ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 29, 1996 TAG: 9603290059
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
Virginia is for lovers, but outdoor enthusiasts appear to love North Carolina more.
About 24 percent of people who visit North Carolina go primarily to have fun outside. In Virginia, that number is only 15 percent, according to data made public Thursday at a tourism conference in Roanoke.
Though the numbers may suggest Virginia's mountains, streams and shoreline don't measure up to those to the south, state tourism officials beg to differ. They blame a lack of advertising for the lesser popularity of outdoor recreation among visitors to the Old Dominion, and said they have a plan to change that.
The goal, ultimately, is to wring more money from tourists, whose annual spending on items such as lodging, restaurant sales, admissions and campground fees in the state were estimated last summer to be $9.3 billion.
This year, the state Division of Tourism will distribute a proposed Virginia Outdoor Guide worldwide. Leisure Publishing in Roanoke has been hired to publish it. The booklet would be the first in the state devoted to outdoor recreation and a complement to a yearly tourism guide that carries the slogan, "Virginia Is For Lovers."
Out of a beefed-up statewide tourism advertising budget of $9.5 million, the state will spend $1 million to promote outdoor activities, said Pat McMahon, state tourism director.
Thursday's Outdoor Adventure Conference, a third step keyed to greater outdoor awareness, drew more than 200 recreation-oriented people, including river-rafting outfitters, a fly-fishing instructor, campground operators, outdoor guides, innkeepers, government workers and tourism marketing officers. More than a few strode into the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center for the six-hour event in hiking boots.
Roanoke was chosen for the conference because of the region's thriving outdoor life, McMahon said.
To snare the interest of the typical outdoorsman or woman - who state tourism officials say on average is 44 years old and has a household income of $41,200 - those who operate attractions successfully have targeted customers they can best serve, said Mark Brown, the state's chief tourism researcher.
They have found a niche, in other words. Brown urged his audience to study market research materials that describe how people across the country spend their free time.
Here, for example, is how Roanoke-area residents were described in the report by SRDS Inc. of Des Plaines, Ill.:
How we play
The pastime regularly enjoyed by the greatest segment of the local households - 35 percent - is pleasure travel. Despite that, traveling away from home to other parts of the United States is less popular overall here than in more than half of the rest of the nation.
The next most popular pastime, fishing, is enjoyed by 27 percent of households, followed by camping and hiking (23 percent), hunting (22 percent), wildlife and environmental exploration (17 percent) and golf (16 percent). The numbers exceed 100 percent because some households listed more than one pastime.
Though Roanoke residents do a higher than average amount of fishing, we have a long way to go to become No.1 on that measure. The top fishing community is Anchorage, Alaska, where half the residents watch a line.
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