MYRTLE BEACH--State tourism promoters plan to ignore Joe Six-Pack and will instead aim at the upscale market next year in an effort to boost spending by visitors.

Beyond targeting affluent households, a new marketing campaign unveiled Wednesday to about 600 hospitality leaders at the annual Governor's Conference on Travel & Tourism also hopes to reach women, African Americans and golfers.

The South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism decided to focus on those demographics last year, hence the new ads, which include a 60-second TV commercial and a refined strategy about where to place the pitches.

"If you market to the leaders, the rest will follow," Chad Prosser, director of the PRT said in outlining his department's decisions to conference attendees. "Consumers are going to make their own value decisions. . We need to focus on the dream. We need to focus on the experience."

The average visitor to South Carolina spends $262 compared with a national average of $464, according to statistics compiled last year by the Porter Group in Massachusetts. Prosser said the PRT is hoping to boost visitor spending 10 percent by 2006, which would equate to an extra $26 per person, assuming visitor volume remains the same.

The new ads are intended to incite that shift, according to Prosser. They were designed to speak to busy and vacation-starved workers.

"Time is flying by and you can't stop it. You can, however, slow it down for a few days," one ad reads. "A few days full of sand, sea and smiles."

John McDermott, creative director for the Upstate ad agency Leslie Agency, said "time poverty" was a recurring theme heard in focus groups that his company ran as part of its PRT contract. He also cited statistics indicating that the average U.S. worker forfeited three vacation days last year and that 20 percent of American workers feel guilty when they take a pleasure trip.

"Time away is important time. It's crucial time we need to take," McDermott said. "In 2005, South Carolina will own that time."

The ads will appear in many of the same places South Carolina tourism messages have run in the past, including daily newspapers in major markets, golf magazines and "lifestyle" magazines like Southern Living and Oprah Winfrey's "O."

Prosser said the state is getting good results from those sources, and Rawle Murdy Associates Inc., the Charleston-based firm that is handling PRT's media buying, will stick fairly close to that blueprint.

PRT will be spending more on Internet advertising, e-mail blasts and television slots this year. The state also will have its visitors guide available in an online version for the first time.

The new campaign was widely praised by conference attendees, mainly regional tourism promoters who place a great deal of their own ads in concert with PRT pitches."In terms of creative, it's easily the best thing we've seen from PRT," said Charlie Clark, a spokeswoman for the Hilton Head Island/Bluffton Chamber of Commerce.

Tom Bewley, who handles marketing for Kiawah Island Golf Resort, said the campaign was "spot on."

"It's a little classier than what they've done in the past," Bewley said. "The affluent angle is very important to us and the women angle is very savvy."

Several attendees, however, noticed that the ads did not feature much in the way of attractions and activities aside from golf. Tourism promoters also questioned why the campaign did not target potential group visitors and in-state tourists.

Helen Hill, executive director of the Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the new PRT campaign will be a particular boon for tourism in and around the Holy City.

"I'm thrilled," Hill said. "There are at least four ads that reference our area. And the whole package plays directly into our marketing plan."

Hill said some PRT ads in the past have failed to look specifically like South Carolina, a problem that she said the Leslie Agency avoided with its latest creations.

Just over 600 people registered for this year's tourism conference, about 8 percent more than last year.

Gov. Mark Sanford is scheduled to address the crowd at around noon today, giving a sort of state-of-the-state on South Carolina's top industry. Sanford also will have a closed-door discussion with leading hospitality figures.

The conference will conclude Friday with a workshop on how to market sporting events.

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Kyle Stock covers tourism. He can be reached at 937-5763 or kstock@postandcourier.com.