THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601110148
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
The Holiday Lights at the Beach are out, but during the 44 consecutive nights that they were on and blinking, they drew 44,256 automobiles to the Boardwalk display from miles around.
That was the final tally from Bill Reid, president of Cellar Door Productions of Virginia, the entertainment company that administered the nightly winter program.
At $7 a vehicle, the number translates into $309,792 in total revenues, a tidy sum earned during the first running of the light show, which began Nov. 25.
Figuring occupancy at 3.5 persons per vehicle, Reid estimates that 200,000 people visited the 25-block seaside show from Nov. 25 to Jan. 6.
The display was called off a day early. It was supposed to run through the night of Jan. 7, but rain, followed by icy northeast winds, forced Reid and his crew to cancel it.
``There was a lot of water on the Boardwalk and it was icing up,'' Reid said. ``So, we thought it was best to close it down.''
The residual benefits expected from the show have yet to be assessed, since Oceanfront merchants and innkeepers have yet to tally the coupons returned by light show ticket buyers for discounts on purchases of restaurant meals, pizza, condo rentals and even a tax consulting service.
The light show was conceived and organized by the Virginia Beach Hotel and Motel Association as a gambit to draw hometown and out-of-town visitors to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront during the winter months, a time when the resort businesses are normally dormant.
While activity at motels and retail places increased a little during the course of the show, Oceanfront restaurants and taverns experienced a modest rise in business.
Next year, the show is expected to get bigger and better and produce bigger dividends for seaside business owners, say Cathy Pender and Sandy Jackson, two veterans of the Beach hotel and motel business who spearheaded the program.
To make sure that it does, they say proceeds from the show will be plowed back into the programs scheduled for the next two winters and Oceanfront businesses will be encouraged to light up as well.
``For 1996 and 1997 it'll be more interesting,'' said Jackson, who coordinated a group of 300 volunteers to help Cellar Door keep the show rolling night after night. ``I think the merchants learned that there is potential here.''
Funding for the program was approved last June by the City Council, which took $750,000 from the Tourism Growth Investment Fund, a revenue pool fed by special taxes on hotel and restaurant sales to pay for nearly a dozen big tourism-enhancing projects. One of them is a $17 million amphitheater, now under construction near Princess Anne Park.
Under an agreement with Cellar Door, a portion of the holiday lighting revenue is to be returned to the city in repayment for the TGIF loan, said Rob Hudome, coordinator of resort projects and activities for the city.
``A percentage will go to cover storage and overhead and some will be reinvested in the program,'' he added.
Aside from a gigantic Atlantic Avenue traffic snarl that developed on Thanksgiving Day and weekend, a few Boardwalk power outages and some light bulb thefts, the program has been marked down as a success and destined for future glory by Hudome, Reid and Jackson. ILLUSTRATION: Staff file photo
Figuring occupancy at 3.5 persons per vehicle, Cellar Door
Productions president Bill Reid estimates that 200,000 people
visited the 25-block seaside show from Nov. 25 to Jan. 6.
by CNB