The City is working on a plan to relocate the Visitor Center from its current location in the quaint and authentic building at 706 Caroline Street to the first floor of the Executive Plaza Office Building at 601 Caroline Street. Here are my thoughts about that.
While we’re in budget season and discussing ways to diversify our income beyond real estate taxes, Tourism is a very good place to start.
A little background here. I own a business that works closely with tour operators and travel agents. This work involves attending industry trade shows and FAM (Familiarization) tours where DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations) pitch their tourism assets. In a typical year I might have to travel to Hawaii, Cancun, the West Indies, or Miami Beach (yes, somebody has to do it). But I’ve also traveled to many smaller destinations all over the country. Over the past 30 years, I’ve learned to appreciate how a vibrant tourism economy is built, how it lifts local businesses, provides good jobs, and appeals to first-time and returning tourists. We can do that here in FXBG too. It’s time.
The City is working on a plan to relocate the Visitor Center from its current location in the quaint and authentic building at 706 Caroline Street to the first floor of the Executive Plaza Office Building at 601 Caroline Street. For some, this move may seem a bit counterintuitive, given the historic character of the current Visitor Center. But the limitations of that wonderful building create impediments to growing our tourism efforts, including the fact that it is not ADA compliant, the ceilings are low, the meeting space is inadequate, there is no space to modernize the multimedia components or for a large gift shop, or even to host events beyond a handful of guests at a time.
In contrast, the idea for the new Visitor Center space includes a state-of-the-art multimedia space, large meeting rooms, places to spotlight special City features such as the baseball stadium, the University of Mary Washington, the Rappahannock River, our many historical landmarks, and other features that will be attractive to major tour operators, travel agents and affinity groups. It’s just a starting point but believe me when I tell you that in the tourism business, first impressions really do matter.
The City has engaged Frazier Associates to come up with the plans for the renovation of the first Floor of the Executive Plaza Office building. The Economic Development Authority (EDA) has offered to purchase the current Visitor Center Building from the City with terms that would allow the Economic Development and Tourism Department (including the current Visitor Center) to stay in that location while the renovations take place. The proceeds from that sale would pay for the renovations, so the taxpayers won’t incur any of the cost. Seems like a win-win to me.
We’re now engaged in public discussions about the Visitor Center Conceptual Plan, and Frazier Associates is conducting community stakeholder meetings. I look forward to the outcome of these discussions.
I am optimistic about the opportunities that a new Visitor Center will create for our local businesses. We love it when folks come here, spend money, and leave. Like I say, we need to develop a more robust tourism economy and bring in more business development, which will help reduce our reliance on raising real estate taxes to fund the City’s budget.
Oh yes, after many months of hard work, the City now has a beautiful, brand-new website that markets our incredible (and growing) tourism assets. Check it out here!
