The Interview: Herb Malone

GULF SHORES, Ala. (WALA) - President and CEO of the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau Herb Malone said he has always had a love for Alabama's beaches.  

Malone said starting when he was 5-years-old he spent his entire summer at the beach in a house his father built.

After college and marriage,Malone said he was determined to find a way to work and live on the coast. Therefore, he has spent last 23 years promoting Gulf Shores and Orange Beach to visitors worldwide.

HIS JOB

Malone said his job is destination marketing.

"I don't have a single room to rent,I don't have a single meal to sell. All we can do is build awareness,build leads and deliver those people to the front door of the folks who can,” Malone said. "I wake up in the morning, and I can't wait to get to the office. Yes sir, I like what I do. ”

THE OIL SPILL

He has seen the beaches survive many hurricanes over the last 30 years. Malone said that because there were so many unknowns, the 2010 BP oil spill was a horrific crisis. He saw fear in the eyes of many longtime residents for the first time.   

"I first heard the rig had exploded. Of course, that was horrific, and I really felt for the families of all the crew. A few days later they begin to talk about leaking oil, and I began to get concerned,” Malone said. “It was a frightening situation. No one knew how long the aftermath of the oil spill was going to last. I saw a fear in their eyes I've never seen before; and one pair of those eyes was in the mirror. ”

THE CRISIS AFFECTS TOURISM

Malone said the oil spill affected tourism along the Alabama coast.

"The phones were very busy ringing with reservations until the oil spill. The explosion occurred; and then those phones went from ringing to make reservations to making cancelations,” Malone said.

 

BATTLING DISASTER

The BP oil spill of April 2010 forced Malone and his staff into action using a familiar disaster strategy.

"They're all built around the tropical occurrences,” Malone said. “We pulled out those same disaster plans and realized that we could basically follow the same plan with the oil spill.  We try to stay with facts; and we try to verify every fact that we know; and we develop what we consider the message to the public. I want to have an honest message. If we make a mistake, we're going to own up to it; and we're going to correct it right away.

"Our brand had been bruised by the oil spill. Our summer was down a little more than 50 percent of what it was in 2009. We had to scramble to keep it from being down more than that. Some were expecting it to be down 80 percent. ”

According to Malone, the Alabama beach tourism industry, worth more than $2 billion, was severely threatened.  Malone said his team had to look for effective ways to keep from losing millions of visitors that visit Alabama’s Gulf Coast; more than four million people visited Gulf Shores and Orange Beach in 2009.

A WINNING STRATEGY

When fighting the battle against the misconception of oil covered beaches, Malone said the video filmed on the beach each morning with an update of the conditions made the biggest difference.

“It was posted on YouTube and through social media, was then re-circulated widely to the point where we're seeing 40 to 50,000 views daily. The camera view showed the edge of the water, and on the days the oil came on beach, we showed the oil on the beach. We did not hide from it,” Malone said.

BIG NAMES BRING CROWDS

Malone said they had to use all the tools in their tool box. He said BP grant money helped pay for more concerts, with big name acts. 

"We were fortunate to be able to bring in Jimmy Buffett. It brought those people here and showed them our beaches were clean,” Malone said. 

He said Thunder on the Gulf and the National Shrimp Festival got a funding boost and advertising into new markets also helped.

Some of the advertisements featured well-known SEC football coaches.

"All of those guys love this area. All of them have been here before, and they were great ambassadors for our area. And the commercials were a lot of fun,” Malone said.

SETTING NEW RECORDS

Malone said tourism numbers finally turned around in October 2010, seven months after the oil spill began. 

Malone said team work has enabled the beach tourism industry to recover, and the record book is being re-written every month.

"We track lodging revenue and what was paid to rent rooms, hotels, condos, bed and breakfast, camp ground sites. All businesses are required to collect a lodging tax; that's our purest number of measuring tourism,” Malone said. “I see all the numbers in town go up, the lodging revenue numbers; the sales tax numbers go up. Not only did we achieve and surpass 2009, we surpassed our previous record year of 2007, in every quarter of 2011 we set a new record in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.”

Malone said that the early forecast for 2012 looks like it’s ahead of last year's record numbers.

Some businesses reported January numbers 20 percent higher than