Galveston taps popular song for marketing campaign

The marketing team at the Galveston Island Convention & Visitors Bureau was brainstorming a while back on its next image campaign.

"Somebody said, 'Duh,'" recalled Leah Cast, the bureau's public relations manager.

People are always coming up to them at their trade shows booth singing, 'Galveston, oh Galveston!," she said, so why not make the most of the song?

They made the song the sound track for their official 2013 tourism video. It will be used in all of their marketing for radio, TV and other media, Cast said.

The rights to the popular Glenn Campbell version of the song were too expensive, she said. They paid $25,000 for the rights to the song itself, which was written by Jimmy Webb, and produced a more upbeat version.

Cast said the vocalist is Jeeve Docornet of Houston. The bureau hired the Houston studio Vision Production Group to produce the video and song.

The Glenn Campbell version of "Galveston" was released in 1969 and became a Number 1 song.

The video aims to show that after Hurricane Ike Galveston is "really reborn and thriving," Cast said.

Images in the video include beach scenes, birds, tall ships, the Galveston Island Pleasure Pier, Moody Gardens, the Strand, historic mansions and fishermen.

Last summer Galveston had its best tourism season ever, Cast said, with hotel generated revenue of $55.3 million in June, July and August.