Dew Tour Is Worth Getting Excited About
Ocean City is gaga over the Dew Tour, and that’s exactly how it should be.
The buzz alone created by this event over the last week has given Ocean City just what it needs this time of year — a reason to get out in front of eyeballs that are surely having some spring fever.
The Dew Tour, which began in 2005, is an action sports tour, featuring extreme events in a variety of mediums and in a unique setting. The Ocean City stop, July 21-24, will include skateboard and surf competitions as well as BMX events, a free festival village and a live concert. The Dew Tour gives away $2.5 million prize money over the course of the summer, including a Dew Cup at season’s end to the top performer.
What makes this event so critical for Ocean City is the national exposure it will receive during the television coverage in July as well as all the hype surrounding it currently. Ocean City is being talked about in circles that it would never have been previously, and that’s what marketing is all about.
We recently had a unique interaction with a local high school senior. We were talking about the upcoming summer and his work plans, and he said he expects to bank a good amount of money this season for college, thanks in part to the Dew Tour. Whether that’s a reality or not is unknown, but the fact is this event has him excited and anxious, and that’s just one person. Surely, there are thousands of others who share his enthusiasm.
What last week’s announcement does is it gives Ocean City a reason to talk about itself even more so than usual, and the timing could not be better. Mayor Rick Meehan now has a lot to boast about when he goes on television stations this spring hyping the summer. Last week, Meehan said the town has been fielding media calls from all over the country about the Dew Tour selecting Ocean City as a stop.
The short-term impact of the Dew Tour coming to Ocean City will be the new people it brings to town this July, but what tourism officials are understandably most excited about is the long-range ramifications and all the free publicity the town will receive when the event is televised nationally. That’s priceless.
