ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 12, 1997 TAG: 9702120066
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
TOURISM EMPLOYS about 4,000 people in the area and added about $312 million to the economy in 1995.
The region's new tourism booster proved he has a key qualification for his job - a soft spot for the Roanoke Valley.
Dave Kjolhede, who started Feb.1 as head of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, said Tuesday he admires the area for having natural beauty, a variety of hotels, event centers and fun things to do.
The presence of a minor league baseball team, the Salem Avalanche, "is great," Kjolhede said at his first public appearance, a get-acquainted session with the news media.
"It's just a nice little jewel, if you will, that we need to get out and promote," said the new executive director.
Travelers spent $312 million in the valley in 1995, up 4.3 percent from the year before, according to the most recent estimates. The state estimated more than 4,000 Roanoke area residents work at jobs serving tourists.
Kjolhede, 47, is charged with making those figures grow by attracting more people to fill hotel and meeting rooms, to fill tables in restaurants and to buy tickets to attractions. He will have a $700,000 annual budget, most of it from Roanoke and Roanoke County taxpayers.
Kjolhede replaces Martha Mackey, who resigned. The nonprofit bureau paid Mackey about $60,000 per year; what Kjolhede will get has not been disclosed.
Roanoke is a tourism promoter's dream, he said. It offers the most complete tourism menu of any place he has worked during 25 years in the tourism business.
In his last job, promoting a German-style village and top Iowa tourism spot called the Amana Colonies, the amenities available brought mainly pleasure travelers. Before that, as leader the Grand Forks, N.D., convention and visitor bureau, he courted conventioneers and saw few tourists. He said he admires Roanoke's "better balance" as it draws both people attending meetings and vacationers.
Two things he made work in his previous job may be strategies to explore here, he said. First, he expanded the reach of the Amana Colonies' marketing campaign from 70 miles to 300 miles. He couldn't say what changes might be made to the Roanoke Valley's tourism marketing, which is focused regionally but includes giving the area some limited national exposure, but Kjolhede speculated that more intensive marketing in the the Eastern U.S. could pay results.
Second, he said he duplicated a logo for the Amana Colonies on every brochure and advertisement distributed, to increase name-recognition. In the "competitive marketplace we're in, every edge we can get in terms of setting ourselves apart works to our advantage," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: JANEL RHODA STAFF. Dave Kjolhede, the new director ofby CNBThe Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he wants to
get the area some national exposure, especially along the East
Coast. color.