Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 14, 1994 TAG: 9408220043
SECTION: DISCOVER PAGE: 49 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELISSA CURTIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
These services, as well as a long list of others, are available for both visitors and local residents at the Roanoke Valley Visitor Information Center in downtown Roanoke, open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Catherine Fox, tourism development manager, said a lot of people are hesitant to stop at the Visitor Information Center because they are not aware of what it has to offer.
"We'll do anything from mailing postcards to driving people to bus stations- whatever we can do," Fox said.
The center, which offers all of its services free but accepts donations, can give a traveler information on anything from lodging and restaurants to golf courses and shopping centers, as well as directions to places all over the area.
Also available at the Visitor Information Center are free state maps and directional maps of the major thoroughfares in downtown Roanoke, an atlas, a list of mileages from the area to anywhere in the United States or Canada, telephone books, a video on the different attractions and sites of Roanoke, and updated events calendars.
Other services at the center include use of public bathrooms and water fountains, coupons for local attractions and events, a bike rack in the center foyer, and free granola bars for hungry travelers.
The Visitor Information Center, which just had its highest-attended month ever in May with 5,144 visitors, served 39,000 visitors last year, and Fox expects this year will surpass that number.
A reservation service and selling souvenirs, including postcards and stamps, are on Fox's agenda of services she would like to add to the center's list. The reservation service would consist of a telephone with automatic dial to area hotels and motels available for visitors to use to make reservations.
Fox said she hopes the center, which has a staff of nine paid employees and 25 volunteer workers, will be able to hire a full-time employee behind the main desk sometime in the near future in order to achieve consistency in the answers of visitors' questions. In the meantime, Fox said the center is always looking for more volunteers.
With close to 300 different brochures in the center's lobby advertising local events and attractions, a traveler should not be at a loss for something to do in the Roanoke Valley.
But Fox said not everyone would believe that.
"A lot of people in Roanoke don't think there's anything to do here. They ask 'Why do we have a Visitor Center?' I counter that with 'Why did we have almost 40,000 people come through our doors last year,'" Fox said.
Martha Mackey, executive director of the center, agrees.
"People think there's nothing to do here," she said. "But in fact there's a lot going on."
For more information on the Roanoke Valley Visitor Information Center, call 1-800-635-5535. Local residents should call 342-5535.
by CNB