In the coming months, Washington’s tourism marketing efforts will focus on two distinct areas — having East Carolina University football fans stay in Washington during weekends of home football games and enhancing the city’s growing wedding market, according to Lynn Wingate, the city’s tourism development director.

Wingate explained city’s latest tourism marketing strategies to the City Council on Monday.

The marketing effort involving ECU home football games is titled Paint Your Weekend Purple and Gold.

“We want to remind people who are traveling to East Carolina, to Greenville you can get to the stadium from Washington just as easily as you can from the other side of Greenville. So, why not spend the weekend in Washington and paint it purple and gold?” Wingate said.

As for the burgeoning wedding market, the city will produce a wedding guide the provides information concerning holding weddings in the city at various venues, including Festival Park on the city’s waterfront, Wingate said. Weddings involving local residents and out-of-town residents usually result in some members of the wedding parties staying at local lodging establishments, generating revenue for the establishments and the city, she said.

Using the analogy of the difficulty a plate-spinner (think the “Ed Sullivan Show”) faces when trying to keep many plates spinning at one time, Wingate said the city would focus on spinning just one or two plates (marketing strategies) at a time.

Wingate reminded the council the Washington Tourism Development Authority is charged with marketing Washington primarily outside a 50-mile radius of the city.

“Our mission is to enhance the economy of Washington and Beaufort County through promotion of this area as a destination for business and leisure travel. So, that’s something we’re trying to do in our day-to-day efforts,” Wingate said.

She also told the council that during the city’s branding initiative about two years ago, “We came up with the idea that people saw our community as a quaint, charming, little waterfront community to sum it up in a few words. So, that’s what we’ve tried to incorporate into our messages.”

Wingate said a new brochure touting Washington as a destination is available at all state-operated visitors centers. Although that brochure provides just basic information about Washington, it directs people to visit the city’s recently updated award-winning tourism website to learn more specific information about what the city has to offer.

Councilman Doug Mercer expressed concern with the city’s tourism effort focusing on just one of two “spinning plates.” He suggested that a broader market effort might be the way to go when it comes to promoting the city.

For now, Wingate responded, the WTDA prefers to use the rifle approach rather than the shotgun approach in its efforts to market the city.