Getting visitors to the Lowcountry to relax is really hard work

Our assignment is not rocket science.

Beaufort County can remain attractive to visitors if we tell them to come relax.

According to a new study, 90 percent of Hilton Head Island visitors say the island makes them feel relaxed. The top three adjectives they use to describe Hilton Head are: Relaxing, friendly and fun.

Maybe our slogan should be "Relax." People don't want to go on vacation to wait in lines. They want to relax. We should help them do that.

By a wide margin, visitors come here for the beach. This mystical allure is something our best inventions can't touch. Our ads could show someone standing alone on the beach, with these words: "Oh, no! Not another sunrise over the Atlantic. This morning it looked like a volcano erupting."

Relaxation for you may be a book and a hammock. For me, it's six consecutive shots in a sand trap.

But if Beaufort County has anything, it's variety. For the "seer-doer" island visitor, which the survey says is 20 percent of them, we've got the arts, golf, tennis, fine restaurants, clubs, fishing, kayaking, boating, festivals, history, the Gullah culture, beautiful Beaufort and Bluffton nearby, and endless events, vistas and views.

And we've got what I've always been told is the top draw: The weather. Our motto ought to be, "We've Got Sunshine" in big letters, above: "And a warm community."

The "visitor profile study" shows exactly who these visitors are who left $57.25 million on the island over the past 18 months. The study was done for the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, with surveys taken late last year, followed by telephone interviews earlier this year.

It tells us that our "classic" visitor -- making up nearly 70 percent of all visitors -- usually travels as a couple or family, with the key travel decision-maker most likely to be a female who is:

• Between 45 and 64 years old.

• Caucasian (94 percent).

• Married (84 percent), with kids 18 or older (68 percent).

• In a household earning $100,000-plus annually (53 percent).

• Holding an undergraduate degree or higher (65 percent).

• A regular traveler, making two to seven trips per year (77 percent); regularly returning to Hilton Head between June and August.

• Driving to the island (77 percent) -- most likely from Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania or North Carolina.

• Of the mindset that vacations are a necessity, a well-earned birthright that should be budgeted for accordingly.

The study shows that island visitors with annual household incomes of $200,000 or more make up only about 6 percent of all visitors. This group, the study says, "show great potential." They are slightly older, with more education and more diverse travel interests. "Island features like history/heritage, arts and culture -- and even ecological sensitivity -- seem more important" to these visitors.

Overall, tourists come in an average party of 4.4 people and stay 6.5 nights.

And once they visit the island, they're hooked. Fifty-seven percent are repeat visitors. The study notes a concern that the percentage of first-time visitors shrank sharply from 2005. The economy probably played a role, but the study says, "This means Hilton Head Island faces the risk of a shrinking core visitor base."

It recommends marketing focused on younger families who will make vacation on Hilton Head a family tradition, like so many have done before them.

We can't take these visitors for granted, and the best marketing is us. It's up to us to provide a high-quality place for them to stay, eat and relax. It's up to us to be friendly and provide excellent service. It's up to us to maintain thriving natural resources.

It takes a lot of hard work to relax.