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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990                   TAG: 9006210358
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

D-DAY MEMORIAL WOULD PULL IN TOURISTS

FINALLY a viable proposal has come forward for Mill Mountain that could, and would, bring desirable visitors to the area and preserve well-deserved remembrance of those who fought and those who fell in the good war. An international D-Day memorial, as proposed by Bobby Slaughter's commentary published June 6, is well-earned and past due.

I think Mayor Taylor and the mayor of Flint, Mich., must have been seated side by side at one of their conventions when they came up with the magnificent idea to have their cities become festival hubs and tourist attractions. But in point of fact, wishing simply will not make it so.

Tom Wall's article in the May Roanoker magazine notes that only 20 percent of 31,400,000 out-of-state visitors to Virginia came into (or through) Southwest Virginia, and then spent only 4 percent of the $284 million state total here. The conclusions: "No reason for people to stop and spend money." "There's nothing to do in Southwest Virginia." "There's no reason to get off I-81 or the Blue Ridge Parkway." The tourists are just traveling through to real tourist attractions.

Let's face it, the city-sponsored market parties just don't cut it and are little-league. The only real tourist attraction Roanoke has had in the last 50 years was Papa Joe's topless school of dance. It really did bring travelers off the interstate and to the city overnight, to spend money, enjoy and spread the word about what became a tourist attraction.

With a little theater, a VCR and the "World at War" tapes (so well done by Thames Films), "War at Sea," and the like (boy, would I love to see the films made by the Russian front-line photographers), you would really have an attraction. The males would love it, and the wives and daughters could see the zoo and go shopping if they don't want to see how it was. Roanoke would become a real destination.

\ STUART A. BARBOUR JR.\ ROANOKE

by CNB