Philadelphia Seeing Rail Travel As Hook For Its Tourism Business
By Hadas Kuznits
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia and its many tourist attractions are being featured in Amtrak's on-board travel magazine.
Meryl Levitz, president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia, says Philadelphia is being featured in a special, 43-page section of the March-April issue of Arrive magazine.
"Arrive Magazine is on all of the trains in the Northeast corridor," she tells KYW Newsradio, "so it's very important. There are 27.6 million riders along that each year, and 1.4 million readers each issue."
She says it's the first time the magazine has sold this sort of travel destination segment, and she's thrilled that Philadelphia is the first city to do it:
"The 43-page spread includes the Franklin Institute, the zoo, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, the new Ben Franklin Museum, the University City District, Sesame Place, Philadelphia Museum of Art -- so people can page through while they're riding and say, 'I want to see this, I want to do that.' "
Levitz says the magazine targets Philadelphia's tourist audience perfectly, as it's placed on all trains up and down the Northeast corridor.
"You have people who have already self-selected to be on the road, and what better thing than to leaf through and make your travel plans," she says.