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Helen Martin and her adventure buddy Judy Childs, both of Seneca, spent the last day of their vacation Saturday in lines at the Sun Fun Festival in Grand Park across Farrow Parkway from The Market Common.

The Strand is still grand, touts Southern Living magazine, with readers choosing Myrtle Beach as the second-ranked Best Beach Destination and Best Family Destination of 2008. Past visitor surveys reveal that affordability is one reason many visitors return each year, so ensuring our visitors are motivated to travel here is essential to our economic success.

With more money for out-of-market tourism advertising on its way, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce is figuring out how to spend it.

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce recently completed its largest-ever fall marketing campaign and preliminary results show that it was successful at showing and telling out-of-market residents about the Myrtle Beach area.

Another national sporting event is coming to Myrtle Beach, providing a boost in visitors late in the summer, officials from the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday.

Myrtle Beach has landed another sports tourism event that officials expect will not only draw nearly 1,000 participants, but also hundreds of spectators.

Myrtle Beach will host two national track and field youth championships in 2011, which officials say will draw thousands of tourists and millions of dollars for the city of Myrtle Beach, adding to the area's growing roster of sports tourism events.

Myrtle Beach received more than $25.8 million in free publicity in 2008, with about $12.4 million coming from broadcast and print coverage of the January 2008 presidential primary debates and about $13.5 million coming from travel stories, according to figures from the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.

A recent Florence Morning News editorial republished Jan. 8 in The Sun News as "Don't wait for laws to save lives" appropriately describes the importance of a new national law that requires commercial swimming pools and spas to be outfitted with new drain cover systems. These new regulations, passed within the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, took effect Dec. 19. Ultimately, the regulations will enhance pool safety and may save lives (nine deaths between 1997 and 2007 are attributed...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Originally published in The Sun News on Jan. 6, 2008.