Sunday, December 02, 2007
The chamber hasn't delivered tourists
Christian Trejbal
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From the RoundTable blog
The New River Valley is ripe for tourism, but so are hundreds of communities around the country. There are plenty of places with stunning landscapes and bountiful recreational opportunities. The trick is standing out.
Montgomery County, Christiansburg and Blacks-burg hope better marketing will catch tourists' eyes and have hired the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce to get it done. The chamber, however, has not been up to the task.
The three governments have pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the chamber for tourism promotion. That money comes from a hotel lodging tax.
Tourism marketing usually pays off in the long-run. More tourists equal more money and more jobs.
Chamber President and CEO Shane Adams, who also serves as the director of tourism, claims the county is already reaping rewards from that investment. He points out that in the first two years of serious chamber tourism marketing, annual spending by tourists grew 14 percent, some $12 million.
Adams takes credit for all of that growth, but a closer look at the numbers should temper his pride. It is far from clear that the chamber's efforts affected tourism at all.
Data from The Virginia Tourism Corp., the state's tourism arm and source of Adams' numbers, reveal that tourism growth in Montgomery County was sluggish compared to the rest of the state.
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The amount of money tourists spent in the commonwealth grew 9.6 percent in 2005 and 7.2 percent in 2006. Montgomery County saw 7.5 percent and 6.4 percent growth in the same years.
Such growth was consistent with years prior to the chamber's watch.
The county also lagged regionally. Every city and county from Roanoke to Pulaski did a better job attracting tourist dollars.
Taxpayers should expect more value for their money.
Granted, the chamber has been at it only for a couple of years. Public oversight, in the form of a Tourism Development Council, finally came online in the spring.
Blacksburg Assistant Town Manager Steve Ross, the town's representative on the tourism council, thinks it is too soon to judge.
"In the months since we've started, I've seen positive strides by [Adams] and his staff to promote this area," he said. "Let's give this a shot before we say it's not going to float."
The numbers don't look good right now. If the community doesn't see some real results, the towns and county must ask if they are spending public dollars responsibly.
Adams could start by honoring the contract with Christiansburg. It calls for him to appear before the town council in April and September to provide progress reports. Last September was his first chance, but he didn't show.
He has remained a no-show for months. The last time he was supposed to speak, he sent one of his chamber lackeys, earning the ire of several council members.
He's scheduled again for Tuesday. If he shows up, the council should demand answers but prepare for confrontation. In a collection of e-mail between the town and the chamber acquired under the Freedom of Information Act, Adams repeatedly appears incapable of handling any criticism or questioning.
Indeed, the chamber, perhaps anticipating challenges, last week asked its members to sign a form letter supporting the tourism efforts. Such transparent tactics should not fool elected officials.
Marketing numbers aside, there's something unsettling about giving the chamber so much control over a taxpayer-funded tourism campaign.
The chamber is a private organization that serves its members. What's in the best interest of those businesses is not always in the best interest of residents and non-chamber members. Their tax dollars should serve them, not a clique of business owners.
Adams made his divided loyalties abundantly clear in a scathing e-mail to Mayor Richard Ballengee.
"When I do come before the council, I am not going to answer questions about the chamber that do not pertain to tourism. I have my own board of directors that I answer to in that regard," he wrote.
He's right. He should keep tourism promotion and the chamber separate, but can he?
Adams himself recognizes the need for an independent tourism body. In an e-mail to the council, he wrote, "Our plan is to get this initiative up and running smoothly and to hopefully have it blossom into its own Convention and Visitors Bureau."
That can't happen soon enough. If taxpayers are going to invest in tourism rather than pay for police, sidewalks or countless other local needs, they should demand accountability and results.
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
