Outer Banks, NC (April 8, 2011) – Any festival, gathering, or event is worthy of coverage in the newspaper, but some stories really catch fire, preceding their print-wrap up by way of animated chatter around the water cooler on Monday morning and a blur of postings and comments on the various social network. So here’s the skinny on one of the most talked about topics of the week. The Outer Banks Restaurant Association’s (OBRA) 2011 Outer Banks Taste of The Beach Weekend shattered even their own high expectations by increasing tickets sales 30% over the previous year’s event. The weekend-long food fest, featuring 75 separate events from Wine Tastings and Tapas Crawls to Cooking Classes and Oyster Roasts, was first expanded to a long weekend format in 2008.
Ben Sproul, President of The Outer Banks Restaurant Association put it this way, “I always knew the idea was a good one, but the breadth and creativity of the events, and the enthusiasm and genuine excitement coming from our member restaurants, has really been what has made Taste into something incredible. Four days of fresh, engaging events has been a fantastic way to showcase to the world what many of us have known all along; we’ve got some amazing chefs around here!”
On street corners and post offices, coffee shops and lunch spots, and all over the internet from news sites, to blogs, to Facebook, it was hard to avoid talk of Taste of The Beach this week on the Outer Banks. Owners were sharing their thrill seeing a healthy bump in business during a traditionally quiet month and about how easy it has been to get involved. And guests, locals and visitors alike, were raving about incredible experiences and the tasty discoveries they had made.
Perhaps most importantly, professional writers and food critics are lauding the quality, creativity, and warm hospitality our event has brought to the fore. Quinn Capps, organizer and marketing director for the weekend long event, coordinated media visits, radio interviews, television interviews, and interviews from a variety of regional news organizations and magazines interested in covering the event. “The interest in this years Taste of The Beach Weekend by the media has been phenomenal,” said Capps. “I had Ben traveling all over for TV, radio, and blogger interviews and our Facebook fans and Twitter followers have more than doubled. Social media has had a great impact on creating awareness of not only the Taste of The Beach, but The Outer Banks overall. In addition to our buys in print, radio and TV advertising, this year we posted more ads on Facebook and Google with impressive results,” concluded Capps.
The OBRA received a Tourism Assistance Grant (TAG) from the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau for a fourth (and final) year to help promote the event outside of the area. “The Visitors Bureau is extremely proud of its involvement with Taste of the Beach. To see how the event has grown in such a relatively short amount of time is impressive and a real tribute to the hard work of the Restaurant Association. Of course, it helps when that hard work is served up with tasty treats”, said Lee Nettles, managing director, Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.
“I want to commend the Board of Directors over at the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau for their unwavering support of our expansion of this event over the last four years. The Tourism Assistance Grant program has been immensely successful as an incubator in this case, helping us create a solid shoulder season attraction that will serve to bolster the non-peak portion of our economy long into the future”, said Ben Sproul.
A portion of the proceeds from the Taste of The Beach will benefit the Outer Banks Restaurant Association Culinary Scholarship Fund. This scholarship, created as part of the Taste Of The Beach expansion into a weekend long affair in 2008, aims to reinvest in the local food-service industry by offering financial assistance and networking opportunities to area students interested in pursuing any type of culinary education. With the success of this year’s event, the Association is excited about being able to award this Culinary Scholarship to potential culinary students. The application is available online at www.obxtasteofthebeach.com.
The 2012 Outer Banks Taste of The Beach Weekend is already scheduled for March 15 – 18, 2012. Continue to visit the website for updates, photos, videos and more. You may also become a fan of the Outer Banks Taste of The Beach on Facebook. Simply click through on the web site.
