
DATE: Tuesday, May 6, 1997                  TAG: 9705060301

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY AKWELI PARKER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   95 lines

TEAMWORK EQUALS TOURISM EXPERTS AT A NORFOLK FORUM AGREE: PAROCHIALISM CAN COST AN AREA VISITORS.

Some of the tourism industry's biggest guns gathered at the Waterside Convention Center on Monday to speak on the impact of the region's $2.5 billion tourism business and its future.

Their message was a familiar one: Abandon the inter-city parochialism and jockeying if you want to grow as a tourist mecca.

``We have to get people to give up their boundaries,'' said Jack Halloran, manager of aviation marketing for Florida's Jacksonville Port Authority.

``By not working together, you're missing out on a great opportunity.''

The Southeastern Virginia Tourism Summit included remarks by Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim and Virginia first lady Susan Allen, and discussions on such topics as competing in a global market, developing new marketing techniques, forging public-private partnerships, and luring visitors with ``world class shopping.''

Harnessing technology - through e-mail, websites and perhaps an interactive combination of the World Wide Web and television - will be critical to snagging today's smarter, younger, higher-income tourists, concluded the summit's ``executives roundtable.''

What's more, those tourists increasingly want hands-on ``experiences,'' instead of sitting in a tour bus, said Janice McIlwain, president of the National Tour Association.

``They want to `life-see,' not sight-see,'' said McIlwain.

``It's a much more active market,'' she said, noting a boom in so-called ``ecotourism,'' which has participants out hiking, rafting or watching nature.

The lodging industry stands to see great changes as a result of technology as well, said John W. Marriott III, vice president of Marriott's mid-Atlantic region.

``Our e-mail inquiries have tripled in the past 90 days,'' he said.

Although analysts predicted the rise of video teleconferencing would erode hotel occupancy, Marriott said hotels today are doing as well as ever.

``We need to use technology to become more efficient,'' he said, but in the end it will always come down to the basics.

``We're in the hospitality industry, and it's service and personal attention that make the difference.''

With the United States losing market share to tourist hot spots like Spain and France, this is a critical time for the nation's travel industry, said Bill Norman, president of the Travel Industry Association of America.

The good news: The number of foreign tourists continues to rise, Norman said. ``No matter how you measure, the growth of the international segment of our business has been and continues to be dramatic,'' he said.

Between 1986 and 1996, the industry recorded a 40 percent increase in domestic travel. During the same period, the number of international visitors went up 73 percent, Norman said.

The bad news: The United States' piece of the international travel pie is shrinking, Norman said.

``We thought `all we have to do is be out there and people are going to come,' '' Norman said. International tourists need to be courted even more aggressively to avoid losing them to other countries, he said.

For visitors who fly here, their first and last impressions about the region will be made at the airport, said Susan K. Clark, president of Diversified Marketing Group in Richmond. When they walk through the jetway, they want to be greeted by a well-lit facility, good food and friendly faces, she said.

Whether those visitors are Fortune 500 executives or foreign tourists, ``they don't care about this government or this city or this CVB (convention and visitors bureau),'' Halloran said.

What they do care about is efficient, friendly service and easy access to the region's attractions, he said.

One way to nab a bigger slice of the domestic and international market is by promoting MacArthur Center as a site for ``world class shopping,'' said representatives of the Taubman Co., the Michigan-based retail development giant.

``Tourism is shopping,'' said Rosemary McCormick, president of McCormick Marketing and former marketing director for Mall of America - Taubman's megamall in Minneapolis.

``Tourists are power shoppers,'' she said, noting that they spend four to 10 times more per excursion than residents.

The company will use a full-court press marketing strategy to promote the center as a five-star tourism attraction both here and overseas, said Sheila Armstrong, Taubman's manager of regional marketing.

MEMO: Virginia Waterfront's National Tourism Week continues today and

Thursday with seminars and programs. For information, call the Norfolk

Convention and Visitors Bureau at 664-6620. ILLUSTRATION: SOUTHEASTERN VIRGINIA TOURISM SUMMIT

[Color Photos]

BETH BERGMAN

The Virginian-Pilot

John W. Marriott III

Arnica Mulder of Chesapeake Skydive Adventures listens to a speech

Monday by John W. Marriott III of Marriott Hotels. She was

attending the Southeastern Virginian Tourism Summitt at the

Waterside Convention Center in Norfolk. KEYWORDS: TOURISM