THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 30, 1994 TAG: 9408310635
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
Most travelers who stop at the Virginia Welcome Center off busy Interstate 95 aren't as lost as the woman who came through the doors one recent weekend.
Maybe the heat got to her. Maybe it was bumper pressure from a caravan of families bent on making it to Virginia Beach without a bathroom break.
Whatever the cause, the woman needed to find her way. She had driven 45 miles past her intended destination - a hotel outside Washington.
Pat Amro, the welcome center's manager, and co-worker Ellen Anderson patiently pointed out where she was and how she could turn around to head back toward the nation's capital.
``It's right pitiful,'' Anderson said with a sigh. ``You feel sorry for them.''
The state's 10 welcome centers - stretching from the Eastern Shore to Bristol in the southwest - have long been guideposts for travelers. But their management has recently taken a new direction.
Twenty state employees at the centers were laid off four years ago to save money. Faced with a major budget shortfall, former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder proposed closing the centers in 1991.
But lawmakers and the centers' supporters fought to keep them open and funds were restored. The centers have 20 full-time employees and are now funded in part with money from the private sector.
Pat McMahon, director of the Division of Tourism, said the concept of welcome centers is starting to change. Virginia officials are working on a computerized kiosk that would provide travelers with information about attractions, historic battlefields, parks, hotels and restaurants - virtually anything they now get from brochures and travel guides.
``The kind of information you get from a welcome center you might be able to get at any place you go,'' he said, noting the kiosk could be linked not only statewide, but to other states as well.
A prototype will be located in Washington, in the coming months and a kiosk could be installed at a Virginia Welcome Center within a year, he said. Maryland is developing a similar system.
``Basically what we're doing is taking our travel guide, digitizing it and putting it into this system,'' McMahon said.
Tourism remains big business in Virginia - worth an estimated $9.1 billion to the state's economy. Gov. George Allen only sees it getting bigger with the development of Disney's America in Northern Virginia.
When the first center was built more than a quarter century ago near Skippers off I-95, the travel industry was less sophisticated. Vacations were longer and often weren't planned so extensively in advance, McMahon said.
``Our counselors at that time would literally help a family plan a two-week vacation,'' he said.
Over the years the centers have ``become more of a welcome mat'' than a place for vacation planning, he said. Only about 5 percent of travelers stop at a welcome center specifically to get information. Most people need to use the bathroom.
The welcome centers cost less than $1 million a year to operate. After the budget crunch a few years ago, the state started charging businesses for brochure space. They now pay $60 per brochure pocket at each center or a total of $550 for all centers.
The brochures bring in about $270,000 and $450,000 more comes from the state Department of Transportation, which has also taken over maintenance and upkeep.
The Allen administration, despite cuts in other areas, has not sought funding reductions for the centers, McMahon said.
The centers have an ally in the state's first lady, Susan Allen, who is the honorary chairswoman of the Governor's Task Force on Tourism. Susan Allen said she has mixed feelings about a high-tech approach to vacationers.
``While I think that technology is wonderful and that it is the way for the future, I think that we'll still have a demand for service and Southern hospitality,'' she said.
While McMahon acknowledged kiosks and other changes could eventually displace workers at the centers, he said no layoffs are planned.
Travelers who visited the red brick welcome center off I-95 in Fredericksburg recently said it was a valuable facility. The center received the third-highest number of visitors last year among the 10 centers. Skippers and Bracey, both along the state's southern border, had more visitors.
A total of 1.17 million people received assistance at the 10 welcome centers in 1993, a 6 percent increase over the 1.10 million in 1992.
Amro, who was laid off from another welcome center before coming to Fredericksburg, said she and her partner help 500 to 600 people on a busy day.
Michael Condon of Farmington, Conn., who stopped in with his wife and daughter on their way to Williamsburg and Virginia Beach, said he hopes the state doesn't choose computers over people.
``I think that'd be awful,'' he said, adding that the first people you meet in a state can set the tone for a vacation. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Southbound Interstate 95 travelers stop at the Virginia Welcome
Center at Fredericksburg on Sunday. On a busy day, workers at the
Fredericksburg facility help 500 to 600 people. A total of 1.17
million people received assistance at the state's 10 welcome centers
in 1993, a 6 percent increase over 1992's 1.10 million.
Graphic
LOCATIONS
A breakdown of individual motorists assisted at Virginia's 10
welcome centers in 1993.
1. Interstate 95, Skippers - 207,852
2. Interstate 85, Bracey - 169,746
3. Interstate 95, Fredericksburg - 129,139
4. Interstate 81, Clear Brook - 118,288
5. Interstate 77, Lambsburg - 103,641
6. Interstate 64, Covington - 94,979
7. U.S. 13, New Church - 90,902
8. Interstate 66, Manassas - 89,049
9. Interstate 81, Bristol - 87,170
10. Interstate 77, Rocky Gap - 84,134
Total: 1.17 million
Source: Virginia Division of Tourism
by CNB