OCEAN CITY -- City resident and business owner Roslyn Lifshin was recently elected to chair the Ocean City Tourist Development Commission.

Lifshin replaces Councilman Michael Allegretto who has chaired the commission for the past two years.

Lifshin has an extensive marketing background including service as a marketing executive in the casino industry. She is co-owner of Sun Rose Words and Music on Asbury Avenue.

“It’s an exciting time for our tourism development and economic development efforts in Ocean City. There has been a great deal of positive dialog in the past year and the business community seems energized to aggressively market all that Ocean City has to offer. I’m excited to be a part of this effort and I look forward to working with my fellow commission members, our partners in various business organizations and the city staff to insure a productive year,” Lifshin stated in a release.

The Tourist Development Commission is the agency that markets the resort.

It has a comprehensive campaign planned for 2008 which includes television commercials to start in February, additional trolley service, a partnership with the Board of Realtors to encourage renters to shop and dine in Ocean City, a direct mail campaign to the city’s growing list of second home owners, continued customer service training, updating the OCNJ.US web site to include on-line sales, an advertising campaign targeting the mainland communities and a 12 minute infomercial for use by the lodging industry and Channel 2.

The commission’s thirty second television spot will begin running during the Philadelphia network affiliate’s (Channels 3, 6, 10 and 29) news programming beginning on February 18th and continuing through April 20th.

In 2007, the commission completed a marketing study that confirmed that “word of mouth” and the internet are most often used to find out about Ocean City.

The study questioned residents and visitors and noted that many people come to Ocean City because it is perceived to be safe, clean and a family resort.