
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990                   TAG: 9005260345
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short

OFFICIALS HOLD HIGH HOPES FOR TOURISM

Tourism officials are hoping that heavy advertising and sunny Memorial Day skies will kick off the summer vacation season successfully this weekend and that tourists will forget the riots that marred the end of last year's season.

Tourism, employing about 21,000 people here, is big business in Virginia Beach. Last year, tourists spent $500 million; this year the projection is for $540 million, said James B. Ricketts, head of the city's tourism and convention development bureau.

However, last year was the first in memory when revenues from tourism did not increase. And city leaders are trying to gauge any fallout from last Labor Day, when riots along Atlantic Avenue caused an estimated $1.4 million damage.

Business owners are hopeful.

The city is spending $2.3 million this year on advertising, including a $1.3 million spring-summer campaign targeting Northern Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. That area accounts for about 51 percent of the visitors, according to city studies.

The city also has been dressing up Atlantic Avenue, the main beachfront thoroughfare. In October, the city began the first step in a 10-year, $63 million beautification project. The avenue and sidewalks were ripped up to make way for new water, drainage and utility systems.

Once the systems were installed, the sidewalks were widened, trees, shrubs and park benches installed and new traffic signals added.

by CNB