Visit Philadelphia has proved its effectiveness

Ed Rendell

is a former governor of Pennsylvania and former mayor of Philadelphia

Visit Philadelphia, formerly known as the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp., has done an incredible job of fulfilling its mission of attracting leisure tourists.

Since its founding in 1996 by Gov. Tom Ridge, Rebecca Rimel of the Pew Charitable Trusts, and me as mayor, the organization's success has been extraordinary. In 2012, leisure visitors accounted for 88 percent, or 34.1 million, of the 38.8 million visitors to Philadelphia. That's 11 million more leisure visitors than in 1997, when VisitPhiladelphia started advertising.

"VisitPhiladelphia has been a model for how destinations market themselves," says Jason Clampet, cofounder of Skift, a global travel intelligence company. "There's no question that it should be in charge of marketing the city."

Here are 10 examples of Visit Philadelphia's success over the years:

In 1997, VisitPhiladelphia put Philly on national TV for the first time with the advertising campaign "This Is My Philadelphia."

Seeing an uptick in leisure business, Philadelphia hotels championed a 1 percent hotel tax increase in 1999 to permanently fund VisitPhiladelphia's tourism marketing efforts.

VisitPhiladelphia launched Philly's "More Fun When You Sleep Over" and the "Philly Overnight Hotel Package," contributing to "the most successful hospitality recovery in the country" after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, according to Smith Travel Research.

In 2004, VisitPhiladelphia made Philadelphia the first destination in the world to broadcast a gay-themed television commercial, an effort that contributed to increased visits.

Just after the economic downturn in 2009, Visit Philadelphia launched the "With Love, Philadelphia XOXO" campaign, an effort that yields $100 in visitor spending for every $1 spent on the campaign, according to Longwoods International and Tourism Economics.

The region's official visitor website and blog, visitphilly.com and uwishunu.com, make up the most-visited website network out of the 10 biggest U.S. cities, according to Quantcast.

Called one of "social media's coolest travel companies" by Travel & Leisure magazine, VisitPhiladelphia boasts nine social media platforms that engage with a half-million fans and followers.

In 2013 alone, VisitPhiladelphia counted more than 6,000 positive stories about the city that it placed in influential newspapers, magazines, blogs, TV programs, and more.

VisitPhiladelphia works with hundreds of partners to get the Philadelphia message out to potential travelers in a compelling, strategic, unified way - whether in its joint marketing program, special magazine sections, advertising on visitphilly.com, or countless other ways.

Meryl Levitz and the VisitPhiladelphia team have accrued a wealth of honors over the years. Skift named Levitz to its World's Top Travel Marketers list in December. The U.S. Travel Association chose Philadelphia and its "With Love" campaign as the model city in its "The Power of Destination Marketing" report. Additional awards and accolades have come from Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, International Academy of the Visual Arts, Travel & Leisure, Travel Weekly, and others.

The most recent example that demonstrates why Visit Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB) should stick to their distinct missions came a few weeks ago when the bureau debuted "PHL: Here for the Making," which was a confusing and uninspired campaign. Visit Philadelphia's "With Love" campaign, on the other hand, has proven itself to be a successful, adaptable campaign that delivers visitors to Philadelphia and impacts the local economy in a major way.

From my experience as mayor and governor, and as someone who has spent nearly two decades promoting our city, I believe the best thing for Philadelphia is to make PHLCVB part of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority. Those two groups could then work as one to try to revitalize our ailing convention business by booking more conventions and meetings. Then we could keep VisitPhiladelphia keenly focused on its aim - which it's been mighty successful at already: attracting leisure visitors.