THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603160107
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Chesapeake Business Review
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Compared to its neighbor, resort city Virginia Beach, Chesapeake has never been thought of as a mecca for tourists.
But figures from the city's commissioner of revenue show that more and more travelers, especially business people, are looking to Chesapeake for a comfortable place to lay their heads at night. And restaurants here are thriving.
``Chesapeake is a vibrant, growing city,'' said Commissioner of the Revenue Ray A. Conner. ``We have the highest per-capita income in the Tidewater area, and obviously people are spending money in our restaurants and hotels.''
Food and beverage sales in the city rose from $142.5 million in 1994 to nearly $155 million last year.
And the amount of money city hotels collected in 1995 continued a steady six-year climb to reach nearly $16.5 million, Conner said. That was up more than 9 percent from the 1994 total of $15.1 million.
Commensurate with those gross receipts was an increase in the amount of money the city collected in lodging taxes from hotel guests - nearly $825,000 last year, up from about $754,000 in 1994.
The numbers' climb was helped by the addition of a new 109-room hotel, the Fairfield Inn, a division of Marriott International that opened last year in Greenbrier. The facility joins a corridor of hotels along Greenbrier Parkway, including Holiday Inn and Comfort Suites of Greenbrier.
John W. Whaley, director of economics for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, said the growth in the hotel industry is to be expected in an expanding city.
``This is a good, central location,'' said Whaley, whose offices are in Greenbrier. ``They (Chesapeake hotel guests) can hop very quickly into Downtown Norfolk by taking 464. And they can go into Virginia Beach on 64.''
Whaley said the growth in the hotel industry doesn't necessarily mean people are coming to see the sights in Chesapeake.
``We don't cater in Chesapeake really to tourists,'' he said. ``It's mainly business travel and convention travel, and people visiting residents of Chesapeake. And there is an overflow from the oceanfront when all those rooms are filled.''
Conner said that regardless of customers' motives for coming here, it's good news for the city's budget.
``I'm very pleased with the growth in the revenue drive from the restaurants and hotels in Chesapeake,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Charts
Meals & drink sales
Taxes paid to the city by hotel guests
by CNB