CAMPUS VISIT STAKES OUT PHILLY

When officials of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. decided to lure prospective college students and their parents to the City of Brotherly Love, they hired a firm from the university town of Wellesley, Mass., to get the job done.
Campus Visit has helped craft a program that includes a Web site (www.onebigcam-pus.com), a free travelers magazine and a toll-free reservations service.
Through the magazine and Web site, visitors can access information about dozens of Philadelphia-area schools, check out maps and travel information and book hotel rooms and airline passage.
“It’s a niche market that needed a special approach,” said Corie Cutler, spokeswoman for the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp., which is paying $100,000 for the program for each of the next three years. The University of Pennsylvania put $60,000 toward the effort and about 15 other schools each chipped in $10,000, Cutler said. The Web site launches this week.
Campus Visit crafted a similar program for the Boston area and is looking to the Northampton, Mass., and Worcester, Mass., regions for future sites, said company official Cherie Hoffman,
–David Gianatasio