Ocean County Dept of Business Development & Tourism

The Ocean County Department of Business Development and Tourism (OC BD&T) serves as the Tourism Marketing engine, Information Center, and Economic Development support office of the Ocean County Government. The Department is responsible for communicating and disseminating information, implementing aggressive, strategic marketing campaigns and representing Ocean County with organizations and initiatives that promote economic growth and partnerships. The Division Director reports to Freeholder Joseph H. Vicari, Liason to Business Development and Tourism and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.  The Dept also works in partnership with other County Depts, such as Planning, Parks & Recreation, Culture and Heritage, IT and the OC Library to maximize the visibility of our County’s assets and the effectiveness of Departmental strategies.

The OCBD&T Division Director is the Executive Director of the Ocean County Tourism and Business Advisory Council under Liaison, Freeholder Joseph Vicari. Through this council, the Division Director and Freeholder Vicari, engage in collaborative partnerships with leaders of the OC tourism and business community to exchange information and respond to the evolving needs of the tourism and business environment. Furthermore, OC BD&T is responsible for face-to-face engagement and participation with the regional and statewide business and tourism organizations, state and local government, educational institutions and the Joint Base MDL military community to build and nurture effective relationships and initiatives that will strengthen and enhance Ocean County’s commerce and encourage economic growth for the future.

For 2016, OC BD&T continues to launch new advertising initiatives to maximize the effectiveness of our marketing budget and increase our $4.6 Billion industry to higher numbers for the future.  With the establishment of a new list of vendors approved by a 2015 RFQ for Multi-Media Advertising platforms, our office is able to further expand the effective use of marketing dollars through multi-media, demographically-targeted, carefully designed campaigns in PA, MA, NY, DE, MD and DC, as well as targeted markets in Canada.  These campaigns are mostly digital and therefore involve banner links,:30 video / commercial, and direct response ads through geographically and demographically targeted platforms to include desktop, tablet and mobile devices.  This advertising strategy enlists the most current technology with geo-, demo- and behavioral-targeting, “Retargeting”, “Contextual targeting” “hyper local” targeting and more, to maximize our marketing budget and enjoy a measurable ROI through digital analytics.  Marketing campaigns currently underway are implemented through Townsquare Media and Comast/SportsNet/NBC Universal.

Additionally, we have expanded our distribution of OC Tourism materials with more delivery drop-off points ( to include Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and Naval Weapons Station Earl in Colts Neck ) as well as the use of a new vendor for deliveries who will focus on improved customer service and direct communication with our Visitors’ Centers and drop-off points statewide.  We will also add outreach to Military installations that are within a 3 hour drive of Ocean County to target more gov/military travelers who are anxious to explore new destinations within a short drive from their base.

OceanCountyTourism.com, the OC Tourism Website, will launch a newly-refreshed look in 2016, along with a revised EVENTS CALENDAR which has combined with the OC Culture and Heritage events calendar. In 2015 the website reached 189,000 visitors. Our Department continues to achieve more followers on social media and more recipients of our weekly Events Newsletter which is compiled, composed and emailed directly to over 3500 people per week, shared on social media and linked on our website weekly to broaden its exposure. In partnership with our area Tourism Leaders, OC BD&T Director represents OC Tourism with exhibit tables at major Tourism Expos in Washington DC, Philadelphia, NYC and at the Joint Base Air Show in May which enjoys attendance of 300-400,000. We also present our table of information at numerous local and regional festivals and events throughout the Spring, Summer and Fall.

As a new addition to our outreach, in partnership with WOBM AM and the “Wake up with Jeremy Grunin” morning radio program, the Director of OC tourism is featured on the radio Friday mornings at 7:45 am to announce upcoming events for the weekend.  Townsquare also posts our weekly events listing on their WOBM website.

OC BD&T will apply for the NJ State Cooperative Marketing Grant and other Grants in 2016 to pursue additional dollars for further expansion of our marketing efforts.

The Ocean County Tourism Matching Promotional Grant continues as an effort by the Ocean County Board of Freeholders to award grant dollars to support our County’s tourism partners in their own marketing endeavors.  In 2015, with the help of the IT Dept and the Ocean County Tourism Grant Committee, we implemented a new streamlined online grant submission process to make the grant application and the grant review processes much more efficient and user-friendly.  This upgrade of technology has been well received by the community and our partners.

The Director represents the Ocean County Board of Freeholders in active Civic-Military relations with the Joint Base MDL Commanders and Mission Partners.  The Director is the Chair of the Ocean County Military Support Committee which has become a highly respected and reliable organization providing community support for JB MDL.  The Director is actively participating in her Fourth year as an Honorary Commander, assigned currently to Captain Christopher Bergen, the Deputy Commander of JB MDL and Commanding Officer of NSA Lakehurst. The Director was appointed in 2015 by Joint Base Senior leadership, representing JB MDL’s civic community on the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command Civic Leader Council under General Everhart who is the Commander of global Air Mobility, headquartered at Scott AFB, Illinois. This appointment has enabled the Director of OC BD&T to represent the Ocean County Freeholders and community while traveling to national Air Force bases, engaging in economic discussions with other Civic Leaders and Senior Military Commanders across the country.

OC BD&T has increased the flow of information to Joint Base MDL by adding tourism drop off locations across the military installation for our area tourism materials and recently fulfilled a request to add Earl Naval Weapons Station to our distribution as well.  The Director attends various functions with the military families and commanders to represent Ocean County for overall support of the military community, as well as guidance on our area attractions and maintaining partnerships with the Defense Enhancement Coalition and Burlington County business leaders to maximize the “joint” community support needs of JB MDL.