DATE: Monday, September 8, 1997             TAG: 9709070013

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   66 lines

HAMPTON ROADS TOURISM NO UNITED PITCH

Below-average rainfall this summer was not good for agriculture in Southeastern Virginia but it was great for tourism. From Williamsburg to the Oceanfront, tourist activity in Hampton Roads was up significantly from last year.

Hurricanes didn't blow in or threaten to blow in to chase visitors away or scare them off, as happened last year. The Atlanta Olympics were not around to keep millions glued to TV sets, which was the case last year.

Tourism was up throughout the United States, not only in Virginia. Favorable weather in most of the country contributed to the overall rise. More of a factor however, was the economy, which is rolling along. Jobs are plentiful, inflation is in check and polls show Americans to be upbeat about their present and future.

But Hampton Roads would not have snared as much of the tourism prize without spirited, savvy promotion of the region's cluster of delights. Through its $3 million-a-year Virginia Waterfront campaign, now in its third year, Norfolk pitched Hampton Roads' attractions to Midwestern and Northern travel markets. Virginia Beach and Williamsburg expanded their productive collaboration on travel packages containing resort-city and Colonial Williamsburg/Busch Gardens offerings. Norfolk and Portsmouth initiated a joint promotion of diversions available in their pedestrian-ferry-linked downtowns. Each Hampton Roads city touted its enticements.

But Hampton Roads' localities have yet to complement such efforts with a regionally supported marketing campaign aimed at transforming Southeastern Virginia into a tourist mecca competitive with Orlando and Branson, Mo.

Yes, Orlando has Disney World at its center and inviting weather year-round. Yes, Branson, Mo., created a mammoth entertainment center out of nothing and teems with visitors.

But Hampton Roads is uniquely endowed with visitor-accessible aircraft carriers and Colonial Williamsburg (which projects 950,000 paying visitors in 1997) plus other wonders.

Only the Virginia Waterfront campaign, underwritten by Norfolk, lures tourists to Hampton Roads by spotlighting the region's plethora of attractions. The campaign has scored remarkable success: In 1996, its second year, Virginia Waterfront elicited 185,000 queries in response to its timely, precisely targeted advertising. That was 35,000 more than expected. Payoff: 55 percent of queries led to visits and $30 million in tourist spending. (Statistics for the 1997 season are not yet complete.)

The Virginia Waterfront promotion is demonstrably effective. More funding for the program - which this year included the acclaimed and well-attended First Annual Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival - would generate more queries, more visitors, more spending. The Virginia Waterfront has proved to be a credible economic-development instrument. Hampton Roads' other localities and tourism-linked enterprises should kick in money to strengthen its punch.

We won't hold our breath, of course. A regional campaign to draw travelers to Hampton Roads was seriously proposed more than a decade ago. Intraregional rivalries doomed the idea. Some business and municipal leaders now recognize that the real competitors for the tourism dollar are not their neighbors in Hampton Roads but more-popular travel destinations elsewhere.

That truth has yet to seep into the skulls of most of the powers-that-be. So the localities continue going their separate ways on tourism, scorning any suggestion that all commit resources to a sustained marketing strategy aimed at the tens of millions of people within a day's drive of Southeastern Virginia or - perish the thought! - adding to the potency of the regional pitch in place.

Dumb.

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