Loop 032 printable

Volume 2, No. 8. May 10, 2002

Charitable rebates
An old traditional seaside amusement company has also taken to the Internet as a way to promote personalized sales, except that these sales are tied directly to community fundraising efforts.

Burroughs & Chapin Co., Inc., in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, owners of The Pavilion Amusement Park and several other amusement venues around the seaside resort town, last year launched an on-line ticket sales program for local nonprofit organizations. Under the program, any community organization can apply to Burroughs & Chapin for a Personal Identification Number (PIN). That organization can then give out its PIN number and encourage users to purchase their attraction tickets on-line at www.MyrtleBeachTrips.com. For any ticket purchased with that PIN, 15 percent of the total purchase will automatically go back to the nonprofit organization. People can also use the PIN when purchasing tickets by phone.

“We wanted to offer our local market and the people who visit us over and over again a way to give back to the community,” said Nicole Aiello, hospitality and tourism public relations coordinator for Burroughs & Chapin. In its first summer, the program attracted 15 organizations, she said, ranging from a local fire department raising funds for education programs to a youth baseball team seeking money for uniforms. Aiello would not reveal how much money was turned over to the organizations through the program, but it was successful enough that Burroughs & Chapin decided to expand it to outer markets for this season.

“Myrtle Beach gets a lot of repeat traffic, so we can give back to other communities for being loyal customers as well,” Aiello said. The program, once marketing efforts gear up, will expand to include all of Myrtle Beach’s drive market, reaching as far north as Ohio and New York. Currently the program can be used for season passes and day passes for the Pavilion, Myrtle Waves Water Park, NASCAR SpeedPark, South Beach Adventure Park and the Pirates of the Carolinas dark ride. Burroughs & Chapin may someday add its miniature golf courses and other venues to the program, too, Aiello said.