Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 22, 1992 TAG: 9203220213
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
All the candidates want more people to visit the Roanoke Valley and spend money in the city. Republicans and Democrats alike see tourism as one of the best ways to boost the ailing local economy and generate more tax revenue.
With the city facing financial pressures from the recession, the candidates point to conventions and the tourist business as a way to ease the budget crunch without having to provide more everyday services. They remind voters that the city does not have to pay for educating tourists' children or provide other special services for them.
By some estimates, the city receives more than $8 million a year in sales, meals, lodging and admissions taxes from conventioneers and tourists. So it's no surprise the mayoral and council hopefuls are talking a lot about tourism.
Some have offered proposals on how the city can attract more tourists and visitors, while others have talked in generalities.
Delvis "Mac" McCadden, a Republican making his first try for public office, has given the most attention to the issue. The news conference to announce his candidacy was held in the lobby of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau on the City Market.
McCadden said the valley needs to increase its efforts to attract tourists, and to do that more funding will be needed.
"Stimulating the income sometimes means injecting the income. Our Convention and Visitors Bureau operates on a paltry budget when compared to cities of similar size," said McCadden, district sales manager for USAir.
"Working to attract tourists and additional business ventures means more dollars spent in Roanoke that would benefit this city's economics."
An estimated 4,000 people in the valley work in tourist-related jobs, but McCadden said tourism can help create even more jobs. He said the city should establish a committee of business, civic and arts leaders to help recruit conventions.
"If Roanoke is to become a destination city, it must do a better job of making people aware of what we have to offer," he said.
Councilman Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr., a Democrat seeking his second term, agreed.
"We've got to do a better job of selling the Roanoke Valley - making people aware of what we have here," Fitzpatrick said. "We are not spending enough on advertising and marketing.
Asheville, N.C. - Roanoke's chief competitor for tourists on the Blue Ridge Parkway - will spend $1.6 million this year on promoting tourism. By comparison, the budget for the valley Convention and Visitors Bureau is $287,000. Asheville spends more than $800,000 on advertising, to Roanoke's $5,000.
Roanoke City Council appropriated $210,000 for the bureau in the current fiscal year. Roanoke County provided $25,000, and Salem contributed $5,000.
All of the council and mayoral hopefuls want Hotel Roanoke reopened, saying they support council's decision to make it a top priority. They see a reopened hotel as an attraction for people outside the Roanoke Valley to come for conventions, festivals and other events.
Fitzpatrick said, however, that the valley can't afford to wait until the hotel reopens to start advertising the landmark. "You need a lead time of about two years to make sure we get the message out," he said.
Virginia Tech officials hope the hotel can reopen by 1995 if developer Henry Faison can work out a financing plan by the end of this year.
Martha Mackey, the bureau's executive director, said she is pleased that the mayoral and council hopefuls are talking about tourism. She hopes they will remember their campaign promises after they are elected.
"Money is our biggest need now. We are competing with other cities in Virginia that have budgets of $1.5 million to $2.4 million for their convention and tourist bureaus," Mackey said. "It's tough when you are competing against that much money."
She said the valley's bureau does a better job of recruiting conventions than attracting individual tourists, mainly because it concentrates its funds on the convention business.
"Our weakest point is the individual tourist because we don't have the money to advertise to get them," Mackey said.
Councilman David Bowers, the Democratic candidate for mayor, has promised to give special attention to tourism if he is elected.
"If there has been any single area in our economic goals on which we've failed, it is in attracting the world to our beautiful valley," Bowers said.
Bowers has proposed a $1 million investment in the Virginia Museum of Transportation to help upgrade it to a major tourist attraction. The money would pay for a larger staff, improvements to the exhibits and a streetcar between the museum on Norfolk Avenue and the City Market.
"This is a fine institution, but it needs massive restructuring, upgrading and investment to compete and draw tourists to our city in the future," Bowers said.
Willis "Wick" Anderson, the Republican candidate for mayor, also thinks the valley needs to do a better job of packaging and advertising its attractions. He believes the city and other valley localities need to spend more on advertising.
As mayor, Anderson said he would try to persuade businesses that benefit from tourists to help provide the funding for a bigger advertising budget. "I think the mayor's job in this area could involve jaw-boning the private sector," he said.
Although the valley does not have a single nationally known attraction, Anderson believes it can attract more people to Center in the Square, the City Market, Mill Mountain Zoo, the Transportation Museum and eventually the Explore Park after it opens.
"There are millions of travelers passing every year on Interstate 81 and the Blue Ridge Parkway. We need to get more of them to stop here," Anderson said.
Anderson said the proposed D-day Museum near Hotel Roanoke also could help draw more people to Roanoke. "It would have its own constituency and would be a great enhancement to downtown," he said.
Democrat Renee Anderson believes that a convention center - the third element in the Hotel Roanoke project - also would help bring more people to the city.
The convention center, estimated to cost $25 million, would be built after the hotel and conference center are complete. "I think that it's a matter of convincing the public that it would benefit the city," Anderson said.
Democrat James Trout, a former councilman bidding to rejoin council, said tourism is the fastest-growing industry available to this area. "Roanoke needs to get its share of this clean, tax-producing industry," he said.
Trout said any big push to get more people to come to the valley, particularly conventioneers, must begin with the renovation of Hotel Roanoke and construction of a conference center.
To attract major conventions, he said, a locality must have a major hotel that can serve as a headquarters facility.
Councilwoman Elizabeth Bowles, a Republican seeking her fifth term, said there are two ways to generate more tax revenue: a strong economic-development program, and tourism.
She believes the valley can attract more tourists if it does a better job of marketing itself.
"Last year alone, tourism brought $8 million [in tax revenues] into the valley. I will encourage all of the valley's governments to increase their budgets for tourism and take a more active role in its promotion," Bowles said.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB