Morris Tourism pep rally: An iPhone app and a 17th century fight song

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Pom-poms were fluttering Thursday inside the Washington’s Headquarters Museum at a pep rally that blended old and new.

Old: Giuditta, a 1693 oratorio by Alessandro Scarlatti, performed by a trio from the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey.

New: An iPhone app for a walking tour of Morristown, from Tour Buddy on iTunes.

Both were trotted out by the Morris County Tourism Bureau to celebrate National Tourism Week, and all that Morris County has to offer.

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Tourism is a $35.5 billion industry in New Jersey, “and I think Morris County is leading the way,” said Phyllis Oppenheimer, a representative of the state Division of Travel and Tourism.

Visitors spent nearly $1 billion in the county last year, up 3.4 percent from the prior year, she said.

Leslie Bensley, executive director of the county tourism bureau, asserted that it was fitting to announce the iPhone app at this event, since smart phones can trace their roots to the birth of the telegraph at Historic Speedwell in Morristown.

Leslie Bensley of the Morris County Tourism Bureau shows off her cheerleading skills. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Leslie Bensley of the Morris County Tourism Bureau shows off her cheerleading skills. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

“This is the wave of the future,” she said. The app is available for free from iTunes, and a web-based version of the walking tour is at the tourism bureau website.

A mobile version of the tourism site also is coming soon, Leslie said.

Nine historic sites across the county are offering free admission on Sunday, rechristened Be Our Guest Day. They were represented at the rally. The list includes: Acorn Hall of Morristown, the Community Children’s Museum of Dover, Fosterfields Living Historical Farm of Morris Township, Historic Speedwell,  Macculloch Hall Historical Museum in Morristown, the Morris Museum in Morris Township, Morristown National Historical Park/Washington’s Headquarters, the Museum of Early Trades & Crafts of Madison, and the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms in Morris Plains.

“Today is an opportunity to showcase the diversity of what Morris County has to offer,” said Dave Helmer, executive director of the Morris County Parks Commission. “It’s an opportunity to brand Morris County as a viable destination for a day visit, a weekend respite or, dare we say it, a family vacation.”

He touted free concerts at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum– the Art-boretum, he dubbed it–scheduled for June, July and September.

Phyllis Oppenheimer rattled off some interesting factoids about tourism in New Jersey. Without tourism, she said, residents would have to pony up another $1,367 a year in taxes. Every 214 visitors to the state generate enough revenue to pay for a public school education for a year. Every 180 visitors spend enough to create a new job.

Of the tourism dollars spent in Morris County in 2010, more than one-third went for lodging. Another 26.5 percent was spent on entertainment. About 25 percent went for transportation. Roughly 8 percent was for food and about 6 percent was spent on retail, according to Phyllis.

Jill Hawk, the new superintendent of the Morristown National Historical Park, encouraged historical sites to work together. “We need to invest in each other’s stories and our future,” she said. “We have opportunities before us that we have never had before.”

Show and tell, courtesy of park curator Jude Pfister, included an 1830 edition of the Revolutionary War memoir Private Yankee Doodle, and the 17th century oratorio. Both items are from a collection bequeathed to the park by Lloyd Smith, the businessman who donated Jockey Hollow to the National Park Service in 1933.

Selections from the musical score were performed by Nancy Connell, Catherine Garrison and Margaret Walker.

The rally was intended to pitch Morris County to travel journalists from outside the state. Most, if not all, of the attending media were local, however.

Marty Epstein of Marty’s Reliable Cycle hopes for better luck with out-of-town cyclists. After the rally he found a picnic table and brainstormed with Full House Events, his promotional team, about his Gran Fondo biking weekend in August. He aims to attract bikers from nearby states to the Morristown event.

Pat Sanftner of the Daughters of the American Revolution and April Lyzak of the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts of Madison. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Pat Sanftner of the Daughters of the American Revolution and April Lyzak of the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts of Madison. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

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