THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 22, 1994 TAG: 9407200095
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
The face you see on television may be familiar.
Portsmouth folks volunteered as actors and extras for hours of shooting television commercials and a promotional film for the city.
Portsmouth Convention and Visitors Bureau director Keith Toler said he begged and borrowed everything he could, including human beings, to cut the cost of the filming.
The Elizabeth River Ferry took a camera crew down river to the Naval Shipyard and almost got confiscated.
``They made a mistake and got too close to the shipyard,'' Toler said. ``They crossed that invisible line.''
Security guards immediately went into action. As it turned out, the Navy had received a letter notifying them of the shoot, so the camera crew was not hauled off to the brig.
The 30-second commercials promote Portsmouth by day and by night. They are being run 10 times a week on WAVY-TV, Channel 10, during weather reports and also on the Weather Channel and the Williamsburg Vacation Channel that is beamed to hotels on the Peninsula.
The bureau has contracted for $35,000 worth of television time through Labor Day.
``I call it parasite marketing,'' Toler said. ``Virginia Beach and Williamsburg spend a lot of money to get visitors to the region and we spend a little to get them to Portsmouth while they're here.''
Toler said production costs were about $54,000. The camera crew worked seven full days and included the Seawall Art Show and the Seawall Festival. Last weekend's Cock Island Race was filmed for inclusion in the seven-minute promotion film that will be sent out to groups considering visits here.
To cushion the blow to the tourism budget, the Portsmouth Partnership contributed $25,000 and the city's Economic Development Department, which will use the film, put $5,000 to its promotion budget toward the project.
Even with the contributions, Toler must spend a large portion of his $90,000 promotion budget to make the project work.
``Everyone says Portsmouth has an image problem and this is one way to start changing that,'' Toler said. ``Everyone talks about it but nothing gets done. I'm doing something about it.''
Toler is right. By taking the tack that the problem is image, not reality, and touting all the real and good things about the city, he is making headway.
But he has to scramble for dollars to pay for action.
Why not earmark the lodging tax to pay for tourism promotion? Last year the city collected about $200,000, an amount that would more than double his $90,000 promotion budget.
Other cities do it. Although the practice is more widespread in other states, the Virginia cities of Arlington, Danville, Hopewell and Lynchburg have committed lodging taxes to tourism.
It's a proven fact that regular income for promotion increases tourism, according to Barbara Janney of Alexandria, president of the Virginia Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus.
``More cities are looking at it because they are seeing how money gets plowed back into the economy from tourism,'' Janney said. ``As they see revenues (from other sources) drop, more are looking to tourism to help the economy.''
Portsmouth's economy certainly could and should be benefiting from tourism. It has great history, a wonderful waterfront and a lot of genuine attractions. But people don't know about them unless they're told and a lot of visitors get the message from promotions.
Even economic development could benefit from commitment of the lodging tax to promotion.
If developers knew that the city planned to spend a certain amount on tourist and convention promotion each year, they might be more eager to build hotels to accommodate more visitors. At some point, the industry would begin to feed on itself with more rooms generating more money generating more demand for more rooms, et cetera.
Between now and budget time next spring, city officials need to think more about designating the lodging tax for a use that would justify its existence. by CNB