ABOUT HOST OUR COAST
Modeled after the extremely successful "Island Reef Job" tourism promotion created by Tourism Queensland (islandreefjob.com), Host Our Coast is a summer promotion designed to use new media to showcase the parks, small towns, museums, and heritage sites of the Delmarva coast.
The partnership that created Host Our Coast includes Worcester County Tourism, Southern Delaware Tourism, the Rural Development Center at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore, the Town of Berlin, OceanCity.com, Full City Media, and Delmarva Low-Impact Tourism Experiences (DLITE).
Host Our Coast started as an online contest in April 2009. 72 applicants competed to become the "host" through an online video and sample blog submission. After a thorough selection process, Paul Cox was announced as the Host Our Coast winner in June of that year. Paul and Melanie McLean worked as DLITE's summer travel journalists through mid-August 2009.
In 2010, Errol Webber, Jr., was selected as the Host. He and Erik Yount were provided with a schedule of events, people, and places to visit on the Eastern Shores of Maryland and the State of Delaware. Adventures included kayaking, cycling, hiking, wildlife watching, beachcombing, and fishing - if it involved water and sun and fun - Errol and Erik were there!
At Host Our Coast's blog, Errol and Erik provided daily online videos, vlogs, blog posts, photos, and online announcements of their adventures through Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. In between their travels, Errol and Erik lived for free in some of the finest resort hotels along the Delmarva coast. In addition to the free accommodations, Errol and Erik received $15,000 for a three-month contract as DLITE's summer travel journalist.
By the end of August 2010, Host Our Coast had more than 3,000 regular online followers and 1,200 Facebook fans.
In November 2009, Host Our Coast was honored with two awards at the 29th Annual Maryland Travel and Tourism Summit held in Ocean City. Host Our Coast was the only tourism initiative in the State of Maryland to win both a Maryland Tourism Award and a Maryland Tourism Council Award.
Governor Martin O'Malley presented the Host Our Coast partnership with the prestigious "Visit Maryland Award," one of only seven Maryland Tourism Awards distributed through the Maryland Office of Tourism, and the only award presented to an Eastern Shore tourism venture. Recipients of the Visit Maryland Award have demonstrated creativity and consistency in promotional efforts to showcase Maryland travel.
The Maryland Tourism Council (MTC) presented the Professional "Impact Award" to Host Our Coast for leading a new initiative that has had a major impact. The MTC is a statewide membership organization representing all private-sector segments of the hospitality and tourism industry. The MTC gives six Professional Awards and eight Marketing Awards to members of the MTC nominated by their peers. Of the 14 MTC awards, Host Our Coast was one of five Eastern Shore tourism professionals or programs to be recognized.