DESG named Southern Delaware Tourism Partner of the Year
Delaware Sea Grant earns prestigious award for 11 projects benefiting Sussex County tourism
Over the past 18 months, every industry has had its own unique challenges, and Delaware’s tourism industry—the state’s second largest—is no exception. Tourism is especially important in Sussex County, where it brings in $2 billion and supports nearly 20,000 jobs.
With its mission to support our state’s people and natural environment, the Delaware Sea Grant College Program (DESG) has had a focus on promoting ecologically friendly tourism that benefits coastal economies throughout its 45-year history.
Shortly after the start of the pandemic lockdown in March of 2020, the National Sea Grant Program created a rapid response program for local programs to support those affected in their areas.
DESG, administered by the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment, invested in five projects ranging from helping to organize various COVID relief efforts by community groups to supporting shellfish farming, but one of those efforts specifically sought to help the tourism industry recover from an almost-complete shutdown. A Southern Delaware Tourism digital marketing campaign supported by DESG garnered more than 2 million impressions online, leading to almost 400,000 unique website visits and more than 14,000 hotel searches. In the end, 464 hotel bookings were attributed to the campaign, representing tangible income for the tourism industry.
Ed Lewandowski, DESG’s community development specialist and coordinator of UD’s Sustainable Coastal Communities Initiative, led DESG’s efforts to assist the marketing campaign and in his role often contributes to projects related to tourism downstate. In the summer and fall of 2021, Lewandowski organized six kayaking tours on the Broad Creek in Laurel to help promote the western Sussex town as a nature-based recreation destination, and he was instrumental in the creation of the Coastal Delaware Paddling Map, offering kayakers recommended routes in the eastern part of the county.
When the Southern Delaware Tourism Office invited nominations for its 2021 awards—expanded to cover the previous year and a half because of the unusual circumstances created by the pandemic—Lewandowski knew his work for DESG was directly relevant. But in putting together a nomination of Delaware Sea Grant for Tourism Partner of the Year, he realized that DESG’s entire Marine Advisory Service was doing work that, in some way, benefitted tourism in Sussex County.
“When I started looking at examples across the staff, every one of us was involved in at least one if not multiple projects that support tourism,” Lewandowski said. “Whether it's directly or indirectly, you can draw connections very easily.”
In the end, he submitted 11 examples of DESG work that had a positive impact on tourism and said later that he could have kept going. In addition to the marketing and kayaking projects, the nomination highlighted everything from removing derelict crab pots in the Inland Bays to water quality monitoring, from offering eco-tours on the water taxi on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal to working to mitigate beach dune erosion in Fenwick Island.
Lewandowski and three colleagues from Delaware Sea Grant accepted the Tourism Partner of the Year award from Southern Delaware Tourism at its awards luncheon in December.
“The work done by DESG’s Marine Advisory Service is really focused on our community. We care deeply about contributing to economic strength and resilience throughout Delaware and certainly in the coastal communities in the southern part of the state,” said Joanna York, DESG director. “This award just serves to highlight the commitment our staff has made, and I am so proud that they were honored with this recognition.”