Visitor Survey

As part of the Selling Hartsville initiative the Marketing Task force suggested a Visitor Survey to see what visitors are doing, where they are staying, and what they are thinking about Hartsville. There is a major pageant going on at the 800-seat Center Theater in downtown Hartsville. The first batch of visitor surveys was distributed at the first two days of this event by the Darlington County Tourism people. We had about 170 surveys in this first round. The information from these surveys was sent in a quick report to the people who are signed up for the Marketing Task Force and we did generate some additional discussion. Hartsville is a community that does have a great deal going on and we need to find ways to more formally tell this story to a broader audience, both within the Hartsville area and those who might have the opportunity to come for a visit or to make new homes.

Compiling the information from the questionnaires is not difficult but it is time consuming. At the same time, this could prove a very useful tool in information gathering. This post was essentially to discuss the visitor survey tool but for those who are still interested, the report that was sent to the Marketing Task Force follows:

June 16, 2008

From: Puffer/Fields

To: Marketing Task Force

RE: Report on first distribution of Visitor Survey for the Selling Hartsville initiative

The Survey was distributed by the Darlington County Tourism Department at the Center Theater where there was the Little Miss South Carolina pageant in Hartsville for week. The pageant is divided by age groups and these surveys were given out the first couple of days of the pageant. There were 170 surveys returned in the first batch. Jim Money, Darlington County Tourism director, and his summer assistants asked people who were registering for the event to fill out these surveys.

Of the 170 surveys that were filled out, there were a total of 80 surveys that said they were using local accommodations and 90 that said they were not staying in local accommodations. The most popular motel for this event in 2008 is the Landmark with 37 people putting that down as their accommodation. The Comfort Inn had 14 of these early competitors and families and the Fairfield was listed for four families.

One question on the survey asks visitors if they are shopping or dining locally and of the surveys returned, 122 said YES, they were shopping or dining locally and 48 said NO, they were not.

There is a question on the survey that asks if the respondents can see themselves living in Hartsville. Of those responding to the question, 59 said YES and 109 said No.

There are a couple of other questions on the survey but since nearly everyone filling out this batch were in Hartsville for the Little Miss South Carolina pageant, we did not tally answers to the questions of places they have seen in Hartsville. Nearly all said they had seen the Center Theater. That is where the event is taking place.

There is also a question as to how these people heard about Hartsville and we did not tally since they are all here because the pageant is here but many did say “word of mouth.”

And, what was their quick impression of Hartsville. Surprisingly, a great many did provide written comments and those comments follow. Where there are parentheses, we just put in number of other questionnaires with the same wording to save time in typing.

Written comments

Nice, Very nice community

Nice town

Ok

Wonderful

Quaint

Nice quaint, somewhat abandoned

Nice downtown area

Beautiful town

Very friendly

Friendly, quiet

Beautiful!

Beautiful

Nice place, small

Beautiful

Old timey, quiet

Love the shopping, Love little miss South Carolina

Nice – Quiet

It’s a nice place

Nice Community

Very nice

Very nice town

Beautiful Community

Pretty place, well maintained

Very nice city

Nice friendly place (1)

Very pretty town

Good

Sweet, clean, nice little town, I love small towns

Beautiful progressive city

Beautiful

Quaint community

Great town, had a great time

Very nice

Very nice

Pretty

Neat

Nice town

Hometown

I like it

Quaint

It is nice

Friendly, old historic town

Nice community

Nice community

All right – need better & more hotel choices

Great

Nice Town

Very nice small town USA

Sweet, quaint

Nice, Quaint

Very quaint town, Interesting

Clean and quaint

Very quaint, great shoping

Very nice

Pretty Town

Love it (2)

Very pretty

Calm and beautiful

Cute little town

Nice (6)

Beautiful country side

Friendly people

Beautiful town

Very friendly

Neat

Good

Hometown life

Very clean

Nice people

Pleasant

Very sweet and quaint

Love what I have seen

Great (11)

Very Nice and welcoming

Very nice and beautiful

Seems a very nice place to work and live and play

Beautiful town (9)

Nice town (5)

The people here are very friendly

Pretty place, nice people

Beautiful city

Beautiful place