
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 9, 1992                   TAG: 9203090222
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

KIOSKS? DESTINATION: ROANOKE VALLEY

THE ROANOKE Valley's failure to take advantage of its tourism potential is an all-too-familiar story. Now the staff of the Fifth Planning District Commission is discussing an intriguing, if modest, idea for tapping more of that potential: "Destination: Roanoke Valley" kiosks at the Troutville and Ironto rest areas on Interstate 81.

Prime among the valley's tourism-potential assets is its location. Not only is Roanoke the biggest city on the Blue Ridge Parkway; it is also the largest - really the only - urban concentration in the hundreds of miles of Interstate 81 between Harrisburg, Pa., and Knoxville, Tenn.

Before we start worrying about drawing visitors from all over the country, let's start collecting them off the interstate! The kiosks could help do that, whether for a few hours or a few days.

Via a dedicated communications link with, say, the Roanoke Valley Information Center, the kiosks could provide both general information about valley attractions and up-to-the-minute information about special events, such as concerts and festivals.

A few years ago, the technologies envisioned - touch-screen computer links, videotape descriptions, hard-copy printouts produced from miles away, ticket-ordering via credit-card magnetic strips - might have seemed wildly futuristic. Today, they are used routinely; the newness of the idea is not in the technology itself but in how it would be used.

It's fitting that the idea comes from regional planners. The entire valley would benefit from a bigger harvest of dollars from tourists who have no idea, and couldn't care less, where one locality ends and another begins. A joint jurisdictional effort is in order.

It's also fitting, in these tight budget times for government, that the proposal calls for a joint public-private venture. Local tourist-oriented businesses seem natural candidates for getting in on the action.

The plan is still only a concept; many details, costs among them, must be worked out. But "Destination: Roanoke Valley" kiosks just might prove one excellent destination for the Roanoke Valley's tourist-promotion efforts.

by CNB