hayride, some haunted tour locations.

Somewhere in some of these destinations, there's a lot to choose from. It's fun, it's exciting, it's scary. You're probably not going to sleep at night without the lights for a couple weeks, but it's worth it.

Not for the haunted houses that I go to. I'm probably more of a Mickey's not so Scary Halloween kind of girl. Yeah.

There's a lot of restaurants.

Yes.

And old buildings that have a history in hotels that have a haunted history behind them.

Yes, there are. I went to the Stanley Hotel in, I believe it's Colorado Springs a couple of years ago. Went on an entire trip just to go see that hotel.

Because I love the Shining. And I guess that's where he wrote the book or he stayed and was inspired to write the book.

So went out of my way a couple of hours just to go see that hotel. And people stay there maybe to try to be inspired to write their own version of it.

Last but not least, there's a lot of locations that say it's a destination. I know there's a lot of them out there, so I'm not going to pick one out of the whole lot of them that are out there.

But a lot of locations will invite you to come and spend the night in this house or this hotel that's supposed to be haunted and see if you can spend the whole night there. Would you do that?

What do you think?

I think you would absolutely.

No.

Am I wrong? No.

No, probably not. For now, if I'm getting paid. That's the other thing, is that if I'm paying to do this, never in a million years.

If I was being paid maybe like a hundred thousand dollars.

So if I gave you a million dollars to stay in a haunted prison for a night, oh, my God. Would you do it?

Yeah.

You would?

A million dollars? Yeah. Okay, I'll do it right now.

I wouldn't. What? Cause I watched all. See, you don't watch scary movies.

You see what happens. Ignorance is bliss, Larry.

There's a lot of movies where they say, we will give you money to stay here overnight. Or it was. There was a couple of them. It was an old. There was one movie. No, no, not Saul. That's different. Saul's more gore.

There was a movie where it was a big psychiatric hospital on a mountain, and a lot of people went there to try to spend the night, and it didn't go well. For.

See, I'm just. I hear the story and I'm on the edge of my seat, but I could never watch this movie.

I watch a lot of movies like that. I watch a lot of movies. A lot of references come from movies, and I'm just like, nope, no way. I'm not going in there because of this movie.

Because of this movie I saw.

Yeah, well, that's why I stay away from Most Halloween themed things.

That's why I watch a lot of kids. I get information from those movies.

Yeah, I love that. Well, yeah.

So Halloween and seasonal events are essentially like they can be a second Christmas to some communities in terms of supporting the area, supporting the community, especially local businesses getting an uptick in sales during that time as well.

But yeah, seasonal tourism. Seasonal tourism is. It's a great way to tour. Excuse me. It's a great way to vacation also.

Mm.

It's a great way to visit destinations for the different events they have during the season. It doesn't always have to be a beach. Yep, beaches are nice, but it doesn't always have to be a beach. You can.

You could definitely cross off your bucket list for travel by doing some seasonal tourism. Halloween's right here, so maybe try something different. Go spend a night at a haunted house and see how long you last.

Don't do that.

I'm not going. But Maddie said she.

For a million dollars. Yes. Show me the money and I will be there. Well, thank you for joining us again. I'm Maddie and I'm with Larry. This is Aqua talks.

Please visit aquatox.com if you're interested in learning more about seasonal tourism or about us, your hosts. More episodes coming out soon. Follow us on YouTube and Instagram and Facebook and all of those things.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You've been listening to Aqua Talks, where marketing innovation takes center stage with bold ideas and actionable insights. Ready to take your strategies to the next level?

Visit aquatacts.com to book your free consultation and explore resources that empower you to thrive in today's fast paced marketing world. Until next time, stay bold, stay inspired, stay imaginative.