Dann Lewis

New York - Dann H. Lewis, New York State deputy commissioner and director of tourism development, recently received the “Outstanding New Yorker” award from the New York City Junior Chamber of Commerce for his important contributions in the marketing and promotion of both New York City and State.

The occasion was celebrated at the Junior Chamber’s third annual Big Apple Banquet, which was held at the elegant Park Lane Hotel.

Praise and honors are no strangers to Dann Lewis, who came to his demanding deputy commissioner’s position in the New York State Department of Commerce from the directorship of the U. S. Virgin Islands department of tourism, and the marketing director’s post with the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. In his latter capacity he helped establish Bahamasair, the national airline of the Bahamas, of which he subsequently became the first chairman. With this impressive background Dann Lewis was eminently qualified for the difficult task of bringing to the attention of business travelers and tourists the facilities, sights and cultural treasures of New York City and New York State. His expertise was translated into the remarkable success of the state’s “I Love New York” promotion campaign on one hand - which he coordinated - and the vastly increased awareness throughout New York of the importance of meetings, conventions and incentive groups to the Empire State’s economy, and morale on the other - an awareness which Dann Lewis fostered.

For all these reasons, Meeting and Conventions congratulates Dann Lewis.

From: Meetings and Conventions Magazine - May, 1980 - by Mel Hosanski

The “I Love New York” campaign has brought many thousands of new visitors, which means more tax revenues to New York State — but individual municipalities and attractions will have to do their own work to draw those tourists through the turnstiles, Dann H. Lewis said yesterday.

Dann Lewis is justifiably proud of the campaign’s record because he originated it as deputy commissioner of New York State’s Division of Tourism. He spoke yesterday at the Rochester County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Lewis went on to say, “I would warn you that the success of the program does not mean that individual resorts and attractions should automatically expect to see more business coming in with little effort on their part. Individual attractions must continue to advertise.”
But the potential is there if they do, Dann Lewis believes. His speech cited figure after figure to show the research the division did before starting the “I Love New York” campaign and the results it has had. Among the figures Lewis cited:
* The travel industry employs 200,000 full-time in New York state and brings $6 billion per year in sales. It’s the No. 2 industry in New York. But before 1977 there had been a steady decline in the tourism budget and in New York’s market share in the Northeast.
* Research showed that outside New York City the “promotable” attractions were clearly outdoors - the lakes and mountains and unequalled scenic beauty of the state.
* New York ranked low - at 8 percent - a few years ago for “top of mind” awareness of the state. That figure has more than tripled and is growing monthly. “Even better,” Dann Lewis added, “all of this can be traced to their awareness of our advertising. Without the ads, there would have been no change at all.”
* In 1977, the first year the ads concentrated on upstate, the number of overall trips by tourists to the Northeastern states remained about the same as the previous year — stagnant — but trips to New York state increased by 24 percent. The big loser was the New England states.
Lewis figured there were over 1,850,000 individual trips to New York, conservatively estimating that the trips brought in $200 million in income and $14 million in taxes.
Dann Lewis said during the first 18 months of the campaign $10.9 million was spent for advertising and other forms of marketing. “That’s about a 6 to 1 ratio of tax dollars generated to advertising expense, a ratio I’m sure we can all live with.”
Apart from its dollar effect the campaign brought in 11 major awards, including a special Tony award. “We started out with an effective idea and it just snowballed all over the world,” Lewis said. “New Yorkers all over the state have a renewed sense of pride — we see people wearing the I Love New York buttons and putting bumper stickers on their cars. Even New York City Taxi Drivers are saying “come visit again soon” as they drop people off at the state’s metropolitan airports.
From: Rochester News, by Anne Tanner, Financial Editor

It was raining. But this was a big night for the New York Division of Tourism and an even bigger night for Broadway. You had major big stars shooting for union scale wages. You had chorus lines waiving residuals. You had Peter Pan’s Sandy Duncan being hoisted into the darkening night-lit sky. You also had Captain Hook, Nana-the-dog, Wendy Dear and the Darling Boys. Last but hardly least, you had the folks from Wells, Rich, Greene Advertising and Dann Lewis, the tweed-jacketed Director of the Division of Tourism (who was paying for this shebang).

There was a lot riding on this thing. The League of New York Theatres and Producers calculate that the “I Love New York” commercials have sold a cool 1.8 million theatre tickets, and the Department of Commerce figures a booming 126 million in revenue has been brought into this state since the campaign began. New York needs that revenue after the huge slump of ‘75.

So the rain was being ignored.

Sandy Duncan Loves New York.

And Lucie Arnaz Loves New York

And Angela Landsbury Loves New York

And Oh Yes, Beverly Sills, who will kick off this Broadway-packed, 60 second commercial when it hits the air on November 17th, Loves New York.

On this campaign alone, five shows are being covered: Sweeney Todd was shot was shot down by South Street Seaport, Dancin was shot on the steps of the Plaza Fountain, They’re Playing Our Song was filmed on a flatbed truck in the middle of Times Square, Evita was shot on the steps of the New York Public Library and of course Peter Pan. Everyone belting out “I Love New York” at the top of their lungs.

Suddenly Steve Horn (the best cameraman-director in the business) says “God, the Twin Towers are getting covered with fog.” The Twin Towers are lit up. So, for that matter, is the entire east side of lower Manhattan. A woman from the Division of Tourism saw to that. She called the Building Owners and Maintenance Association and asked if they’d leave the lights on in their east side offices to form the background for the new “I Love New York” commercial. They said “sure”.

In a funny litttle gesture of excitement Sandy Duncan crosses her arms in front of her chest, flings them wide again and as she is hoisted high above the Brooklyn Bridge says “There’s something in the air!” She throws back her head and laughs the enchanted laugh of a little boy who will never grow up, and we are all, for a split second, young again.

It’s a wrap and Dann Lewis is beaming.

From: Playbill - September 1979

Dann Lewis announced a joint advertising program to encourage more Japanese travel to New York State has been worked out between Japan Air Lines and the New York State Division of Tourism.

“JAL print advertising in Japan will carry the I LOVE NEW YORK logo during October, November and December,” said Dann Lewis, “with special television commercials that were filmed in New York airing during this period, as well as in the Spring of 1980, in Japan.”

In addition, radio commercials will feature the I LOVE NEW YORK theme music, already known worldwide.

Dann Lewis went on to note, “a special I LOVE NEW YORK desk has been placed in the main ticket office of JAL in Tokyo, T-shirts, maps, buttons and other collateral materials are available in response to coupons in local ads.” JAL reports that Japanese tourists are already eager to visit New York, particularly the upstate region.

from - Discover America News - January 1980

“It was one of the most exciting travel promotions I have ever directed,” said Deputy Commissioner Dann Lewis, at the closing night celebration of the transcontinental kick-off tour for the 1979-80 I LOVE NEW YORK winter co-operative advertising campaign.

Now, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta and San Francisco can also learn why so many other areas of the nation Love New York.
Dann Lewis continued, “thanks to the combined efforts of Braniff, Delta, Eastern and United Airlines, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York Visitors and Conventions Bureau, the League of New York Theatres & Producers, Radio City Music Hall, and the casts of Grease, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the Division of Tourism was able to spread the I LOVE NEW YORK message into major new markets across the county.” Dann Lewis said “we would have been financially unable to reach these markets otherwise.”

The promotion culminated in a spectacular three-city tour by 39 members of the Radio City Music Hall troupe, featuring the world-famous “Rockettes” who staged a thirty minute production for the people of San Francisco in a mobbed Union Square.
Dann Lewis said “it was an overwhelming expression of good will on behalf of New York City and New York State - one that I am sure will leave these communities with a positive and lasting impression of our great city and state.”

from: I Love New York Tourism Memo - September 1979

“The incomparable, the brilliant star city of cities … the Egyptian paradox, the inferno with no out of bounds, the supreme expression of both the miseries and splendors of contemporary civilization … it stays up all night. But it also becomes a small town when it rains.”
— John Gunther

Guess which city Gunther was talking about. (And it ain’t Cairo).
New York City. Of course. And if the new tourism push for that center of theater, art, fashion and debt pays off, the city will be even more vital with cash flow and consuming celebrants.
The promotion began here yesterday when the award-winning commercial spotlighting Broadway characters in “I Love New York” vignettes started hitting the airwaves in Tampa and across Florida. In a cooperative venture, National Airlines and the NY State Department of Commerce have packaged a number of tours designed with the best of marketing methodology in mind, making available in easy form a number of hotel-and-theater packages for traveling to The City.
Broadway, the commerce department found in its marketing research, is what people want but have found difficult to master on their own. The ease of booking is proving most appealing.
And Broadway isn’t all New York State is selling. “We’ve packaged 20 ski areas for sale this winter,” said Dann Lewis, deputy commissioner and director of tourism for New York. “These are just the beginning steps,” said Lewis. Lewis feels New York has just gotten its hands on a marketing bonanza.
Dann Lewis came to the commerce department from a position as director of tourism for the Virgin Islands. Tourism had declined considerably during the early 70’s there, he described, until an approach similar to New York’s new undertaking took effect. “The government decided to develop tourism on a professional platform” Lewis explained’ “I was brought in in late ‘75 as the first tourism director of the Virgin Islands, to put together a professionally staffed tourism organization. I am very happy to say that the U. S. Virgin Islands just celebrated its best year in history.” Dann Lewis went on to say “It shows even an area that has been going downhill, if government recognized the importance of the tourism industry and makes a commitment to tap into the tremendous return on investment in a professional way … puts a reasonable budget behind it and then operates it as a business, rather than a haven for political appointees, you can accomplish a great deal.”

That’s the approach in a nutshell. Professionalism. New York’s commerce department began with marketing research which indicated they should be packaging Broadway. Now the department is hiring professionals to move around the state into regional offices where they will help tourism entities such as hotels and attractions put together packages to be sold throughout the United States and abroad.

“Bundling together tourism accommodations, meals, attractions, transfers and transportation, has been done in Europe for decades,” Dann Lewis said. “The U. S. is probably 30 years behind Europe in tourism development. Many more people in Europe travel across county borders than they do in the states. There are very well developed tour programs and the charter business is very well defined. Fifty percent of intra-Europe air traffic is tour; in the U. S. that’s four percent of domestic. The room for growth here is obviously tremendous. Some of the vast changes in the regulation of the airline industry today, are going to lend credence to what has existed in Europe for years.”

Dann Lewis sees New York in the lead with this tourism development. New York State in the past 15 months has gone from 50th, to first in tourism expenditures; and has recognized this industry as a major economic engine that fuels all of New York’s economy. And it is. And that’s pretty lovable, right?

From: The Tampa Times by Nelda Clemmons

NEW YORK - Travel spending in New York State has grown to an estimated $287 million and 7,900 new jobs have been created since the inception of the Department of Commerce’s I Love New York campaign 18 months ago, according to an official department report. Results of the report, which were announced by Dann Lewis, deputy commissioner and director of tourism development, also showed that in New York city alone, 4,400 full-time travel-related jobs have been created since February when the Broadway Show tours began, and during the first seven months of the program, visitors to New York City spent $152 million more than they did in the same period of 1977.

In upstate New York and Long Island, visitor spending grew by $135 million during the summer of the campaign and created more than 3,500 new year-round jobs.

Dann Lewis also announced that his department is adding both managerial and clerical positions throughout the state as well as new equipment to improve the fulfillment capabilities of the program. The budget for the program, which has grown from $400,000 to approximately $12 million since its launch, now calls for the hiring of six new regional managers deployed strategically throughout the state, who will cooperate with the central offices in both Albany and New York City to creat new promotions and tour programs for the various counties in New York State. Additionally, Dann Lewis reported that a recently installed fulfillment system which becomes operational this month, will enable consumer requests to be channeled to a toll-free number and then transmitted into a central computer in Albany and fulfilled within 24 hours.

Another top priority item on Dann Lewis’ list is speeding up target dates on availability of promotional literature for seasonal campaigns. For example, the winter ski brochure was ready in October of this year as scheduled, but Lewis plans to have it available for the next winter season no later than September.

A number of 1979 programs will be added and others expanded, most notably the 1979 Broadway Showtours which will be expanded from 16 to 23 individual programs.

Dann Lewis also announced that New York has stepped up its participation in tourism industry meetings and special events. Lewis also pointed out that there will be continuing cooperation with both domestic and international flag airlines that serve JFK, LGA and EWR. The U. K., the Netherlands, Germany and France have already begun developing programs for European visitors interested in expressing their love for New York.

From: Travel Weekly, Helen Brower, January 1979