The Virginian-Pilot 
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996              TAG: 9607310572
SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:   44 lines

WALL STREET JOURNAL AD PROMOTES CITY AS HOT DESTINATION SPOT FOR BUSINESSES<

Move over, Norfolk. Someone else is claiming bragging rights to the Mid-Atlantic.

Virginia Beach bought a full-page ad in Monday's Wall Street Journal, proclaiming itself the ``Mid-Atlantic's number one vocation spot.''

The city that is known for its beaches, climate and lifestyle ``is now attracting businesses as well as tourists,'' the ad said.

And that's the message that the city wants to communicate, that ``Virginia Beach means business,'' said Virginia Malinsky, communications and planning manager at the Department of Economic Development.

The ad mixes business with pleasure. It shows a photo of the beach and hotels from the Atlantic Avenue turnaround while touting the arrival last year of Avis' processing center and Al-Anon's headquarters. It also cites the the expansion of Lillian Vernon Corp.

The Virginia Beach Department of Economic Development paid $50,000 for the one-time ad in The Wall Street Journal's Eastern seaboard market, which extends from New England to Florida. The ad is a way to tie in the city's economic development with its tourism advertising.

The beach's Department of Convention and Visitors Development bought ads in USA Today for the past four weekends in July to promote visits to the beach. Those ads ran consecutively on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The last series ran this weekend and was intended to tie into the Monday ad in The Wall Street Journal.

``So the idea is that if someone had picked up the USA Today over the weekend, they'll see four ads in a row of Virginia Beach,'' Malinsky said.

And they have.

Four inquiries, coming from as far as California, have already resulted from Monday's Wall Street Journal ad, Malinsky said.

City economic development officials also hope the newspaper ads will reinforce the television spots the city has run on CNBC, A&E and select news stations airing in the New York and Washington areas. They'll follow up the next two days with planes flying banners in Hampton Roads.

``All it's meant to do is reinforce awareness,'' she said.

KEYWORDS: COLOR PHOTO

VIRGINIA BEACH OCEANFRON(BEACH) by CNB