CTA Needs Help

I’ve lived here most of my life as a fifth generation local, interviewed thousands of tourists and I don’t know anything about the Coast Transit Authority (CTA) system. In London, Dresden, Vienna, Berlin, Prague, Dumbarton, Glasgow, Maracaibo, and New York, it took only 5 minutes or so to learn the entire transportation system. A complete refresher course was at most stops.

In each of those places, I had some sort of structured information system. Our CTA would rather advertise anybody and everybody but themselves. This government subsidized advertising agency is not telling the tourists or locals of the value of CTA services as they drive by, but would rather market anybody that will give some quick cash.

This is a direct assault on any and all concepts of living in a FREE MARKET SOCIETY. All competition in the advertising is forced to compete on a tax subsidised scale, thereby diminishing profit to all marketing management investors.

With today’s need to conserve petroleum and lessen the impact on their pocketbook, the CTA is more important than ever before. As an environmental conservative, I only wish they would market themselves first, rather than compete with other legitimate forms of promotion.

Tourists have no idea that those advertisement benches (10 feet off the highway) have anything to do with a transportation system nor are they aware of what “CTA” means. If 100% of these signs were geared to selling the value of their services (prices, schedules, etc.) they might have a higher rider count.

In addition, the distraction/accident rate may be lessened if the advertisements are all delivering the same type message. Considering that HWY 90 in Harrison County is among the most dangerous sections of highway in the country, this should be a very important issue to the public, since these are the closest distractions to every driver.

Other than a private charter for a downtown party, I’ve rarely, if ever, seen more than 10% capacity on the CTA System. If CTA will get out of the advertising business (since they are government subsidized for TRANSPORTATION) and start marketing themselves as a service to the community, we just might see a successful use of our federal dollars to service the locals.

Marketing Law 101 – Market Yourself First. While the CTA is so busy competing in the advertising industry, they have completely lost sight of their mission as locals and tourists lost sight of their product and services.



Sincerely,



Henry Ward
Tourism Consultant
Tourismguru.blogspot.com
tourismguru777