Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510160007
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-20 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Spurred by downtown merchants worried that the incentive plan could take business from the town, the Greater Blacksburg Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution against the plan at its Aug. 5 meeting.
Tech officials say they'll keep bringing events to the smaller on-campus Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center.
But one Tech official also asked: Is the town doing all it should to attract conference business itself instead of relying on the university?
Blacksburg does what it can with its limited resources, says town Manager Ron Secrist. He points to events such as the Tour duPont, the cavers' convention this summer and the Family Motor Coach Association's 1993 convention, which drew 10,000 people.
Secrist says the best way to recruit business is sharing resources, an approach used by New River Valley planning and economic development officials to lure business and industry.
Larry Linkous, chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, says it may be time to turn the same kind of attention to the retail sector.
He supports the idea of a visitor's center for the New River Valley, possibly near Blacksburg once the new Alternate 3A bypass is built.
"I think we're going to have to start looking at tourism and retail business as a favorable tax benefit for the county." The county and the chamber should work together, Linkous said, but he admitted money has been tight.
The region could model its visitor's center and conference recruitment after the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau - albeit on a smaller scale, he said.
The Roanoke bureau received more than $600,000 this year from several Roanoke Valley localities to cover operating expenses, according to the bureau's executive director, Martha Mackey.
The visitor's center operates seven days a week and advertises in national convention, leisure and travel magazines. The bureau's conference sales staff attends five to eight trade shows a year and visits cities such as Atlanta and Washington in search of organizations with meeting and lodging needs.
Aggressive marketing is all part of the conference and tourism industry where Roanoke competes with the likes of Virginia Beach, Miami and Louisville for business, Mackey said.
"If you ever ask the question, 'If we build it, will they come?'" she said, the answer is "No. You have to bring them here."
The bureau's impact can be measured in tax revenue, up $2 million over a three-year period.
Bringing visitors and conferences in year after year requires advance planning - sometimes years in advance, Mackey said.
To attract meetings, though, the location has to offer more than conference facilities, and one complaint about Blacksburg has been its heavily student-oriented retail mix downtown.
Bob Denton, head of communication studies at Tech, says there's not enough for adults to do downtown. The bars are crowded with students, he says, and there's nowhere to buy simple necessities such as tube socks without driving to Christiansburg.
Logistics is another stumbling block for Blacksburg.
"It's easier to get people to Roanoke than it is to get them to Blacksburg," Denton said.
Once in Blacksburg, there's nowhere to park. Blacksburg merchants aren't being realistic when they say they can handle large conferences," Denton said.
He's putting together conference proposals for two professional organizations he belongs to. The plans involve Roanoke and the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, not Blacksburg.
The kinds of conferences he sees in Roanoke never would have been suggested for Blacksburg. Instead, he thinks, a successful Hotel Roanoke could be good for Blacksburg.
"The more Tech becomes visible through the Roanoke center, the more activity will be drawn to Blacksburg for overflow and smaller meetings for more specialized groups."
by CNB