Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 16, 1994 TAG: 9401140055
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Theory 1: Thousands of tourists will be streaming up and down Interstate 81, not to mention U.S. 220, right through the valley. Luring just a small percentage of those travelers off the highways could mean millions in tourism dollars yearly.
Theory 2: Theory 1 is hogwash.
None of the naysayers would expound publicly on their argument that a theme park 200-plus miles away - that's three hours worth of interstate driving - would have virtually no impact on Roanoke's power to draw tourists. Privately, however, they say Disney won't change a thing: Western Virginia is on its own. A news conference last week during which the region's legislators and a Disney representative touted the theme park's benefits to the valley, skeptics say, was little more than an attempt to give Western Virginia a reason to willingly cough up its portion of $75 million in road improvements Disney wants.
Proponents of the first argument don't see it that way. Bob Sheehan, director of new park development for Disney, does a good job of selling the potential advantages of the theme park to Western Virginians.
Disney has proposed to allow Virginia's Division of Tourism to set up an office at Disney's America, the $650 million American history theme park. Once Disney pulls millions of foreign and U.S. tourists out of Washington, D.C., 35 miles west into Virginia, Sheehan says it should take little imagination to sell them on seeing what the rest of the state offers.
"I think there'll be a natural transition to say, `We saw it here, we participated; now let's go see the real thing,'" Sheehan says. "Yes, it will take some entrepreneurial efforts, but we'll bring them to your doorstep."
Still, isn't it a stretch to expect people to drive out to Front Royal, south along the Skyline Drive or I-81, past New Market Battlefield, past Virginia Military Institute and into Roanoke? Del. Clifton Woodrum, D-Roanoke, doesn't think so.
Woodrum sees the Disney theme park as the state's chance to "present a menu" of its historic and natural sites. "If they're there, you got 'em in Virginia - it's our job to lure 'em west," Woodrum says, then jokingly adds a slogan: "Come southwest, young man."
But he says that would be missing half the point; many Disney visitors already will be coming through the Roanoke Valley.
And people won't travel up I-81 from Tennessee, Alabama and Texas just to go to Disney's theme park; they'll take leisurely vacations, stopping at whatever catches their attention along with way. A stopover in Roanoke, with a night at a motel, would put travelers within an easy drive of Disney the next day.
Woodrum says cars headed to Disney would be different from much of the traffic that now passes Roanoke on I-81. "A lot of people do come by, but a lot of times that's commercial traffic," he says. "The commercial traffic," he says. "The commercial traffic doesn't stop, because it's going from point A to point B."
Martha Mackey, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, said anytime the state adds a major gem such as Disney, it gives her another attraction with which she can try to package visits to the valley.
In the case of national conventions, the visitors bureau tries to spice up its sales pitch by adding a pre- or post-convention trip to Richmond, Washington or, perhaps in the future, Disney, Mackey said.
The Roanoke Valley's convention industry contributed nearly $310 million to the economy in 1993, but Mackey said there's no way to project what financial impact Disney will make.
Those who sell the Roanoke Valley as a good location for industry or for sporting events also see Disney as a magnet for the whole state - at least, they say, it can't hurt.
"When you think of Florida, you think of Mickey Mouse," says Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership. "This project, just because of the Disney name, has a whole lot of potential to do a lot for Virginia's visibility and image."
And in direct benefits, some want to get in an early nudge to the General Assembly. If tax revenues start rolling in from Disney at the end of this decade - the project is scheduled to open in 1998 - don't forget everybody paid for those roads.
"I hope the revenue that will be generated from this project will benefit all areas of the state," Doughty says.
That brings in a third, middle-ground, theory on Disney's impact on Western Virginia:
"I don't see that it can hurt a bit," says Carey Harveycutter, the Salem Civic Center's manager. "If something is good for Northern Virginia, that doesn't necessarily means it's a detriment to Western Virginia."
\ Financial data\ For fiscal years ended Sept. 30\ 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989\ Sales (in billions) $8.52 $7.50 $6.11 $5.92 $4.66\ Net income (in millions) $299.8 $816.7 $636.6 $824.0 $703.3\ Income per share (in dollars) $1.23 $1.52 $1.22 $1.58 $1.35\
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