Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 27, 1994 TAG: 9403010183
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT LINDSTROM
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
My aversion to Interstate Roadkill Cuisine led us off I-81 and into Scranton, Pa., for lunch. The accessible tourist kiosk encouraged the diversion with the promise that the side trip would not lead to a confusing labyrinth in a strange city.
A profusion of highly noticeable signs directed me to my destination, and later back to the northbound road.
This happy stop was in a town synonymous with unemployment, desolation and decay. But everyone I met celebrated my visit.
The excellent lunch gave us time to review the regional attractions promoted at the kiosk. Skiing, boating, history, bed-and-breakfasts, hiking, all were presented in such a way as to make us want to return, which we shall.
In Geneva, N.Y., the first establishment one sees is the tourist center, with bountiful parking and information. The staff there listened to what we thought we wanted to see, and then presented a map to the options before us.
As absolute strangers to Halifax, N.S., we approached the city on the ferry. Again, the signs for visitor information directed us efficiently to the tourist center. There we found numerous printed guides that noted reassuring landmarks for each step of several self-directed tours of the city.
Enticing schedules of Halifax's constantly changing events made it easy to entertain ourselves, but difficult to leave. If only we could stay two more days until the Buskars Convention was in full swing, or five more days until the beginning of the Halifax Jazz Festival.
These pleasant experiences led me to reflect on how tourists to our region may compare their visits.
We do have an attractive tourist information facility staffed with amiable and informed personnel. Its disadvantage is that one must be a native with historic roots in order to find it.
If, by some blind stroke of vacationing luck, the tourist finds the Visitor's Center on the City Market, parking near it requires such esoteric Roanowledge (the mastery of arcane Roanoke facts) that even permanent residents of brief tenure are unable to do it.
The wonders of Western Virginia are hidden to the tourist because of a protective parochialism that keeps Roanoke from telling too much about Warm Springs or Blacksburg, for fear that the visitor will not stay in the Roanoke Valley. If one can successfully wade through competing tourist brochures, an entertaining trip might ensue; but struggling through the research may use too much time to leave for fun.
I offer improvements to create a viable tourist industry:
Create a tourist center that can be found without the aid of native guide, or mark every step of the way one that a visitor might take to get to the present center.
Create tourist parking places similar to handicapped parking, available only to those cars with a green tourist ticket hanging from the mirror.
Once visitors get to the center, offer them levels of services:
a. Two-hour tours to meals or shopping.
b. Six-hour tours to destinations of their choice (hiking, fishing, boating, art viewing, special events).
c. Two-day tours (``Small Towns, Big Treasures: The Buchanan-to-Clifton-Forge Tour," or "The Views and Stews Tour: Hiking and Dining" in various locations).
d. One-week trout-fishing vacations to streams, bed-and-breakfasts and eateries throughout the region.
Customize trips by feeding visitors' questionnaire responses into a computer program that will pinpoint activities calculated to match the visitors' interests.
Train local residents and retailers in the skills necessary to wear "Ask Me!" buttons and to give accurate visitor-information in a friendly way.
Help visitors discover the region the same way we did, from each other. Have locals and visitors write narratives of their favorite adventures. Make it a contest. Celebrate our wealth of Roanowledge.
Steal an idea from Denmark: Instead of selling those unclaimed bicycles at the police department, paint them a "tourist" color and check them out to visitors.
Steal an idea from Halifax: Don't let a temperate weekend pass without some sort of festival at Elmwood Park.
Make marketing materials that demand a response. On each promotional piece include the basic questionnaire blank. If potential visitors begin to choose on paper from among the region's many activities, they will more likely choose the region for their vacation spot.
Encourage local residents to take mini-adventures: Plan a day for locals to spend in the market area, equipping them with maps and self-tour suggestions, or offer a Saturday lark in Blacksburg with a vacationer's guide to the daunting Tech campus.
If post-industrial Scranton and pre-separatist Halifax can aspire to be tourist meccas, then with some preparation and cooperation, we can attract vacationers to Southwest Virginia.
We've got so much more to offer, and it'll be fun to share it.
\ Scott Lindstrom is the applied-communications coordinator at the Bedford Educational Center.
by CNB