Plan for Travel, List Events or Purchase Tickets
with the Help of ENHC
If you are a fan of the professional sports teams in this region, then the end of last month was certainly exciting. The Red Sox beat their oldest rival, the New York Yankees avenging a most difficult loss a year ago to win the American League pennant and moved on to the World Series. They compounded their victory over the Yankees by beating the St. Louis Cardinals in a rematch of their 1946 and 1967 World Series appearances against the ‘Red Birds”. The victory ended an 86-year drought for the home team since they last won a world championship in 1918. This victory means that now the world championships for the two major professional sports in this country reside in Massachusetts. The Patriots who have recently run off an amazing number of winning efforts in a row are the current NFL titleholders, and the Red Sox hold the baseball title. Now that all of that excitement is over, and we might have caught up on our sleep, I wanted to spend a little time with you this month helping you plan some local travel, explain a do-it-yourself program for listing events on the ENHC web site and outline how you can purchase tickets to local events over a secure web site.
Essex National Heritage Area featured in new NPS Traveler Information Website
In July, the National Parks of Massachusetts unveiled a new travel information Website for visitors to National Park Service (NPS) parks and historic sites in Massachusetts. The site, www.nps.gov/mass features the Essex National Heritage Area as one of the twenty National Parks in Massachusetts. Visitors to this new, dynamic and user-friendly Website will be able to research NPS destinations, develop personal itineraries and generate directions that will aid their exploration of historic and significant sites throughout the commonwealth.
The Website provides suggested itineraries for half day or full day trips, including a trip to the Essex National Heritage Area to discover a history of “Maritime Adventures.” The site highlights the visitor centers in Lawrence, Newburyport, Salem and Gloucester as points of entry for the heritage area. The ENHC plans to add the remaining six Area visitor centers to the site, and to develop additional itineraries to encourage exploration of the entire region.
Visitors can explore the Website by region or theme. There is a trip planner that provides driving and public transit directions and clear maps for each highlighted site. There are also links to regional convention and visitor bureaus to assist visitors with accommodations and dining needs. We believe that this new program offered in conjunction with other NPS sites in this region can be a great deal of help when planning local travel with families or visitors to the region.
FREE ENHC WEB Calendar Listing
For those sites in the region that want to list a free event on the ENHC web site calendar, now you can do that from either your site or personal computer. By simply accessing the ENHC web site at www.essexheritage.org and clicking on “calendar” an event can be submitted using a simple form. These listings will help assure that the message about your events will be “getting out” to the thousands of visitors to the ENHC web site. The ENHC is pleased to be able to offer this program free of any charges to help promote the many exciting events that are scheduled each month in this region.
Online Ticket Sales Now Available on ENHC Web Site
For those sites that may wish to offer ticket sales for events over the web, the Essex National Heritage Commission has recently contracted with mktix.com to provide ticket sales by credit card to small organizations around this region on a secure system. The program offered by ENHC is simple and easy to operate and is available during this initial introduction period and no charge to any organization within the ENHC area. We believe that this new program offered as a service to small not-for-profit organizations will be most helpful as they offer fundraising events utilizing this new service.
Ticket buyers who use their credit cards to utilize the ticket purchasing service will pay a small fee of between $1 and $3 dollars depending on the face value of the ticket, and the service will be safe and secure. The process for a local not-for-profit site in Essex County to participate in this program will be simple and easy to access. The first time that a site submits a ticketed event for listing on the Essex Heritage program, it will take about one week for the event to appear on the Essex Heritage calendar, but subsequent ticketed event submissions will appear on the calendar just 24 hours after submission. Sites will be charged the standard credit card service fee of 2.5% plus 25 cents per transaction, and sites that participate will receive their funds from the sales of tickets over the ENHC Calendar promptly by check.
Sites will receive a link to install on their own web site that will direct visitors directly to the ENHC web page where a ticket can be purchased. Every time a ticket is sold the site will receive notification with all of the details. On the day an event is held a summary of all tickets sold will be provided to the site, and within a week of the event a check minus the service fee will be sent to the site.
The ENHC has always been most supportive of the Cultural, Historic and natural resources of this region, and is underwriting the costs of launching this new program. After a period of successful program growth, sometime in the future a modest fee may be charged to cover the ENHC’s administrative expenses. To sign up for this new program or to learn more about the program contact Susan Lippman, at susanl@essexheritage.org or call us at 978 740 0444.