Background

The Savannah Area Convention & Visitors Bureau is the home of marketing and special events committees for all of Savannah, GA. These committees are responsible for improving the area economy and enhancing the image of Savannah as a vacation destination to increase overnight visitor expenditures. We produce specific events during slower tourism times to help drive visitors to the city and/or lengthen their stay. The Savannah Holly Days is one of these events that runs each year in downtown Savannah and features a snow play area, outdoor holiday movie, cookies and milk with Santa and ice skating rink.

Objective

This year we wanted to find a cost effective method of installing a synthetic ice rink for the annual Holly Days event that would be set up in the street. We were looking to find a company with experience and a turnkey operation that included everything needed for the ultimate skating event including ice skates, fencing, and snow machines.

Results

The synthetic ice rink was a much more viable solution for the Holly Days event for many reasons. Our event is 2 days and located on a city street. A real ice rink would not only be cost prohibitive but the street would be closed for a much longer period of time due to the construction of the rink which was not feasible. There proved to be no issues associated with the setup and breakdown with synthetic ice and Artificial Ice Events proved to be our best choice. The ice rink was a HUGE success. Over 1,000 people were able to enjoy the skating experience and we are planning to install a synthetic ice rink again this year! The artificial ice was realistic yet entirely mobile for what we needed as a solution to street ice skating.