The last two years have seen a huge increase in our dining reservations at the Newburyport Lighthouse – nearly tripling what was already the Society’s very popular dining program. The increase has been so dramatic that it’s been a little overwhelming. It has quickly transformed us into one of the most popular lighthouse attractions in New England, and the only one that is open to the public year-round, 7-days-a-week.
Prior to 2012, our dining program was largely seasonal, with dinner reservations usually booked solid from May through October. But after we got the dining area heated with a powerful heat pump – which also doubled as an air conditioner – we wanted to capitalize on the improvement, now that we could keep the dining area open year-round.
Around that time, two major social media advertising companies, who each wanted to develop an ad campaign with us, approached us. Consequently, we started selling off-season dinners and lunches through their powerful new social media advertising networks.
We saw immediate success when we sold lunch reservations for nearly every day of the year in an astonishing 24 hours. We saw similar remarkable success with the off-season dinner reservations.
Now, we’re busy all year-round with both lunches and dinners; plus, for the first time, we will begin offering breakfasts in 2014, as well.
