Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993 TAG: 9305100280
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHLEEN A. MAGENNIS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Travelers are becoming more environmentally conscious. The potential ecotourism market is huge, consisting of at least 43 million American adults. And sitting in Roanoke's back yard may be the prototype for such future tourism attractions: Virginia's Exlore Park.
For the travel industry, ecotourism is important because the environment is the travel industry's base product. The tangible products and services sold by the travel industry depend upon the environment's protection.
Yet the mere presence of large numbers of tourists can alter the setting that attracted them in the first place. This is the challenging balancing act we seek to master. Both business and government can help ensure the protection and enhancement of the very resources that contribute so much to the travel experience.
The growth in the number of "green" consumers and travelers has stimulated businesses to respond to this target audience with an avalanche of image positioning, from changing their advertising and promotion to changing their services and practices. What we see is a new corporate strategy in the travel industry that pays attention to the "double bottom line" by placing equal value on ecological and fiscal considerations. To help develop this "double bottom line" we need to have environmentalists and historic preservationists working closely with the purveyors of travel products and services.
Specifically, we need the help of those who are leaders in the protection and promotion of our unusually rich heritage of natural beauty and fish- and wildlife-based outdoor recreation. It must be a partnership between environmentalists and economic developers to accomplish mutual and collective goals.
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is developing plans to coordinate with other state agencies to make hunting, fishing, boating, wildlife watching and related outdoor recreation a cornerstone of the commonwealth's rural economic-development strategy. The development of our outdoor recreation programs is an important avenue for rural development. And with the increased public interest in outdoor recreation and the excellent access afforded by Virginia's tremendous road system, we have an opportunity to develop new tourism venues that can be controlled so as to not overuse the land and resources.
We already have a significant outdoor-recreation industry that is off to a good start. Outdoor-recreation visitors spend each year spend more than $1.5 billion while involved in these activities in Virginia. They spend almost as much in the purchase of special clothing, cameras, weapons, ammunition, fishing gear, camping gear, off-road vehicles, boats . . . the list goes on and on.
This economic activity can be expanded, which leads me to what's happening in ecotourism in Virginia: Explore Park near Roanoke.
Explore is a project dedicated to the heightened awareness and appreciation of Virginia's wilderness, and to inspiring the search for environmental stability. On 1,300 secluded acres just a few miles down the road from Roanoke, where the Roanoke River cuts through the Blue Ridge Mountains, a pioneer town, a wilderness-park zoo, a Native American park and an environmental-education center will give life to history - ancient and modern, natural and human. It will be a national center for ecotourism.
Though it has had some difficult days, its new leaders are forging ahead. They have the attention of the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Right now, Explore Park is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on an endangered-species-recovery project.
Explore is already proving to be an important educational facility for thousands of school children to learn about animal and plant life and experience the natural environment. I know - because I was there and saw their faces and listened to their questions.
Explore will serve as a field-research station for high-school, college and university faculty and students. It will be a location for leadership-development projects of nationwide influence and worldwide application, involving leaders of local, state and federal government agencies, private corporations and nonprofit organizations.
Among its many contributions, Explore will open the eyes of millions of tourists to the global environmental crisis and to the rich cultural and natural heritage of Virginia.
I wish that I could say that all the dreams for Explore Park were a reality. But it will still take extensive funding and development to bring it up to its full potential, at which point it will truly be a world-class ecotourism theme park.
We know that ecotourism provides a way to promote Virginia's indigenous attractions. We know that it provides new opportunities for discovery, appreciation of diversity and cultural growth. We know that ecotourism can be a catalyst for economic development. We know that ecotourism helps to maintain an area's cultural values.
Sustained growth of this specialty market can bring a community like Roanoke many economic, social and environmental advantages. It offers small-scale, rurally focused, locally based employment and potentially high revenue-yield per visitor, which makes it attractive for commercial and public-sector development. But developing and promoting ecotourism requires careful planning.
I believe we are poised at a crossroads. Virginia has a unique opportunity to establish itself as an environmental leader and ecotourism powerhouse, rather than a reluctant follower. These ideas - and our future as a commonwealth - are dependent not upon how government does its business or industry does its business. Our success, rather, is dependent upon how well government and business work together.
Cathleen A. Magennis is Virginia secretary of economic development.
by CNB