Poulsbo & Beyond

The Guest House Inn & Suites, located at 19801 7th St. here in Poulsbo, was recently the recipient of two awards from Boomerang Hotels, their franchise parent company.

The first award, Inn of the Year, is bestowed to the hotel location that achieves the highest overall performance for properties within its respective group/chain, and maintains the highest level of performance/adherence to the standards of that particular brand.

The second award, Innkeeper of the Year, recognizes the individual operator or manager who achieves the highest performance ratings for utilizing corporate programs, maintains the best Quality Assurance scores, and demonstrates consistent support of the brand.

Our congratulations to Mr. Micah Kim, owner operator of the 63-room GuestHouse Inn & Suites in Poulsbo WA!

A recent article in the North Kitsap Herald (dtd. 1/18/13 Port may not share marketing consultant with city) shared the apparent dissolution of discussions between the City of Poulsbo and the Port of Poulsbo regarding the proposed hiring of a shared marketing consultant.

Evidently, the Port’s Board of Commissioners felt it more prudent to keep their marketing efforts in-house. They were concerned that an outside marketing consultant would prove to be more costly than if they simply expanded their own marketing efforts from within.

In the article, one of the port tenants, Rodney McVicker, is quoted as saying, “Giving money to someone outside is not an appropriate function for the port.” He went on to say, “The Port will have limited funds in the future as the City grows, because the port district does not grow with the City.”

Really? One would think the two go hand-in-foot? Unless of course, you’re the Port of Bremerton. But that’s a whole different discussion!

Port Commissioner Tony DeCarlo was quoted, “The Commission may change the job description of a current employee to include marketing.”

It’s been this writer’s humble experience that if you want someone to do some effective, professional-level marketing, you need to bite the proverbial bullet and pay for someone who has the skill, training, and experience to do so. The old adage “You get what you pay for” certainly applies to such situations.

It seems to me (and granted, I am still relatively new to the inter-workings of all things Poulsbo) that the health, vitality, and profitability of the City of Poulsbo and the Port of Poulsbo are intimately intertwined. Much value and benefit could be derived for both organizations through the hiring of a shared marketing consultant. Obviously the key in such decisions is finding the right person for the job.

Supposedly, the Port Commissioners are going to discuss the matter further during their upcoming February 7th meeting. Let’s hope they decide to play well in the Poulsbo sandbox and ‘Share!’

Okay, so it’s not exactly the Love Boat, but close enough!

photo of M/V American Spirit – courtesy of American Cruise Lines

It was recently announced that starting in early May of 2013, the M/V American Spirit with American Cruise Lines, will be making Liberty Bay & Downtown Poulsbo one of their regularly scheduled cruise tour stops. The smaller 205 ft. cruise ship will arrive in Liberty Bay on Friday mornings, and its passengers will be ferried to the public marina from anchored moorage.

I don’t know about you, but I personally think this is a HUGE benefit to our beloved city and presents some incredible opportunities to further grow & expand the long-term health and viability of our downtown area.

I don’t know who was responsible for making this happen, but whoever it was, it’s nothing short of brilliant, and I’d like to buy them lunch sometime!

Now for some of you concerned locals, the M/V American Spirit only has a passenger capacity of 100, so we’re not talking about a mass tourist take-over of Little Norway every Friday. This is going to be very manageable and will no doubt provide local businesses with a welcomed boost to sales.

Supposedly, a big welcome extravaganza for the inaugural visit is in the works by local residents and merchants. I am hoping that some enterprising individuals are planning on having some locals decked out in full Scandanavian attire? Mr. & Mrs. Kris Kringle were a huge hit during the Christmas Holidays. I wonder if we could get them to done bunad?