Virginia’s Final Frontier: Space Tourism

Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia

Space Tourism Retreat will start developing marketing plan
Delmarvanow.com

With major rocket launches to begin in earnest next year by the Mid-Atlantic Spaceport Authority on Wallops Island, the Virginia Tourism Corporation and its northern counterpart, Maryland Office of Tourism are developing a marketing plan to best capture the dollars of those who will visit for the thrill of the blast-off experience.

A Space Tourism Retreat is planned for Wednesday and Thursday on Chincoteague Island with representatives from Virginia — including Eastern Shore tourism officials — Maryland, Delaware, NASA Wallops and MARS. The 20-member marketing panel is a subcommittee of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Space Tourism Taskforce organized earlier this year by the Greater Salisbury Committee.

Bud Nocera, a former director of Florida Tourism, has been hired as the marketing consultant and will facilitate the retreat. Nocera has extensive experience with Cape Canaveral and packaging space tourism that goes beyond just watching blast-offs to include other events and venues an active space program can spawn.

Last month Nocera was given an overview tour of the Shore’s tourism assets by the Eastern Shore of Virginia Tourism Commission. The tourism commission is also assisting the VTC in coordinating the Space Tourism Retreat.

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