ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 1996               TAG: 9610010054
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-8  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF 

ROANOKE REGIONAL ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Travel on the Virginia portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway and in the scenic highway's Roanoke district continued to decline in August. The road's administrators reported 90,267 vehicles entered the parkway in the Roanoke district during the month. That was down 7.7 percent from 97,837 in July, down 12.9 percent from 103,706 a year ago and down 21.3 percent from 114,782 two years ago.

In Virginia, travel was off 3 percent from 837,656 in August 1995 to 812,914 in August of this year. For the entire parkway, the number of visitors was up 16.9 percent over the year because of a 30 percent increase in North Carolina.

LENGTH: Short :   24 lines
ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC:  21 charts. color.