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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 28, 1990                   TAG: 9006280129
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VA. TOURISM SLOW

"Attractions around the state had pretty flat attendance, up only 0.04 percent in May, according to our tourism barometer," said Martha Steger, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Tourism in Richmond.

The state collects attendance figures from 140 attractions, welcome centers and parks for its monthly measure.

Many tourism officials complained about the rainy month of May. It rained every weekend, including Memorial Day.

Greg Stiles, chief ranger at the Shenandoah National Park, said attendance was 148,827 for the month, down 18.7 percent from the previous May. Attendance for the year is down 6.1 percent from 1988.

"The weather station at Big Meadows in the park recorded 6.66 inches of rain for May. That pretty much tells the story," he said.

Francie Freeman, a spokeswoman for Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, said a good season is expected if the weather cooperates. The theme park does not release monthly attendance figures, but Freeman said the rain in May hurt business.

However, many tourism officials say business is picking up this month.

"The folks in the field say it seems much busier this June than last," Stiles said. "The parking lots at the more popular hiking trails are overflowing on the weekends. That doesn't generally happen until July or August."

"Our statistics for the visitors' center are up by 400 to 500 people so far in June," said Catherine Fox of the Roanoke Valley Visitors and Convention Center, which handles about 3,500 tourist inquiries a year.

Year-round attractions such as Colonial Williamsburg reported business was steady so far this summer.

Kenneth Kipps, a spokesman for Colonial Williamsburg, said attendance was running about the same as last year. Colonial Williamsburg does not release monthly attendance figures. Last year, about 1.2 million visited the re-created 18th-century village.

The Williamsburg tourism index rose by 8.7 percent in April, according to Roy L. Pearson, director of the College of William and Mary's bureau of business research. That "fulfilled our expectations," Pearson said.

The summer season opens Memorial Day, but Steger said the season in Virginia traditionally doesn't get under way until July 4th, after many of the schools in Northern states let out.

"Memorial Day may be more of a psychological mind-set. It's when we start thinking about summer," she said. In fact, the final two weeks of August may be the most important in terms of revenue, she said.

"Those last couple weeks is when a lot of people in the industry start showing a profit. That's what makes or breaks us," she said.

Steger said in the last five years travel patterns have shifted towards more year-round travel rather than just summer vacations.

Fox said tourism starts to slow down at the start of September in Southwest Virginia, "but when the leaves change in October, the people are back in droves."