Records at the Loudoun County visitor’s center do not give an accurate picture of northern Virginia’s tourism industry after Sept. 11.
Tourism in Loudoun County appears to be the same as always, despite a slight dip in the number of visitors during October 2001. Though the visits returned to normal levels during the next two months, hotel stays decreased and restaurant business slowed for some of Loudoun’s businesses as visitors took more day trips to escape the Washington metropolitan area. Though some stopped at the visitor’s center and got counted, they are not staying as long.
“October was down statewide in Virginia, but we weren’t down as much as the rest of the state,” said Cheryl Kilday, president of the Loudoun County Convention and Visitors Association. “People were trying to get away. … People are driving here. We feel like the drive market has remained strong with us.”
Hotel stays nationally dropped 15.9 percent after the terrorist attack, compared to a 31 percent drop in the metropolitan area.
“Loudoun is not down 31 percent, but we’re part of that region,” Kilday said, adding that if the region suffers, Loudoun will also suffer, since it attracts some of its visits from travelers to the metropolitan region. “As a region, we have had a huge drop in travel because of the Pentagon and [Ronald Reagan National Airport] closing. … International flight has dropped off. All of that has a devastating effect on tourism in the region.”
LOUDOUN COUNTY and five other northern Virginia jurisdictions are developing a regional emergency tourism program to increase leisure and business travel to northern Virginia. The Northern Virginia Visitors Consortium and a northern Virginia economic development group met twice in January to compile the 2002 Emergency Funding, Marketing and Business Plan.
The plan hinges on four goals to increase consumer confidence in safety and travel in Northern Virginia. The goals include marketing Northern Virginia as a desirable destination safe for leisure and business travel, while increasing advertising to develop the region’s image; improving communications through outreach, public relations and the media; and researching the market to track travel patterns since the attack. The research would involve establishing a baseline trend in industry data and surveying tourism businesses and agencies about clients’ concerns about visiting the area.
“We have been going to some of the travel and trade opportunities … to ask group decision makers to bring business here,” Kilday said. “We work with our tourism industry to get the attention of the customer and to fill the needs of the customer.”
The Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association identifies customer needs as part of its normal activities by attending trade shows, meeting with group leaders, sending out direct mailings and operating the visitors center, then reports the information it gathers to tourism providers, Kilday said. “It’s our job to bring visitors here and help them spend money,” she said.
The four goals are aimed to help return the region’s tourism to pre-attack levels, increase travel by 2003 and maintain a five percent growth rate in local and state taxes generated by visitors.
THE NORTHERN VIRGINIA Visitors Consortium agreed to provide some funding to help implement the program, which may receive federal funding. The consortium consists of convention and visitors bureaus in Northern Virginia.
“We need to get business and leisure travel back to our area. We have some big PR [public relations] things to do to let people know it’s business as usual,” Kilday said.
The tourism industry is the region’s sixth largest industry.
Larry Rosenstrauch, the county contact for the project, is still getting together materials to present to the board for an action item or a presentation and could not comment. Rosenstrauch is the director of the Department of Economic Development.
The program is scheduled to start March 1.