DATE: Saturday, August 30, 1997             TAG: 9708300792

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHEN KIEHL, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   77 lines

TRAVEL CHANNEL FOCUSES ON THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN MARKET

Ron Carrington spent this week in Hampton Roads, looking for the soul of Virginia.

And he had no trouble finding it - at the Woods art collection at Norfolk State University's Wise Gallery, on a dessert tour of Ghent, at the Virginia Marine Science Museum and in the blues sounds of the House of Jazz.

Carrington and his seven-member crew were in town taping two 30-minute shows on Norfolk and Virginia Beach that will air in December or January on the Travel Channel.

The shows will feature more than the typical tourism fare. They're targeted at African-American households earning more than $60,000.

``Virginia's history as it relates to African Americans is pretty important,'' said Bruce Twyman, co-host of the shows and advertising director for the Virginia Tourism Corp. ``With the show we try to find a way to reconnect African Americans to that history while at the same time pointing out those things that everybody would be interested in.''

He said his show, called ``Soul of Virginia,'' is the first of its kind in the country. Cities and states have been slow to recognize the buying power of African Americans, he said.

Blacks spend more than $30 billion per year on tourism, said an official with the Travel Industry Association of America in Washington, D.C., citing some estimates. Definitive numbers are not available, but the TIA does report that the average black traveler spends $405 per trip, compared to $419 per trip for the average traveler.

The TIA also reports that Virginia is the fourth most popular destination in the country for trips made by African Americans. For all travelers, the state ranks ninth as a destination. Virginia hopes to lure even more black tourists here with programs like the ``Soul of Virginia.''

The ``Soul of Virginia'' pilot episode aired six times on the Travel Channel in June. Featuring Petersburg, Richmond, Ashland, Williamsburg and Yorktown, the show ``gave you a taste and a flavor but didn't bore you to death,'' said Carrington, director and producer of the program.

Early indications are that ``Soul of Virginia'' is having an effect. The pilot has generated 500 calls to a toll-free number and about 100 letters, Carrington said.

His task of finding attractions for African Americans was made easier by an increase, in recent years, in programming relating to black history and culture.

The Hampton Visitors Bureau, for example, has produced a 24-page booklet called ``Family Tree,'' a guide to the city's African-American heritage. Hampton also placed advertisements in Ebony magazine and developed literature and videos targeting African-American markets, said Hampton tourism director Diann Stutz.

And at Colonial Williamsburg, the Department of African-American Interpretation and Presentations was created in 1988 to develop programs and attractions depicting how blacks lived in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Programming has increased since the department's founding and now includes sites such as the Carter's Grove Slave Quarter, which shows how slave laborers lived, worked and were treated on a plantation.

``We are doing much more of those programs now,'' said Lorraine Brooks, Colonial Williamsburg public relations manager. ``We are also trying to weave the slave and free black experience into all the attractions.''

Brooks said the goal is to represent life in Colonial times more accurately. She noted that during the 18th century half of Williamsburg's population was black.

While the programs may particularly attract black tourists, Brooks said, they are also drawing more tourists overall. Producers of ``Soul of Virginia'' also expect to attract other minorities and whites.

``The programs will be general enough for everybody to have an interest in them,'' Twyman said.

The programs cost about $40,000 each and are funded by the Virginia Tourism Corp. and the cooperative advertising budget each city has with the state, Twyman said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

VICKI CRONIS/ The Virginian-Pilot

"Soul of Virginia" co-hosts Bruce A. Twyman and May-Lily Lee ham it

up for the camera during filming for a 30-minute segment being done

for the Travel Channel at Nauticus in Norfolk

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