A free trip to Flint? Southwest Airlines offers up Vehicle City visit as ... - MLive.com

FLINT, MI — San Juan, Napa Valley and... Flint?

Southwest Airlines is offering a free flight to the Vehicle City in its latest sweepstakes contest that targets about nine million people through the airline's blog, in-flight magazine and an email blast.

The prize package, worth about $1,900, includes two tickets to Bishop Airport, three days at the Holiday Inn Gateway in Mundy Township, a rental car, tickets to the Buick Gallery, Sloan Museum and Longway Planetarium, and meal vouchers for Blackstone's Pub and Grill, Redwood Lodge and 501 Bar and Grill.

Although the contest is promoted as the Back to the Bricks Sweepstakes, the winner can use the tickets after the upcoming car festival that runs Aug. 13-17.

Bishop Airport spokeswoman Pat Corfman worked with Southwest to set up the contest and said she's aware that Flint doesn't seem like the most obvious vacation destination. At airport conventions, she said, people from other cities often repeat quotes from Michael Moore's Flint-based film, "Roger & Me."

"There are so many incredible things that go on in Flint. Flint is a lot more than the news stories that you see ... but the rest of the nation doesn’t know about it," Corfman said.

The contest idea arose during discussions between Bishop and Southwest on how to boost passenger numbers that got off to a slow start after the airline started flying out of Flint in April.

"I said, 'Oh my god, we've got Back to the Bricks coming up, we could tie into that,'" said Corfman. While the prize package is good through July of 2014,

Corfman said the hope is that the two winners will take advantage of Back to the Bricks. Corfman said Bishop spent about $1,400 on the prize package, buying everything but the air fare.

Cheryl DeFrain, director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau division of the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce, said as far as she knows, this is the first contest of its kind in Flint.

"I’m not aware that there’s been anything like that done before. We have brought people over and Back to the Bricks has brought people over, but I’m not aware of any contests," she said. "I think it’s great. I’m happy that Bishop Airport and Southwest put something like this together."

Monica Scales, 26, of Flint, expressed surprise at the idea of Flint as a vacation destination.

The city has made national headlines for a variety of negative reasons, including its ranking as the most violent city in the nation.

"Wow. I guess it might be a way to bring people back to Flint," she said. "It could be something good for Flint, something positive."

But Scales, who lives near Flint's Hurley Medical Center in Carriage Town, also offered a word of caution to the winners: "Don't talk to strangers."

Todd Wiederhold, 49, of Flint, said he thinks offering contest incentives to come to Flint is something airlines should do more often.

"As much as they charge people for tickets it's the least they can do," he said. "At least it's giving back to the community."

Southwest spokeswoman Michelle Agnew said the airline holds similar contests that feature destinations all over the world, often tied to a specific event in that community.

The current contest is a way of "just helping our Flint destination and our service," she said.

Agnew said that typically between 10,000 and 50,000 people enter their sweepstakes contests. To enter the contest, Agnew said people submit their information electronically and winners are randomly selected.

Bishop and Southwest set up the contest independently from the Back to the Bricks organization. Bricks founder and chair Al Hatch said he's happy to see the contest.

"I think the important things is, here's another organization, a commercial entity, that is getting involved to promote Back to the Bricks on a national scale. And I think that's significant," Hatch said. "I think it's very positive for Flint and for Genesee County. I can't see any downside. Let's put it that way."

Bishop is involved with one Back to the Bricks project. The airport is set to house two statues featuring historical automotive figures Walter P. Chrysler and Charles Nash. The Chrysler statue was recently completed and bronzed and is expected to be unveiled at the airport this year.

Scott Atkinson is an entertainment reporter for the Flint Journal and can be reached at (810) 262-0216 or at satkins1@mlive.com. You can also follow Scott on Facebook or Twitter .

Source: southwest - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNG1puOnwknt51XNdjAZsDgQB1tcLQ&url=http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/flint/index.ssf/2013/07/flint_is_vacation_destination.html