Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 12, 1993 TAG: 9311120247
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Park engineer Richard Burrow says Disney's new park should act as a magnet to draw more tourists to the state - tourists who may then go on to visit other attractions, such as Explore.
State Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, agreed. "The big benefit of a Disney project is it's a destination, an international destination." He said Virginia should take advantage of Disney to promote package tours to other parts of the state.
Burrow said Disney's location near Manassas, just off Interstate 66, may be a special boon for Explore and other attractions in Western Virginia.
"If you're in Tennessee or Kentucky and want to go to that park, you'll be going right past Roanoke," Burrow says.
Meanwhile, Disney's Northern Virginia location means visitors coming from the Northeast still will have an easy option on where else to go in the state - south along Interstate 95 to Richmond, or south along Interstate 81 to the Shenandoah Valley and Roanoke.
From a traffic engineering standpoint, Burrow says, it may be easier to draw Disney's visitors west to I-81 than east to congested I-95.
He says Disney's location is "`close enough to persuade Disney's visitors to make the extra drive," but far enough away to provide some "space" between the two attractions.
He also points out that while both projects will deal with history, Disney and Explore will do it it in different ways - and appeal to different niches in the tourist market.
Disney plans to deal with the broad sweep of American history, while Explore is focused on the Appalachian frontier from 1750 to 1850.
Also, Disney's plans appear more entertainment-oriented, while Burrow says Explore is aiming for a more educational presentation in a living-history re-enactment format.
Explore, which now consists of a reassembled farm on 1,300 acres along the Roanoke County-Bedford County line, hopes to open its scaled-down version of the park to the general public next spring.
The target audience for theme parks such as Disney tends to be ages 3 to 15, Burrow says. Living-history museums attract others - "a little older, middle-aged and up."
Explore's biggest obstacle remains its lack of state funding. Money for such cultural projects will be hard to come by in the next few years, Bell says.
by CNB