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New Jersey: More than mafia
The image of New Jersey? Toxic waste, traffic-tangled interstates and TV Mafioso Tony Soprano.
But despite that, the area lured more than 71 million visitors last year.
And tourists spent $37.6 billion in the Garden State last year, an increase of 5.1% from the previous year. The number of visitors was also up 1.2% from the previous year, according to wire service reports.
“Most people think about Atlantic City or the shore,” said Governor Jon Corzine during a conference on tourism. “But think about the highlands, the Delaware Bay, the crossroads of the revolution, and all the entertainment and great restaurants.”
The tourism industry has become New Jersey’s third-largest, after pharmaceuticals and chemicals, said Karen Wolfe, a spokeswoman for the commerce commission.
Commerce Secretary Virginia Bauer cited a number of initiatives the state undertook in the past year to boost tourism, including getting the rock group Bon Jovi to allow its hit song “Who Says You Can’t Go Home?” to be used in New Jersey tourism commercials. Lead singer Jon Bon Jovi is a Sayreville native.
The state also rolled out its “Beach in a Box” truck to New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. The truck had a miniature display of a New Jersey beach designed to promote interest from out-of-state vacationers.
It was part of a deeper reach into secondary markets in other states, where many of New Jersey’s visitors come from.
Among its other attractions, New Jersey even has scuba diving with 4,000 ship wrecks off the coast line.
Report by David Wilkening
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