THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 15, 1995 TAG: 9509130114
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
If you go to another town and look at the racks of tourist folders displayed in hotels, restaurants and visitor centers, you'll wonder if Portsmouth really exists.
Recently, I raided some of the racks, looking for Portsmouth, mainly because I wonder how we're going to entice some of the traffic that rides right by here going to the Outer Banks or Virginia Beach via the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel and Interstate 664 - or just heading north and south through historic areas of the East Coast.
Portsmouth just isn't on the tourist map in Virginia. Even a new state-published promotional piece that's been around all summer skips right over us. An obviously new state folder highlights stops across the state. Aside from the beach at Virginia Beach, it highlights Nauticus in Norfolk, the Mariners' Museum in Newport News and the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton. But there's not one word about the Children's Museum of Virginia.
It mentions the Navy and the first battle of the ironclads, but it does not mention the nation's oldest shipyard in Portsmouth, where the Merrimack was converted to the ironclad Virginia that changed naval history. Naturally, there is no mention of the nation's oldest naval hospital either.
Other literature mentions historic sites everywhere but Portsmouth. Yet Olde Towne has a collection of houses acknowledged to be the most architecturally interesting between Washington, D.C., and Charleston, S.C.
No wonder people pass right on by Portsmouth.
We do a lot of talking about image-building, but we always seems to miss out on the most obvious ways to make travelers aware of Portsmouth.
It may be that those attractions included in the state folder pay for the exposure. If they don't, they should because the blurbs are written like ads.
And if they are paid for, why didn't we buy one?
This summer, the state has been successful in diverting beach traffic from the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and Battlefield Boulevard to I-664 and U.S. 17. That means hundreds and hundreds of vehicles are passing right by Portsmouth. Of course, most of them take I-64 to get to the Dismal Swamp Canal Bank or to Route 44, depending on their choice of beach. But what's to keep some of them from taking I-264 and stopping off in Portsmouth?
I bet many of them would enjoy a good meal and the relaxing ambience of Portsmouth - if they knew it was here! Many of the vehicles headed to the Outer Banks have children in them. I bet many of them would really like to visit the Children's Museum on the way back home.
How do we stop them?
The Dismal Swamp Visitors Center, a few miles from the Virginia state line, is one of the busiest tourist centers I've ever seen. Talk to travelers there and you'll learn that most of them are interested in the region's history, but I don't see any big effort on our part to promote us there. The Carrie B swamp tours have made the visitors center employees aware of Portsmouth, but have we done anything to enlarge on our relationship with them? Have we brought them to see the Children's Museum and eat in our restaurants? For people headed north on U.S. 17, where that center is located, know that we are the next stop.
Keith Toler and the Convention and Visitors Bureau do a good job of bringing in bus tours and promoting the city as a destination, which is their job. But until we make a concerted citywide effort, we're not going to stop individual travelers who eat and sleep somewhere every day.
The departure a few weeks ago of Michael Stevens leaves the city's top public information job open again. When the city hires a new person, it should emphasize the need for a broad view that would include improving our image with people in the travel business - which, incidentally, is a big source of income in the state.
Sometimes the public information office seems to function more as a public relations agency for city officials than as a promotional arm for the city. If we're going to pay out big bucks for an experienced person to head the office, we ought to make it clear that we want somebody to work on the city's image - and then provide the time and money for polishing it.
KEYWORDS: TOURISM PORTSMOUTH by CNB