Jennifer Cruce spent most of her career helping other people in their travels, but now the retiring Visit Sandy Springs executive director wants to do some traveling of her own.
Cruce will retire at the end of the year after more than 10 years as the leader of the city’s direct marketing organization. She said she’s been in the travel and tourism industry for more than 20 years, but she hasn’t done nearly as much traveling as she’d like.
She came to work for the city from Turner Broadcasting.
“I was a tiny, little tourism petunia in a big patch there,” Cruce said about her role with Turner, where she handled tours and business events in the CNN atrium and related activities.
As a board member of the Metro Atlanta Travel Association, and with her work, she had a broad knowledge of tourism. Several people told her that the Sandy Springs position was open, so she applied. Cruce said it seemed like a natural fit with the organization looking for someone with her marketing skillset.
Cruce said she had a natural affinity for Sandy Springs as she lived nearby and came to the city for dinner, to play, and for entertainment.
Her work started with an overhaul of the agency’s marketing plan. Cruce said 10 years ago Visit Sandy Springs didn’t use digital marketing and barely used social media.
The organization launched a new website and a digital marketing campaign at the same time. That quadrupled engagement on the website.
She was hired as ground was broken on City Springs as a new city hall and the Performing Arts Center. Cruce said she could align with Mayor Rusty Paul’s vision of City Springs becoming a community gathering place.
Cruce participated in senior leadership meetings, which gave her a better understanding of what other departments are doing. That was important as the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center came online, which is responsible for many amenities that are attractive to visitors and residents.
Paul wanted ideas from Visit Sandy Springs for community events. The city had a Martin Luther King Jr. event, and events for Veterans Day, and its Independence Day Stars and Stripes celebration. Cruce said she came up with the idea for the city’s Lantern Parade, an artistic tribute to the Chattahoochee River. Another idea she had was for Spooky Springs.
Cruce said an offhand comment she made about liking gingerbread displays led one of her staff to come up with the idea for Sparkle Village. That led to the Sparkle Parade.
One of the most recent successes has been the development of Restaurant Row, which promotes restaurants along the Roswell Road corridor. Cruce said in a 10-mile corridor visitors can dine around the “world. ” An interactive digital map and printed maps helps hotel staff – many of whom don’t live in Sandy Springs – show guests where they can dine.
“You can’t market a destination if you don’t have access to good dining,” Cruce said.
Her sales director takes hotels’ front desk staff on tours of Sandy Springs to show them what makes the city unique, which includes three areas of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
Visit Sandy Springs has had a close relationship with the city’s hotels since the beginning. Before the pandemic the hotels were running with high occupancy rates mid-week. They are slowly coming back from the effects of the pandemic, Cruce said.