Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994                   TAG: 9411160146
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                 LENGTH: Medium

TOURISM ORGANIZATION RELIES ON COOPERATION AMONG AREAS

``We're not a King's Dominion or a Disney World,'' said Lori Ward shortly after being elected president of Virginia's Southwest Blue Ridge Highlands Inc. Success in marketing Southwest Virginia to visitors has come through the joint efforts of many small tourism businesses in this group, she said.

Susan Allen, wife of Gov. George Allen, agreed. ``You all are a role model for the rest of the state. I hope you realize that,'' she said in her keynote speech at the regional meeting.

Allen asked the tourism businesses to help Virginia in another cause: hunger relief.

She said Southwest Virginia's 23-county food bank, one of six regional banks in the state, is short of food at a time when one in eight Virginia families is experiencing hunger. She urged the organization to help in ways ranging from volunteering at a food bank to sending food left from banquets to food distribution centers.

``All of these small measures will really help us overcome a large problem in Virginia,'' she said.

Allen said Southwest Virginia's natural beauty and outdoor recreation are natural tourist draws. She said she and Gov. Allen plan to spend part of their Thanksgiving holiday in the region attending the Barter Theatre in Abingdon.

Ward, who is Barter's marketing director, is the fourth president for Virginia's Southwest. The others have been Richard Sorenson, dean of the Pamplin School of Business at Virginia Tech; Jim Whiten, manager of the Duffield Ramada Inn; and Kitty Grady, Wytheville's public information director.

Tabatha Mullins, director of the Virginia Coalfield Regional Tourism Development Authority, is the new vice president, and Steve Galyean, executive director of the Galax-Carroll-Grayson Chamber of Commerce, is treasurer.

Planning district representatives are Charles Whitescarver, New River; Ed Yates, Mount Rogers; Beth Leonard, Cumberland Plateau; and Frank DeForce, Lenowisco.

Ward got into the tourism field six years ago, when she began working for the Washington County Chamber of Commerce. She has worked for Barter for several years. ``I wouldn't be standing here if Barter Theatre wasn't committed to tourism,'' she told the organization.

In the coming year, she said, she would like to increase the group's membership base, and thereby its revenue from dues; update its tourism marketing plan; coordinate efforts with state agencies where feasible; pool efforts for marketing programs; and develop separate brochures for outdoor recreation, the arts, historic points of interest, places to dine and other items of visitor interest.

She said a visitors' information center being planned at Factory Merchants Mall in Fort Chiswell will have a grand opening in May during Virginia Tourism Week. It will be one of the most modern in the state, with computerized information available.

A center has been maintained at the mall for years as a cooperative project of the tourism organization, the mall and the U.S. Forest Service. The new center will be updated and expanded.