ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 27, 1993                   TAG: 9304270101
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Paul Dellinger
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TOURISM NOT EXACTLY A PANACEA

It was shock enough when a speaker at the annual New River Symposium used that forum to question the often-repeated claim that the river is the oldest in North America and second-oldest in the world.

The inaptly named New River certainly is old, Emory & Henry College cultural geography Professor John Morgan agreed, but there is no evidence it is that old. He suggested that the claim got its momentum from environmentalists when they successfully blocked construction of an Appalachian Power Co. dam across the river in the 1970s, and it has been repeated so often that it now is generally accepted.

On top of that, a speaker from East Tennessee State University's College of Business followed with a claim that the benefits of tourism - being promoted all along the New River from North Carolina to West Virginia as a way to boost local economies - are overrated.

F. Steb Hipple, with the college's Bureau of Business and Economic Research, told the 75 or so people attending the annual symposium this month in Wytheville that tourism creates a lot of low-paying, dead-end jobs.

It can be useful as an adjunct to other enterprises, he said, but if tourism is the only business it can actually depress the economy and lower the standard of living. It is not a reliable or high-paying industry, he said.

The prevailing wisdom has been that tourism is a clean industry and one that does not necessitate building more schools and other facilities. People simply stop by, spend their money and leave.

The state has even encouraged regions to gear up for tourism by meeting the standards of a state accreditation program in the field. New River Valley HOSTS is in the midst of an 18-month effort to be among the first regions to qualify. The Pulaski Main Street program is catering to the tourist trade with its creation of antiques and art shops in downtown Pulaski.

They all say tourism works.

Hipple based his statement on a study in Sevierville, Tenn., near the Great Smokeys and Gatlinburg attractions, designed to show the benefits of tourism. The researchers were surprised when the study showed the opposite, he said.

"They can't get industry in there because there are too many tourists in the way," he said.

Wytheville Community College President William Snyder said he would be interested in hearing the reaction from another symposium speaker, Ron Vineyard from Colonial Williamsburg.

Vinyard agreed. He hastened to say that his area also has a base of manufacturing and military jobs, although the military commitment is likely to shrink in the near future. But he supported Hipple's statement that tourism alone is not enough, that it has to be supplementary to other economic initiatives.

So tourism may not be the panacea for the region that some have suggested. But, if other areas of the economy are not ignored, it apparently has its place.

Paul Dellinger covers Pulaski County for the Roanoke Times & World-News' New River Valley bureau. 


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