Since its founding in 1971, Hard Rock International has been committed to its "Save the Planet" motto, with the goal of making the earth a safer, healthier and better place to live. Continuing its mission, Hard Rock has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation for the launch of its new Lil' Rockers Menu, featuring delicious kid's meals packaged with fun activities that show youngsters how they can help protect the environment.

Beginning this past Arbor Day (April 25th), each kid's meal at the Hard Rock Café in Myrtle Beach, and at Hard Rock restaurant locations throughout North America and Puerto Rico, now includes tree seed packets, encouraging lil' rockers to plant trees and help produce more oxygen and preserve wildlife habitats. Hard Rock International has also teamed up with the Arbor Day Foundation, making the commitment to plant at least 25,000 trees this year. Additionally, with the help of the new Lil' Rockers menu, Hard Rock and the Arbor Day Foundation hope to help plant an additional one million trees in 2008.

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It’s like that eight-year-old pair of Birkenstocks you’ll wear with just about anything in your closet. Doesn’t matter that they’re a little beat up, or that you might have a different pair or 10 on the shelf that would go better with those new khakis. Those shoes just feel right.

And that’s probably the best analogy I can use to describe my first up-close experience with The Market Common.

Except it’s not worn-out. It’s brand-spanking-new.

It’s already popular, as evidenced by the crowds that defied the rainy weather and flocked there the first few days after last week’s soft opening.

It’s unfamiliar, and unlike anything else you’ve seen along Ocean Boulevard or throughout Myrtle Beach.

But you know what? Like that pair of your most comfortable shoes, it just feels right.

To me, it doesn’t scream commercialism. It just says, “Hey, you can hang here any time … (more pics after the jump)

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I’ll be curious to see how quickly these guys book their rentals for the week of May 9.

EagleRider, the world's largest motorcycle rental and touring company, just announced the grand opening of its first location in South Carolina. EagleRider of Myrtle Beach is now located at 1251 Highway 501 near 3rd Ave. N.

William Rock Burch, owner of EagleRider Myrtle Beach, is no stranger to the rental industry. Rock has more than 15 years of experience in car rental and currently is the president and co-owner of U-Save Car & Truck Rental. U-Save has three locations in the Myrtle Beach area and one in Greer, S.C. Rock is also a motorcycle enthusiast. He bought his first Harley-Davidson in 2000 and the rest is history. "With three annual bike rallies and Myrtle Beach being a thriving golf and beach destination, EagleRider is a perfect fit for the Grand Strand and South Carolina,” said Burch in a recent Marketwire release. “Now a visiting golfer will be able to play 18 holes in the morning, rent a Harley at EagleRider and cruise Ocean Boulevard that night. It's an awesome feeling to be able to rent someone a dream.”

EagleRider pioneered the Harley-Davidson rental concept in 1992 and today operates the world's largest motorcycle rental and powersport rental fleet from premier manufacturers such as Harley-Davidson, Honda, BMW, and Polaris. EagleRider's expansion of its franchise rental facilities targets global tourist destinations and currently offers adventure travel enthusiasts the opportunity to experience their dream vacation from rental facilities in the USA, United Kingdom, Austria, Australia, Spain, France, Ireland, Mexico, Costa Rica, and New Zealand.

Source: Marketwire

The company’s VP mentioned it back in November as a possibility, and the Orlando Sentinel appears to have confirmed it earlier this month – WonderWorks is headed to Myrtle Beach.

What is WonderWorks? “An Amusement Park for the Mind,” they say. A dizzying experience just looking at it, I say. The kids overruled me on this one, though, and got me to take them to the Pigeon Forge, Tenn. location earlier this week while we were vacationing in nearby Gatlinburg. They absolutely loved it.

If you’ve been to the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area and already checked this place out, time for you to weigh in and let our readers know what they can expect!

With one major shopping venue arriving, another moving and a third undergoing a $20-million facelift, the Grand Strand retail scene will be plenty abuzz over the next several months.

JCPenney makes its long-awaited appearance on the Grand Strand next week with a brand-spanking-new, 105,000-square-foot store at Coastal Grand Mall. The March 7 ribbon cutting and grand opening will usher in the retail giant’s two new brand concepts – the Sephoria beauty boutique, and the American Living collection of fashions for men, women, children and home.

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The news came fast and furiously on Wednesday as Chicago Rockford (Ill.) International Airport, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Pa.) International Airport and Dayton (Ohio) International Airport all announced that Atlanta-based Southern Skyways will be flying passengers to Myrtle Beach this summer.

The new Rockford route comes on the heels of that airport’s 26-percent increase in passenger travel in 2007, and returns a Grand Strand flight option not seen there since Hooters Air last provided it in December 2005. From May 23 to Sept. 1, the flight will depart Mondays and Fridays with fares ranging from $129 to $179 each way (plus taxes and fees).

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s non-stop Myrtle Beach service begins May 21, with fares starting at $79 each way. The direct flight also adds a new convenience to an area whose county airport has only offered connecting service to popular vacation destinations.

Dayton’s service – also non-stop – runs May 23 through Labor Day on Mondays and Fridays, and offers one-way fares ranging from $79 to $129. "Our passengers have been telling us for some time that Myrtle Beach is a direct destination they would like served from Dayton, and we are most pleased that it has become a reality," said Iftikhar Ahmad, Dayton director of aviation, in this Dayton Business Journal article.

Bill Prince, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Strand-based Integrated Environmental Technologies Limited, was featured this week in an exclusive interview with WallSt.net. The interview covered topics including the company's market potential, growth initiatives, competitive edge, recent news, and milestones for which investors should watch.

Click here to hear the interview in its entirety.

Integrated Environmental Technologies, Ltd. (OTC Bulletin Board: IEVM) is located near Myrtle Beach in Little River, S.C. Its 14,000-square-foot production facility is located in the Strand Industrial Park, where it designs and assembles EcaFlo® equipment that utilizes the electro-chemical activation technology to produce fluid solutions for controlling bacteria, viruses, fungi and other un-wanted microorganism in an environmentally-responsible, cost-effective manner. EcaFlo® solutions -- anolyte and catholyte -- have been tested, proven and accepted by private, state and federal agencies. Integrated is finding broad demand for its EcaFlo® equipment in commercial applications benefiting oil and gas, agricultural, food, medical, health and industrial markets, as well as markets subject to regulatory compliance and control.

Source: PRNewswire

Chalk up a huge score for Coastal Carolina University’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC). One of its local “success stories” just hit the big time.

Myrtle Beach-based Meditlantic Importers, LLC is featured on Forbes.com in an article released Nov. 28, “How to Make Money Off Your Homeland.” The Forbes piece details how Hala Amer, who moved to the Grand Strand from Egypt six years ago, transformed a simple idea into a business concept that now enables local hoteliers to share a taste of Egyptian luxury with its guests.

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It should come as no surprise that, for the fifth consecutive year, the Myrtle Beach area has landed the top spot in Restaurant Business Magazine’s annual listing of “The Best Places to Open a Restaurant.”

The magazine’s nationwide Restaurant Growth Index includes Myrtle Beach among 17 other tourist-driven markets in the top 25. Here are the top 10, along with their respective RGI scores:

1. Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC (735)
2. Fort Walton Beach-Crestview-Destin, FL (430)
3. Flagstaff, AZ (358)
4. Ocean City, NJ (333)
5. Honolulu, HI (317)
6. Las Vegas-Paradise, NV (308)
7. Owensboro, KY (300)
8. Valdosta, GA (292)
9. Atlantic City, NJ (282)
10. Barnstable Town, MA (280)

One of Myrtle Beach’s regional competitors for family vacation business, Orlando-Kissimmee, came in at No. 11 (279).

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Hard Rock Park hasn’t even opened yet, and folks are already trying to emulate the Myrtle Beach concept three time zones away.

The Arizona Republic reported Thursday that a Phoenix-based investment team has announced plans to build a 240-acre, rock & roll theme park in Eloy, a desert town roughly equidistant from Phoenix and Tucson. The grand plan, according to the Republic, is for Decades Music Theme Park to rival the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando and Busch Gardens amusement parks across the country, and is “positioned as the West Coast counterbalance to Hard Rock.”

A big part of me hopes the Decades project comes through – if for no other reason than to create a bi-coastal rivalry that breeds a healthy game of one-upmanship, thus providing additional inspiration for the Myrtle Beach concept to grow and flourish.

But as local construction continues at a frenzied pace and legendary groups like Led Zeppelin and The Moody Blues announce feature attractions for Hard Rock Park’s spring 2008 debut, the Republic article indicates that the Decades project is still some five years from fruition. Meanwhile, it’s a safe bet that Hard Rock Park will hold this particular spotlight for quite some time – and fun to see the Grand Strand become a national trendsetter!