Visit Indy offers local holiday getaway

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Visit Indy has a deal it hopes you can't refuse,  an opportunity to get away by staying close to home for the holidays.       

It's the first time the city's tourist agency has ever done anything like this.  All you need is an Indiana ID and the ability to make your plans three days in advance.  If you have that, you can have a holiday getaway at a greatly reduced rate.

As holiday decorations take shape across the city, convention season winds down.  But Indianapolis still has about 32,000 hotel rooms in the metro area and 7,100 downtown to fill. Out of that need came the idea for "Hoosier Holidays" says Morgan Greenlee of Visit Indy.  "It's just an opportunity for Hoosiers to come in and celebrate the holiday season in the city at incredibly low room rates," she says.

Twenty Hotels are participating.  From the Omni Severin, to the Conrad, to the Staybridge suites.  If you or someone in your party lives in Indiana, you can get up to 50% off the usual room rate. "Like the Omni Severin, typically $179 room rate, you can get for a $99 room rate under this promotion. Or, many want to stay at the JW Marriott, a $119 room rate, typically a $229 room rate," says Greenlee.

And once you check in, you get coupons for local holiday events at a discount.  "Indianapolis is just a fun, fun city and a lot of people I think forget about," says Stan Jacobs, Director of Sales and Marketing for the Omni Severin Hotel downtown. 

Jacobs says the Holiday Season is the perfect time to show leisure travelers that the Capitol City has plenty to offer. This is a great opportunity to bring locals and folks from Indiana in to enjoy the city.  They come in to shop anyway.  But we want them to come in and shop and stay, he says.

Stay now and you might just stay again says Visit Indy's Greenlee. "The buzz is out there.  You know we've towns like Fort Wayne and Evansville and Terre Haute will have visitors coming in for that. But we also hope that people who live in Indianapolis will take advantage of this, kind of stay in your own backyard," she says. 

According to a recent study by Vantage Strategy, 20 million people visit Indianapolis every year.  Getting you and other Hoosiers interested in staying in their own backyard is an opportunity to expand that number. 

The special room rates are available now through January 6, but you have to book through Visit Indy .