When Patty Graf-Hoke answers the telephone at the Visit Kitsap Peninsula office, she never knows who may be on the other end. But recently, a call from travel writer Joseph A. Lieberman, of Portland, ended up in a two-page feature article about the Kitsap Peninsula in Dynasty, an international in-flight publication of China Airlines.
“It’s kind of a fun feature,” said Graf-Hoke. “And it has the potential to be read by a million people.”
The publication, Dynasty, is a monthly magazine of more than 150 pages that is given to passengers on China airlines, the national carrier for Taiwan. It’s published in Chinese, English and Japanese and covers information for travelers about events, destinations and tips for frequent travelers.
It was about six months ago when Graf-Hoke picked up the phone to find Lieberman on the other end of the line.
“He said he’d been reading about Kitsap Peninsula and wanted us to come up with locations for him to visit,” she said. “We worked with him to identify locations that would be of interest to the Asian market.”
Visit Kitsap Peninsula arranged tours of the Elandan Gardens, the Clear Creek Trail, the USS Turner Joy, several hotels, bed and breakfasts and several eateries.
“We were thrilled that the Clear Creek Trail made it into the article,” she said. “Sometimes Silverdale’s not the easiest sell as a destination. But we made sure to showcase the trail and to point out that it’s a piece of nature in the midst of everything.”
She was surprised to learn from the travel writer that Asian travelers want to see military sites, such as the Turner Joy.
“The Asian market has an interest in historical things, even that which deals with World War II,” she said. “And I learned that Asian tourists really like to see open spaces, because where they live, there are a lot of people in closed-in spaces.”
That’s one of the reasons why touring Port Orchard was highlighted, she said. Poulsbo’s Scandinavian history and atmosphere also was mentioned in the article.
One thing in the article, however, didn’t quite please Visit Kitsap Peninsula staff. It mentions the LeMay Car Museum in Tacoma.
“The publishers in China must have added that to the article,” she said, “not realizing that it’s in Tacoma and that’s not part of the Kitsap Peninsula.”
Graf-Hoke said that the two-page article, if it were paid advertising space, would have cost about $25,000.
“That, and the fact that it’s seen by a million people, is huge public awareness,” she said. “It puts us up there with the kind of publicity that is usually given to places with larger populations like Seattle.”
The article has been published and will go up soon on the magazine’s website at www.dynasty-magazine.com. This, Graf-Hoke said, is just an example of the kind of thing that Visit Kitsap Peninsula does with its time and money.
“We average about two to three calls month from travel writers and people looking for information for publications,” Graf-Hoke said. “That’s why we encourage businesses to use ‘on the Kitsap Peninsula’ when they advertise. They need to take advantage of the marketing that we do collectively.”
