Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993 TAG: 9305070354
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Long
"We don't try to do things the normal way, like everybody else has always done things," said Grady, who has been known to dress as an elf at regional trade shows to attract Christmas shoppers to Wytheville.
"We don't have a million-dollar budget to spend on advertising," she said. "So we have to be different."
For example, Wytheville cannot afford big ads in travel magazines or on television.
So Grady invites magazine writers, radio and television commentators to events such as the Wytheville Chautauqua Festival in June or its Wine and Cheese Festival on May 15 so they will write or talk about those events and others.
"We use guerrilla marketing techniques, which is you do things as creatively and innovatively as you can that don't cost money," she said. "That's free publicity for us. It just takes organizing."
She said Wytheville tries to host events such as last month's New River Symposium and the summer Bike Virginia visit by cyclists.
"Those things help to bring people in, so we bid for them," she said. "Trade shows have proven to be one of our best marketing tools. There are lots of times when you can close a sale right there."
She would like Wytheville to become "the headquarters of annual meetings. We're getting more and more business, and that's the key. . . . And then we have tons of repeat visitors."
Grady also is president of the 19-county Virginia's Southwest Blue Ridge Highlands, made up of tourism-related businesses throughout the region working together to advertise.
"That strength in numbers is true in selling tourism," she said. "They've got to come together, because we're not going to be able to do it as separate entities. We've got these partnerships now that never existed before in Southwest Virginia. . . . It's an educational process so we can help sell each other."
They also allow tourism packages. Such a package might include lunch aboard the Pioneer Maid on the New River at Claytor Lake State Park and a professionally produced play at Barter Theater that evening in Abingdon.
"That's been a strength, for Wytheville to be in the middle of all that," she said.
Another partnership has been Factory Merchants Mall at Fort Chiswell providing space for the Gateway Visitors Center, which is staffed by employees of Jefferson National Forest and crammed with brochures on points of interest, from the New River Valley west through Southwest Virginia.
"That doesn't matter to a tourist. They don't care that there's a county line there," she said. "That cooperative effort is probably going to be our saving grace."
Grady grew up in Hendersonville, N.C., a mirror image then of what Wytheville is now, she said. Its downtown had a traditional hardware store like Kincer-Miller, a hot-dog lunch counter like Skeeter's, unusual shops of various kinds and other Main Street trappings.
"So I just felt really comfortable in Wytheville," she said. "It was a perfect match for me."
She managed the Hopkins Travel shop on Main Street for a while, sending people all over the world. Now she is bringing people from all over the world to Wytheville.
The area has been perceived as a stopover market for tourism, she said. But more and more visitors are realizing there also are places to shop such as Factory Merchants, Snoopers and other places along interstates 81 and 77, which intersect at Wytheville.
Other things to do include visiting the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area or state parks such as New River Trail, Hungry Mother, Grayson Highlands and Claytor Lake.
Grady likes the outdoors, birds, wildflowers, and the fact that any of them are five minutes from her office in the Municipal Building.
"I enjoy letting people have those experiences. I think we really have a unique environment to share with people," she said. "We take it for granted because we're in it. I feel like we have a lot of treasures."
She has lived in metropolitan areas such as Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Greenville and Spartanburg, S.C., and has visited other cities. She prefers Wytheville.
The town hall houses the Wytheville-Wythe-Bland Chamber of Commerce and Wythe County Joint Industrial Development Commission offices along with Grady's, and their occupants work together to avoid duplication of effort.
"We're putting our money together and we're putting our heads together to come up with something that serves the public and doesn't cost so much," she said.
She and chamber Director Jennifer Jones are working on a brochure, like the ones already placed in every Wytheville motel room - all 1,169 of them. The brochures are in English and French, because Wytheville has tapped into the Canadian tourism market coming south on Interstate 81.
Grady harbors a secret hope that someday an IBM executive or someone comparable will pick up a brochure and decide Wytheville would be a good place for the company's next plant.
"Wytheville is growing and changing very quickly, with those two interstates," she said.
Her job includes keeping citizens informed about what Wytheville Town Council is doing or planning. She did a public relations campaign on the recently launched Wytheville Transit System and provides information on upcoming events such as the town's Wall of Honor dedication planned for May 30.
She also has been innovative in keeping local folks and visitors up to date about what is going on in Wytheville during any particular week. All they have to do is dial 228-3060 and get her recorded message listing activities, attractions and even what is playing on the town's five movie screens.
by CNB