Alexandria Ready for Its Close-Up as 'Mercy Street' Debut Nears

Visit Alexandria announced Thursday their biggest marketing promotion of the year, celebrating the upcoming PBS drama “Mercy Street,” based in Civil War Alexandria and premiering Jan. 17.

At their annual meeting, the destination marketing organization shared a sneak peek of the show and a look at their marketing strategy that will leverage the unprecedented national spotlight on Alexandria’s heritage.

Visit Alexandria announced:

• 24 new “Mercy Street”-inspired tours, exhibits and events
• National sponsorship of all six episodes on PBS
• Joint promotion with Virginia Tourism Corporation
• Premiere screening at Alexandria Film Festival
• National press tours and pitching
• “Mercy Street”-inspired content hub on VisitAlexandriaVA.com

Building on Success

This marketing effort comes on the heels of a record year for Visit Alexandria. Visitors in Alexandria are spending more, according to Visit Alexandria, continuing the growth trend dating back to 2009. Travel is now a three-quarter billion dollar per year industry in Alexandria, bringing $754 million in visitor spending, and produced $24 million in tax revenues for the City’s coffers, according to the just-released figures from Virginia Tourism Corporation.

Travel also supported more than 6,000 jobs and saved each household $300 in taxes.

At its annual meeting, Visit Alexandria also reported the following fiscal year 2015 results:

• Lodging growth rate outpaced the average performance of its DC-area regional competitors in three key performance metrics:
• Revenue per available room (+14.7% vs. +9.9%)
• Average daily rate (+9.0% vs. +4.5%)
• Occupancy (+5.2 % vs. +5.1%)
• $5.9 million in meeting sales revenue (+7%)
• 1.5 million website visits to VisitAlexandriaVA.com (+37%)
• 305 national and international media stories (+7%)

Marketing Grant Awarded

As it prepares for fiscal year 2016, Visit Alexandria just got another dose of good news. It has just been awarded a $50,000 marketing leverage grant toward the new “Mercy Street”-inspired campaign, the maximum amount given by the Virginia Tourism Corporation. Together, Visit Alexandria and Virginia Tourism Corporation will leverage the publicity surrounding the series to bring more visitors to Alexandria and to Virginia while promoting viewership of a series that is authentically Alexandria.

Premiering on PBS on Sunday, Jan. 17 at 10 p.m., “Mercy Street” will follow the final season of “Downton Abbey” on Masterpiece. The six-episode series takes viewers beyond the battlefield and into the lives of Americans on the Civil War home front. The action centers at the Mansion House Hospital in Union-occupied Alexandria.

The series will air on nearly 350 PBS affiliates nationwide.

“Mercy Street” art courtesy of PBS