ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 17, 1996 TAG: 9612170035
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
SALEM'S NEW VISITOR CENTER received its first rush of visitors last weekend when about 150 people dropped by at the time of the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.
Salem's shops and other tourist draws want to step from the shadow of Roanoke's limelight.
Salem opened a visitor center this month to promote its own restaurants, golfing, shops, sights and parks. It's in the Salem Civic Center and is the hub of a Salem tourism campaign unlike anything the city has undertaken before, said Carey Harveycutter, civic facilities director.
Along with the center, Salem is advertising itself in magazines as a vacation stop. One ad, to appear in Mid-Atlantic and Southern Living, says: "She loves antiques. He loves golf They love Salem."
A new running slogan for the ads and a crop of new brochures says, "Salem. Put Yourself in Our Place."
Topping it off, there's a a toll-free information hot line, (888) VA SALEM.
The visitor center's receptionist, Debbie Hite, said she would design a day in Salem around shopping and recreation.
"I would send them down Main Street through all the antique shops and craft shops and other stores," she said. "I could also recommend Longwood Park."
In the past, Salem has looked largely to the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitor Bureau for promotion.
Dissatisfied, City Council earlier this year cut its annual contribution to the regional bureau from $25,000 to $5,000. Of that, $4,000 is earmarked for the Miss Virginia Pageant, leaving $1,000 as Salem's current annual grant to support the bureau's valleywide visitor center in downtown Roanoke and its programs to attract business and leisure travelers and conventions to the area. The regional bureau will operate on $700,000, 71 percent from Roanoke taxpayers. Most of the rest comes from other localities, membership dues and sales.
Salem's Visitor Center and marketing campaign has a $50,000 budget to spend by the middle of next summer. Officials don't expect to spend all of it, however.
The money that used to go to Roanoke has been redirected. In a room with new burgundy carpet at the Salem Civic Center, the walls are covered with racks of brochures about things to do in the region and state. The office received its first rush of visitors last week when an estimated 150 people dropped by about the time of the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, college football's Division III championship game, at Salem Stadium, Harveycutter said.
To help the public find the visitor center, signs point the way from Interstate 81. The Virginia Tourism Corp. will recommend the new Salem center to tourists.
Harveycutter said Salem's visitor center will supplement information available to tourists and isn't intended to compete with the center in Roanoke. The two centers stock many of the same brochures, as well as each other's.
Harveycutter, whose office is down the hall, listened Monday as Hite described the itinerary she would recommend to a visitor; he then added his suggestions: historic homes, art on exhibit at Roanoke College, and the Appalachian Trail, just 15 minutes north.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON Staff. 1. Debbie Hite, Salem Civic Centerby CNBsecretary, doubles as attendant of the new Salem Visitor's Center
inside the civic center. 2. This ad will be running in the
January/February issue of Blue Ridge Country magazine. color.