New Bern was officially recognized locally Wednesday as a North Carolina Retirement Community.
About 30 people attended the announcement at New Bern Riverfront Convention Center.
Andre Nabors, manager of partner relations with Visit North Carolina, a unit of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, said New Bern is the second coastal community in the state to be named a retirement city, along with Edenton.
“This will promote New Bern not just as a retirement destination, but for visitation, for healthy living, walking through the city,” Nabors said before the announcement. “It’s really just a another piece that allows New Bern to show what it has to offer to those in-state and those coming in from out of state.”
The N.C. Certified Retirement Community Program designation does not mean New Bern will benefit from grants or funding, but it will benefit from promotional efforts, Nabors said. It is a marketing tool that allows the city, county and communities to promote their attractions to people ages 55 and older. Nabors will present that information at consumer shows put on by the AARP and Ideal Living, in publications and on websites. The certification also uses co-op marketing, magazines, visitor guides, consumer shows, social media like Facebook, and online marketing including the retirenc.com website.
Sabrina Bengel, chairwoman of the New Bern Tourism Development Authority (TDA) and New Bern Retirement Committee, said the designation is “another wonderful opportunity” to help the city grow.
“I for one am really excited about today,” Bengel said. “I’m excited about our journey we’ve had over the past couple of years.”
Bengel said Nabors visited the New Bern Board of Aldermen in 2012 to promote the retirement program but it wasn’t financially feasible at the time. After a committee was set up of local business owners and development staff from the city and county, the TDA and the committee partnered with CarolinaEast Medical Center, and the retirement program was attempted again, she said.
The cost of the application, which is good for five years, is $15,000 and is being paid by CarolinaEast Health System, which is partnering with New Bern Tourism Development Authority. There is no cost to the city.
About 15 to 20 years ago, there was a surge of retirees moving to New Bern and it created a demand for suburbs including Greenbrier, Tarberna and Carolina Colours.
“It just seemed like the boom was never going to end, but it did,” she said.
When retirees decided to move, they usually visit an area four or five times, so Bengel said it is a natural fit for the promotional tool.
Edenton first got Bengel’s attention when she discovered it was on the site. She thought, “a small historic community on the water in Eastern North Carolina and we’re not there? We needed to be there. So they needed a little competition.”
Wit Tuttell, executive director of Visit North Carolina, said there are 77 million Baby Boomers in the United States, and 10,000 a day are retiring at 65.
“There’s a tremendous opportunity out there for us and for the state of North Carolina,” Tuttell said, and it dovetails with tourism. Even if people don’t move to the area, they usually visit several times and that brings money to the community, he said.
The Certified Retirement Community started as a pilot program in Lumberton in 2008. Now there are 11 certified communities in North Carolina: Asheboro, Eden, Edenton, Lumberton, Marion, Mount Airy, Pittsboro, Sanford and Lee County, Tarboro, Winterville and New Bern.
Annually, Nabors attends about five consumer shows, and receives about six inquires a week from retirees just from the Ideal Living consumer shows, he said.
In an earlier meeting on the retirement designation, Nabors pointed out that places like Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, spend about $45 million on marketing while North Carolina spends only $3 million. Bengel said at that earlier meeting that the TDA spends about $300,000 on marketing annually.
North Carolina is the sixth most visited state in the country, Nabors said.
Judy Avery, a TDA board member and marketing director for the Sun Journal, said that in 2013 Craven County generated about $120.75 million from tourism, a 20 percent increase from 2012. There are also more than 1,000 jobs related to tourism and about $22 million in wages from tourism, she said.
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