Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 11, 1995 TAG: 9505110098
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The number of people who attended conventions in the Roanoke Valley rose 85 percent to more than 40,000 during fiscal 1993-94, tourism officials said Wednesday.
They spent an estimated $25.2 million on lodging, food and conference registration, the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau said.
The report was timed to coincide with Tourist Appreciation Day, celebrated on Wednesday, and National Tourism Week, which runs through Sunday.
In the Roanoke Valley, officials are making a big push to draw more tourists.
"This is the cleanest industry we can pursue," said Gerald Carter, who heads the visitor bureau's board of directors.
Carter, general manager of Holiday Inn-Tanglewood, was one of the speakers Wednesday morning who advocated tourism expansion as they stood before a antique red-and-black wagon wheel and beneath a model of a satellite at the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
The keynote speaker, Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr., issued a challenge: "I don't believe we have tapped tourism yet" to the fullest degree, he said. "It can be a much bigger business than it is."
Why not rebuild the long-dismantled Incline, a pair of cable-driven cars from the pre-automobile era that hauled folks up and down Mill Mountain? asked Fitzpatrick, who heads the New Century Council, a strategic planning initiative for the region.
Bureau's leaders said they have reason to expect tourism to continue rising. The bureau has hired its second and third salespeople to promote the region to groups planning their conventions, and meetings now can take place in the remodeled Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.
Moreover, the state Division of Tourism will make it a priority for the first time to recommend the Roanoke Valley to tour operators, travel agents and travel writers who ask for suggested places to visit. The state is talking up Roanoke after determining that the bureau has achieved a level of sophistication worthy of its becoming a state-accredited tourism-promotion office.
The accreditation was issued during the past two weeks, said Martha Mackey, the bureau's executive director.
In other tourism-related developments:
Ten dollars buys a nifty blue-and-green poster depicting a hidden image of the Roanoke skyline. Developed by the bureau last year for a successful advertisement in Religious Conference Manager magazine, the image was such a hit, the bureau had 1,500 posters containing the optical illusion printed for sale to the public as a fund-raiser. Contact the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau at 342-6025 for sales information.
E.C. Warren, owner of The Roanoker restaurant, received the bureau's Golden Star Award for 1995-96 for his support of tourism.
Judy Griesenbrock, executive vice president of the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce, received the bureau's Tourism Ambassador Award.
by CNB