Bishop Makes Appeal to County Board To Restore Tourism Funding
March 23, 2010
Tom Bishop, Executive Director, Patrick County Chamber of Commerce made an appeal to the County Board of Supervisors to restore the budget funding at the level of $18,000 as last year.
Speech-Board of Supervisor’s Budget Review – March 22, 2010
Subject: Tourism Budget
I am here to speak to you about your allocation for the Tourism Budget.
In budget period, 2009-2010 the budget was $77,989
In the budget period, 2010-2011 the budget is $64,764
This reflects a reduction of $13,225
This reduction impacts our plan to “keep the doors open� and “the lights on�, so we can routinely serve visitors to our County. There is nothing exotic here in the expenditure. We simply need to respond to telephone calls, e-mails, and personal visits by Tourists.
We need to keep the small Tourism Office in the Veterans Memorial Building, the Chamber office in Stuart, the Blue Ridge Visitor Center in Meadows of Dan functioning. These are critical resources to our Tourism efforts in meeting the people and assisting them. Some of this is done remotely through e-mail, Internet (websites) and telephone.
We are fortunate to have a lot of unpaid volunteers in the Tourism business for us. They represent the Tourism Advisory Committee, Non-Profit agencies, churches, community clubs, historical societies, musical groups, civic clubs, fire departments, and other festival organizers. These people organize the festivals, work the events and reach out to Tourists. They go to Trade Shows, Interstate Welcome Centers, neighboring County Visitor Centers, and many places outside our County to promote Patrick County. They appear on TV Shows, radio shows outside our County promoting our events. We want to keep these people involved and motivated. Please don’t kill their enthusiasm for our great County.
In the total scheme of things, this money is not that much. But when it is matched up with our dedicated volunteers it will go a long way to promote Tourism
Further concerning the Blue Ridge Parkway
This area of the Parkway, Rocky Knob and Meadows of Dan, are some of the most visited areas of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Mabry Mill is said to be the most photographed spot in the United States. The Blue Ridge Parkway is the most visited National park. Plus this section is the most accessible by I-77 and I-81, U. S. Route 58, U. S. Route 52 and State Route 8. There are also many other access points including Squirrel Spur Road, Buffalo Mountain Road, Willis Road, etc.
The section of the Blue Ridge Parkway between Fancy Gap, U. S. Route 52 and Route 8, (going down to Floyd and Woolwine) is where over 6 million visitors come each year.
Some have called the Blue Ridge Parkway a “River of Money�. We need to tap into that more frequently and help our local economy.
What we are trying to do in the Tourism business is to get these Parkway visitors off on our local roads, stay overnight, eat in our restaurants, buy some gasoline, check out our festivals and enjoy our Area Attractions.
All our Tourism businesses and Tourism volunteers work hard to get these people into our community.
The New Tourism Venture at Rocky Knob and Meadows of Dan, will encourage existing travelers on the Blue Ridge Parkway to “stay longer� and “spend more money�.
I have an extensive report in my hands here prepared by two great universities, Clemson University and Virginia Tech. I urge you to read this report to find out the predicted economic impact to Floyd and Patrick County. It is available in the Patrick County Library and the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce office.
An allocation of $1500 was in the budget for the Blue Ridge Heritage project and was deleted on March 8. This seems to fit in the overall category of Tourism too.
The Blue Ridge Heritage project has the potential of providing a tremendous boost to both Floyd and Patrick County by adding to the existing Tourism Industry. �.
So, I total the overall reduction in Tourism expenditures (including Blue Ridge Heritage) to be $14,725.
I urge you to restore this funding.