Pigeon Forge Sends 'Family Challenge' Contestant to College as Successful Vacation Promotion Wraps Up

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn., Aug. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Pigeon Forge has wrapped up its second spring-summer promotion of advocacy for family vacations by securing a path to college for the eldest daughter in the family that won the Pigeon Forge Family Challenge.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110818/CL54705 )

"We're reaching thousands of families with our message that vacations strengthen family bonds, and we're helping some of them quite tangibly," said Leon Downey, executive director of the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism.

In the process, Pigeon Forge is bolstering its reputation as one of America's top family vacation destinations.

This year's Pigeon Forge Family Challenge pitted five families in competitions for the city's first reality show. Families nominated themselves with online videos and solicited online votes. Five finalist families came from Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Tennessee and Texas.

"Our goal was to draw people to MyPigeonForge.com and to get them deeply engaged," said Ben Hale, account supervisor for Pigeon Forge's marketing firm, BOHAN, in Nashville, Tenn. "We succeeded."

The promotion attracted 42,000 visits to a special Pigeon Forge Family Challenge site, and each visit lasted 4.7 minutes on average.

The challenges, videotaped for a series of webisodes, were activities that families regularly engage in during Pigeon Forge visits.

The finale was at Dollywood's Adventure Mountain, a ropes course that puts visitors up to 90 feet above ground.

Teenager Rachel Shreve from Lone Oak, Texas, was undaunted by Adventure Mountain and helped her family win the promotion's $10,000 prize, the first contributions to her college fund.

"The promotion got great coverage, especially in the finalists' hometowns. Coverage of Rachel Shreve's family, where the headline was 'Discovering the Strength of Family,' and the Herndon family in Mobile, Ala., showed the family impact very nicely," said Tom Adkinson, BOHAN's publicist for Pigeon Forge.

The Pigeon Forge Family Challenge also resonated with participating attractions.

"This promotion put just the right focus on Pigeon Forge and Dollywood. Our whole city is ideal for family vacations, and the Family Challenge really showed people how much a vacation can build family bonds," said Pete Owens, Dollywood's public relations manager.

Other challenges were a go-cart race at The Track, a trivia contest at the Titanic Museum Attraction, two contests at Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede and an obstacle course involving a 12-foot-tall inflatable globe from Zorb Smoky Mountains.

"Pigeon Forge has the only Zorb location in North America, so we were delighted to get the visibility from the Family Challenge," said Marceline Dyer, marketing manager for the "extreme sport" attraction.

Last year's promotion was "Taking Vacation Back," and its top winner secured mortgage payments for an entire year as well as a vacation to Pigeon Forge.

"That was especially poignant because the family had a special needs teenager and never had taken a true family vacation," Downey said.

Information about Pigeon Forge is available at MyPigeonForge.com and 1-800-251-9100.

Contact:  
Tom Adkinson, APR
615-341-8796
[email protected]

SOURCE Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism