Philadelphia puts on the steam to attract tourists

Grant recently waxed poetic about Philadelphia. In August, I posted about a 24 hour walking tour of the city that proved to be a rousing success. Two Decembers ago, Kelly offered a list of suggestions for a Philadelphia New Year. These are not even all our Philadelphia mentions. Here’s yet another reason to head to the land of the Liberty Bell. Their is a promotion going on to attract more visitors.

Starting from today through January 9, 2008, if you book a hotel through Philadephia’s tourist Web site, gophila/holidays.com you’ll be able to get a $50 discount on a hotel room in the form of a gift card. (The room needs to be above $150 which means you’ll get it for $100. That’s my understanding.) You need to use the code holidays when booking. Also, there’s a place on the site where you can enter the Winner Wonderland contest to win a slew of prizes.

I don’t think this link is up yet, because I couldn’t find it–and I looked around, but perhaps, I just missed it. The promotion starts Thanksgiving Weekend. If you find it, let us know how this works. I do know that when you shop in Philadelphia there aren’t an taxes on shoes or clothes. Also, here’s a link to half-price tickets for various entertainment and cultural venues.

As I was looking though the Web site, I noticed how many tour options there are. You can pick one that suits your interest level and time frame. One I found particularly intriguing is The Constitutional Cell Phone Tour. A map shows you historic sights to go and, when you stop at each one, you use your cell phone for the recorded message descriptions. That’s handy and clever. This tour can accommodate more than one cell phone.