Category: Press Release

As flight cancellations plagued international summer travel, many cooped-up locals took to the road and rails to explore, despite gas prices and fee surges. EscapeMaker.com, a veteran local travel marketer since 2000, rolled out its AR (Augmented Reality) development and content production services to its longtime agritourism, craft beverage, and special event clients this summer to help them get the edge on attracting their share of the increasing local travel market. EscapeMaker's AR clients will offer various engaging augmented reality experiences to incentivize travel and onsite visits, whether through historical walking or craft beverage tours, food menus, scavenger hunts, or exclusive musical and theatre performances. "Static tour apps are old news," says Caylin Sanders, President and CEO of EscapeMaker. "Travelers want more fun, memorable and interactive experiences. With our custom AR apps launching later this year, visitors will engage with a destination like never before as they aim their mobile phones at select sites to see unique content." EscapeMaker relocated north from Brooklyn, New York, to the Hudson Valley during the pandemic. Upending their usual playbook, they invested in technology rather than traditional social media and old-school brand building to offset pandemic losses and weather the uncertainty of the local travel and special event market. Although visitors bureaus and destination marketing organizations (DMOS) tightened their budgets once the pandemic hit, their marketing and advertising spending is finally returning to pre-2020 levels. According to Sanders, though, budgets previously diversified have been allocated mainly to Facebook or Google pay-per-view advertising, cannibalizing many marketer's client lists. But as Facebook's subscriber base declines, advertisers now realize those likes don't always translate into in-person visits. "Over the years, we found creative marketing solutions by adding event production, tour guide distribution, bus tours, and packaging in response to our destination client's specific needs. It became apparent,

The free virtual expo honors and celebrates women-owned farms and businesses in the food, farming and craft beverage industries and provides resources to women entrepreneurs. BROOKLYN, NY – June 14, 2021 – If you missed last month’s Women in Food & Farming Festival, a hybrid event that drew hundreds of people online and in person to Hudson Valley’s Stone Ridge Orchard, there is still an opportunity to celebrate, learn and get inspired at the Northeast Women in Food & Farming Online Expo. The free expo encourages women consumers and those from across the food and farming industries, home and professional chefs, restaurateurs, winemakers, craft beverage producers, and those who champion agritourism to create, learn and come together in a supportive community. Presented by EscapeMaker.com and Fulton Stall Market, sponsors include The New York Cider Association, Cabot Cheese, SnapDragon & RubyFrost Apples, VisitIthaca.com, and SullivanCatskills.com, with media partners Heritage Radio and Edible Manhattan. The expo includes local farm tours, food workshops, cooking demos and inspirational talks from highly influential women in their fields. Notable topics include foraging for ramps, cake demos, chocolate-making and sourdough starter workshops, a discussion on herbs, glamping on the farm and social media tips for food businesses. Tickets are free and include over twenty on-demand presentations – that’s 6+ hours of material that attendees can stream 24/7 at their convenience.  A few highlights include: Chef Judy Joo, The Food Network’s Iron Chef UK, presents a Kimchi 101 workshop. Maneet Chauhan, James Beard award-winning chef, Culinary Institute of America alumnus, Food Network television personality, and cookbook author, shares her own story and words of wisdom for women in the industry. Liz Neumark, farmer, chef and entrepreneur, CEO of Great Performances catering and founder of the non-profit The Sylvia Center, takes viewers on a farm-to-fork tour of her Katchkie

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 16, 2020 -- New York, NY Fulton Stall Market and EscapeMaker.com Awarded USDA Grant to Increase Access to Locally Grown Food Products in New York City and Promote Regional Agritourism New York City area residents and workers can look forward to expanded online access to locally grown and produced foods from New York farmers and other regional producers and opportunities to learn about and visit local farmers and producers virtually, thanks to a $160,000 United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) grant from the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). The award was made to EscapeMaker.com and Fulton Stall Market and announced last month as one of 48 funded projects nationwide. The USDA AMS FMPP grant will enable EscapeMaker.com, a local agritourism, and online travel guide, to work with its partner the Fulton Stall Market, a nonprofit farmers market located in a historic building at the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan, to upgrade the market's website, add online ordering of local farm and food products, host virtual farm tours, food demonstrations and educational workshops by regional farmers, food and craft beverage producers. The online enhancement will enable the market to reach and engage nearby Lower Manhattan residents and other New Yorkers working from home in learning about and buying local foods available at the market and in visiting local farmers and producers online and in person. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry said "this USDA funding is great news for EscapeMaker and the Fulton Stall Market, whose partnership supports over 100 local farmers and producers across New York State. As our communities rebuild from the economic fallout caused by the pandemic, I will continue to fight for funding in the Senate to help boost and revitalize our

To support local farms and farmland preservation during Covid-19, the “Farm-to-Treble” event series features exclusive experiences in the fall with farm-fresh dinners, apple and peach picking, orchard walks, live music and local NY State cider and beer. STONE RIDGE, NY – This Labor Day Weekend kicks off the first events of “Farm-to-Treble,” a series of socially distanced, exclusive fall farm events at Stone Ridge Orchard, just two hours north of New York City in the Hudson Valley.  Attendees will be socially distanced in field “pods” for late afternoons and evenings under the stars overlooking the orchard, the farm house and acres of bucolic farmland. . All of the events feature exclusive cider tastings and orchard talks with renowned and award-winning cider maker, pomologist and farmer Elizabeth Ryan – an expert and leader in the Hudson Valley local farm-to-table and agriculture scene for decades and one of the foremost international authorities on all things cider. The tastings will take place under an exquisite majestic 300-year old oak tree high atop the sprawling farm at the crest with a view of the Hudson Valley.   Sat. and Sun. September 5th & 6th – “Cider, Blues & BBQ:” The first events of the series, will take place over Labor Day Weekend. Tickets include farm and orchard access; a farm fresh BBQ dinner and dessert by local Poughkeepsie restaurant and favorite food truck caterer Farmers & Chefs; an open bar with local beer and craft cider, (local wine, local gin and vodka by Prohibition Distillery and cocktails additional) plus an option for a VIP guided tasting with Elizabeth Ryan under the oak tree. There will also be live music, including featured Brooklyn blues artists, Bette Smith on Saturday 9/5 and Slam Allen on Sunday 9/6.  On 9/5, rock, blues and soul singer Bette Smith