Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 21, 1990 TAG: 9005210060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The state's use of $4 million in state funds to promote select areas and attractions to out-of-state visitors has fostered widespread dissatisfaction among segments of Western Virginia's tourist industry.
The area's leaders have pointed to so-called "name brand" tourism promotion as especially unfair. Mentioning the names of well-known attractions like Kings Dominion amusement park, Busch Gardens, Colonial Williamsburg and Virginia Beach helps already prosperous areas while barely acknowledging Virginia west of the Blue Ridge, they said.
Patrick McMahon, who heads the state Tourism Division, has countered that he is trying to promote the whole state on a limited budget. He points out that one of the state's five television ads focuses entirely on the mountains.
But western businessmen say the ad doesn't make up for the fact the state didn't spend a penny promoting skiing last winter.
"We've felt for a long time that the state tourism officials think that tourism ends at Charlottesville and no attention was given our area," said Martha Mackey, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Gov. Douglas Wilder Jr. has noted the lack of promotion of Western Virginia historic sites and attractions. He offered Western Virginia leaders hope May 8 in a speech in Roanoke. Wilder said he would stand by his campaign pledge to help promote the area and told the crowd the Economic Development Department, which supervises the tourism office, "has assured me it is committed to improving tourism in this part of the state."
The policy of name-brand tourism promotion first came under fire two years ago at a statewide conference on tourism.
Gary Berdeaux, promotion director at Endless Caverns in New Market, complained to the conference and to McMahon that the theory "sounds good, but in practice is discriminatory and narrow-minded." Since then Berdeaux has repeatedly criticized the state for promoting private businesses with state dollars.
McMahon defends the practice as the biggest bang for the buck.
"This is not a political call. It's a marketing call. We go out there and do what a good marketer would do," McMahon said.
Unlike North Carolina and other states, the legislature does not award grants to localities to help support local travel advertising, McMahon noted.
"I'm not authorized to make a grant," McMahon said. "We don't have the funds to promote any other way."
by CNB