|
|
|
The
Commonwealth
of
Virginia
spends millions of dollars per year attracting tourists
to the state. With a $16.6 million budget, the Virginia
Tourism Authority (VTA, also known as the Virginia
Tourism Corporation) advertises around the world,
prepares travel packages, funds regional tourism efforts
and contributes funds to private entities through a
cooperative advertising program.
All
of this activity is appropriate, as tourism is big
business in the Commonwealth. In 2001, traveler spending
generated $12.9 billion in revenue, making tourism the
third largest employer in the Commonwealth, employing
over 211,000 people. That same year, the tourism
industry contributed travel taxes to the Commonwealth of
$652 million. On average, travelers spend $35.3 million
per day on lodging, meals, gasoline, shopping,
transportation, admissions and other services.
Tourism
is a mainstay of
Virginia
’s
economy. The Gilmore administration made tourism one of
six priorities in its strategic plan for economic
development, while the current administration lists it
as one of seven broad goals as it holds meetings around
the state to prepare its strategic plan. The
Commonwealth’s tourism assets are world-renowned.
Efforts to stimulate travel should be rewarded with the
approach of 2007, when Virginia
will
celebrate the quadricentennial of Jamestown’s
founding.
What
a shame it is, then, that the Commonwealth’s visitor
facilities are in such abysmal shape. Visitor
facilities, comprising the state’s 10 welcome centers
and 31 rest areas, need serious improvement. During the
four years I served in Commerce and Trade, we received a
steady stream of letters from tourists complaining about
our visitor facilities. Can you imagine the thoughts of
a first-time visitor coming to Richmond,
spending a few days viewing our historic sites and then
driving to
Williamsburg
on
I-64 and finding the rest area closed! Is that sending a
“traveler friendly” message to visitors?
How
can Virginia, which is considered a growth market, hope to capture a
larger share of repeat visitors when we can’t extend
visitors this basic service? Think of the opportunities
we are missing to showcase our Commonwealth,
particularly when more travelers are driving than ever
before.
For
three years, I served as Chairman of then-Governor
Jim
Gilmore’s visitor facilities task force. Among the
things we noted were the dramatic variation in the
amenities offered at visitor facilities throughout the
Commonwealth. For example, some rest areas have
well-designed picnic areas, while many have no picnic
facilities at
all.
Other inadequacies include poor parking, improper
signage, limited technology and security, obsolete water
and heating/cooling systems and understaffed and
inadequately trained personnel. When you look at some of
our competitor states, the deficiencies are downright
embarrassing.
For
an explanation, look at how the facilities are funded.
Rest areas are controlled and maintained by the Virginia
Department of Transportation; welcome
centers are controlled and maintained by VDOT and
operated in part by VTA. When faced with the choice
between paving a road or maintaining a rest area, VDOT
has made the understandable decision to pave the road. Moreover,
VDOT and its private maintenance contractors have taken
a “bricks and mortar” approach to visitor facilities
-- is the bathroom clean, is the sidewalk cracked? -- as
opposed to a visitor-friendly approach considering
things like flowers, covered phones, scenic views and
the like. Other
reasons are historic: In the 1960s, VDOT made a decision
to build the interstates with a narrow footprint, which
ruled out the option of building visitor facilities in
the median, as many other states do, without totally
redoing the roads.
Our
task force accomplished much, but we were hampered by
existing funding mechanisms and policies. For example,
we managed to update
certain visitor facilities, including the I-95 Carson
rest area and the recently completed I-85 Bracey Welcome
Center. We also developed Virtual Visitor Centers,
state-of-the-art computerized travel
information/reservation centers. Equipped
with high-speed internet access and touch screens, the
web-based facilities provide current weather, traffic
and attraction information. Visitors to the centers can
make hotel reservations and book golf tee times online.
We
planned to place Virtual Visitor Centers in each of the
state’s welcome centers and rest areas, and in local
and regional visitor centers. But there is an unhappy
ending to this story: Renovations of existing facilities and the deployment of the Virtual Visitor Centers
ran into the same problem that faces all governmental
issues today – lack of funding.
While renovations of our visitor facilities are still
occurring, they are taking place at an incredibly slow
pace.
The
solution to this problem is, pardon the cliché,
“outside the box.” We should find a way to open up
the visitor facilities to private investment. Why should
Connecticut
host McDonald’s on I-95 but Virginia
offer vending machines with stale potato chips? Why
should Maryland
visitors enjoy designer coffee or Sbarro’s pizza but
Virginia
tourists settle for pizza-flavored crackers and vending
machine coffee? As
an example of what might be possible, a large tourist
development is underway right next to Interstate 95 in
the Fredericksburg area. Why not extend the development
right into the welcome center?
We don’t have restaurants on our interstates today (but
many other states do) because arcane federal rules
regarding toll roads grand-fathered certain states but
not Virginia.
The Commonwealth should use its federal legislative
muscle to get those rules changed. The General Assembly
should amend the Public Private Education and
Infrastructure Act or the Public Private Transportation
Act to allow for investment in the visitor facilities.
Can you imagine the excitement that would be generated
at an auction to build a visitor facility?
If ever an area was ripe for a public private partnership,
it is the Commonwealth’s visitor centers. Allowing
private investment would have the added benefit of
freeing VDOT funds now used to maintain these inadequate
facilities. By getting the private sector involved, we
could turn out visitor facilities from a sore spot for
tourism into a major attraction.
-- September 16, 2002
Joshua
N. Lief, a Secretary of Commerce and Trade during
the Gilmore administration, is an attorney at
Sands Anderson Marks & Miller in Richmond. He
can be reached by e-mail at jlief@sandsanderson.com
|
