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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 1, 1994                   TAG: 9404020009
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN PANEL

APPOINTING a task force is a tried-and-true device for politicians to convey interest in an issue about which they care little. But no such motive can be credibly assigned to Gov. George Allen's appointment of a new task force on Virginia tourism.

With his promotion of incentives to lure a new Disney theme park, and with his earlier record - as a congressman he helped fashion a National Tourism Act - Allen's interest is demonstrable.

His task force on tourism - the first major study of the subject in about eight years - is just as demonstrably needed.

In the days of "Virginia Is For Lovers," ours was considered the No. 1 tourism-destination state in the country. Today, based on statistics from the U.S. Travel Data Center, it's ranked 9th. During the past five years, its market share vis-a-vis other states has been on the decline, though tourist dollars coming into the state have increased.

The coming of Disney's America should boost tourism considerably. But it's crucial to parlay the opportunity to the limit, and - listen up, governor - to see that it is shared statewide.

Western Virginia's tax dollars are underwriting the Disney incentive package, too.

We don't have heavyweight tourist draws such as major theme parks, but we've got a lot of assets and potential. Some 40 percent of out-of-state travelers through Virginia drive on Interstate 81 and the Blue Ridge Parkway. The challenge is to get them off.

Local governments and local economic-development boosters need to do more to get their attention and induce them to visit. The state should be credited with doing more, in recent years, to include our region in state promotional efforts.

Even so, the state could do more to help Western Virginia grow its tourist industry. This is one item the new task force could helpfully consider.

One of many items. Much has changed on the tourism scene in just the past eight years.

Virginia, for example, now finds itself competing for tourists with states that it never had to compete with before. While the tourism-promotion budget has remained relatively constant, many other states have dramatically increased theirs.

Tourism in the past eight years has grown from second to the No. 1 industry in the world, now accounting for $3 trillion a year in the global economy. And the figure is rising by leaps and bounds. By the year 2005, one in every 15 jobs in the world may be tourism-connected.

Is Virginia prepared to share in that growth? That's what Allen's task-force appointees must find out. Then they must map out a strategy to get there from here.

by CNB