Inflated New Smyrna Beach Balloon Fest attendance means more media taxpayer dollars

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- When it comes to taxpayer monies being spent for marketing and advertising, the more inflated the attendance figures, the more to be made by media outlets in the promotions. Such is the case with this weekend's New Smyrna Beach Balloon & Sky Fest.

For years, we've been indoctrinated with the idea that the annual Daytona Beach-area Bike Week draws 500,000. And a couple of times, the number has even been inflated to 600,000. Even the smaller number accounts for more than every man, woman and child residing in Volusia County year round.

In the past half decade, the county is lucky to have attracted maybe a third of the half million figure for the biker rally.

Earlier this year, we took the Daytona Beach News-Journal to task for citing unnamed media officials claiming 60,000 to 80,000 people attended last year's Rolex 24 Race at Daytona.

This is what we wrote in part in challenging the accuracy and source of those figures: Headline Surfer could not find any media references online that puts attendance for the 2012 Rolex at the figures cited by the News-Journal. But at least one online media source cites the News-Journal as being the provider of attendance for the Rolex. The LastTurnClub.com, stated: "The Daytona Beach News-Journal put the 'media consensus' attendance at 50,000 for the Saturday afternoon start."

We have been to virtually every Rolex since the mid-1990s, and we can tell you firsthand that perhaps 60,000 to 80,000 Rolex fans had collectively been to Daytona to see the world-class sports cars over the course of five years. Not a three-day weekend.

Which leads us to the 2013 balloon festival. And yes, again, we've been to every one of these, too.

The News-Journal, in a story published last Sunday under the banner headline, New Smyrna Beach expects growing crowd for Balloon and Sky Fest, started off its "marketing story" as follows:

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A sky full of hot-air balloons and daredevil pilots attracted 38,000 people to last year's New Smyrna Beach Balloon & Sky Fest. Throw in a Dracula-inspired biplane, and maybe 50,000 will show up this year. That's what organizers are expecting this weekend, and it's more than double the 21,000 who attended two years ago.

Let's be real about this: The balloons didn't even land here at the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Airport during last year's Sunday morning because they would have been swept into the Atlantic Ocean by the strong winds coming from the West.  We labeled this write-up as a marketing story with good reason: There are big bucks at stake for the big media sponsors, Brighthouse Networks, Black Crow Radio, and, of course, Halifax Media, the owner of the Daytona newspaper.

And those big bucks are coming primarily from you, the taxpayer: Hotel-accommodator bed taxes from the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority, the New Smyrna Beach CRA and Bert Fish Hospital in New Smyrna Beach and Halifax Health Hospital in Daytona Beach, both recipients of millions in local taxes for indigent care. 

There's just no way in hell last year's balloon fest drew 38,000 people. At best, throw in a few extra thousand thousand here and there, and you get maybe 20,000 to 22,000, absolute tops. That's a big maybe. Last year's realistic attendance was more like 18,000.

And the year before was more like 10,000, and that's being generous.

You actually have to get to the airport by 9 a.m. to see the balloons come in. The rest of the day was left for half a dozen airplane shows and a lot of walking the airport grounds for the usual array of community service booths, petting zoos, horseback riding shows and parked planes and helicopters of bygone eras.

It's good family fun, but it's primarily a day-tripper event. You may have noticed all the Brighthouse Networks commercials here in Volusia County. The locals are not going to stay overnight anywhere but their own beds.

The News-Journal's own article pointed out that people are already in greater Daytona and New Smyrna, for family spring break vacations and the preceding Easter holiday weekend.

In fact, early April is the last significant tourist-driven month primarily because of the warm Florida sun, following the earlier Speedweeks/Daytona 500 and the 10-day Bike Week.

Then its pretty slim pickings until racing returns to Daytona International Speedway on the July 4th weekend under the lights for NASCAR's Coke Zero 400. Nobody knows the coastal tourism business better than Bill Roe, proprietor of Ocean Properties in New Smyrna Beach.

And in the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that Ocean Properties is among this Internet newspaper's anchor advertisers since its launch on April 7, 2008.

How ironic then that the News-Journal story would quote of all people, Roe, groussing, ""It's just a shame they can't have that event when we're down," he said. "I think in May would be fabulous." And that's the rub. Why all the marketing bucks if rooms are already filled.

And where would 50,000 people stay? At the Cabbage Patch campgrounds grounds in Samsula, home to Bike Week's cole-slaw wrestling? The balloon crowd is more of the fine-wine sipping variety than beer and whiskey guzzling bikers on Harleys.

The News-Journal writes in hyping attendance: Organizers are hoping 50,000 people will show up for this year's event, based on the growth trend for the past few years and an expanded marketing and advertising campaign, including more of a foray into social media.

It's actually kind of ironic how the Daytona newspaper article references growing attendance to Southeast Volusia Advertising Director Tim Hamby, who wasn't even on the job for last year's balloonfest.