Three of Greater Cincinnati's tourism bureaus Tuesday announced a $600,000 marketing plan to attract visitors with a summer regional campaign called “Cincy Fun.”

        The plan, announced at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, calls for the bureaus in Warren County, Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati to cooperate in a marketing effort that will include:

        • A Web site for visitors to research attractions and reserve hotel rooms.

        • One central phone line so visitors can book packages and hotels with one call. There are 40 hotels and eight attractions involved.

        • A combined advertising budget.

        “We kind of decided to say, "Let's get 'em here and then we'll fight over where they go,'” said Tom Caradonio, president of the Northern Kentucky Conventions and Visitors Bureau. The model for the plan uses many of the strategies that Mr. Caradonio's office has used in the last seven years to bring visitors to Northern Kentucky.

        “Visitors don't see the river as a boundary — they see it as something to have fun on,” he said.

        The measuring stick for the campaign will be how many hotel rooms are booked over the summer. The goal is to fill 100,000 hotel rooms in one of the three participating areas during the 10-week-long campaign. Officials said the 100,000 room goal came from looking at the campaign in Northern Kentucky and then adding how many people the extra advertising money will bring to the area.

        Another way to measure success: the number of hits on the Web site.

        Lisa Haller, president and chief executive officer for the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau, said a strength of the campaign will be a number of packages offered to people who visit Cincinnati.

        “This campaign gives us a chance to speak with one voice at just the right time,” Ms. Haller said. She also said the campaign should restore the “health and vitality of the region.”

        Officials said 50 percent of the U.S. population lives within 500 miles of the Cincinnati area. Last year, 500,000 people requested information about the area; about half of those visited. About 81,000 area jobs are tourism-related.

        Television commercials for the campaign will not appear in Cincinnati. The TV ads will be shown in Dayton, Columbus, Louisville and Lexington. Officials said those cities were chosen because of the short drive time to the area and the number of people who already travel from those cities.

        Print ads are scheduled to start by the end of this week, and the radio and TV ads will start next week.

        Shirley Bonekemper, the executive director of the Warren County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the planning for the campaign started last fall, based on the Northern Kentucky model.

        “They devised a system that seemed to work,” Ms. Bonekemper said of the plan to offer weekend packages for visitors. “People want decisions made for them.”

        For a complete listing of packaging and special events, visit www.cincyfun.com or call (866) CINCY FUN.

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