Town embraces tragedy in advertising campaign

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- This blue-collar city, known mainly for the infamous Johnstown Flood of 1889, plans to launch a $500,000 tourism marketing campaign to let potential visitors know that the "flood's over" and it's safe to come back.

The Greater Johnstown-Cambria County Convention and Visitors Bureau wrestled with the problem of how to best attract tourists to the town where 2,209 people died in the flood.

They decided to tackle their catastrophic legacy head-on.

The Kaiser Group, a Pittsburgh firm, was brought in to help fashion a series of billboards and other marketing schemes.

A prototype billboard features old-fashioned, lace-up boots with pant cuffs much too high and the words "Flood's over! Come back to Johnstown, Pa."

Another ad shows people with their hands raised while riding the Johnstown Inclined Plane, built in 1891 to lift residents to safety should another flood roar down the Little Conemaugh Valley. It reads, "World's slowest roller coaster."

The county already has a significant tourism base, with visitors generating more than $150 million each year, according to a state travel bureau.

Lisa Daily, head of the Johnstown-Cambria tourism bureau, said she hopes to see that number increase by 50 percent in four years.

Other areas have successfully marketed tragedy or adverse climates, including Buffalo with its snow and Mount St. Helens in Washington with its volcano.