I really enjoyed this recent letter to the editor in the Chapel Hill News:
What a shame to foretell "gloom and doom" during hurricane season, but I must add my 2-cents worth to the intention of Laurie Paolicelli, executive director of the Chapel Hill-Orange County Visitors Bureau, and Daniel Wallace, gifted novelist, to put Carrboro on the national map via feature articles and testimonials in national publications. What could these people be thinking of?
Remember what Money magazine and other national coverage (that rated the best places to live in the United States) did for Chapel Hill? Did this type of coverage entice visitors? No. Droves of people moved here to live fore the duration. They were not tourists. And now we have four-lane highways where we used to have two-lane roads. And schools? No matter how many new schools are built, there are never enough to go around for long. And let's not do more than mention the deforestation.
So what makes the bureau think its publicity will attract only its stated audience-tourists?
Plus, I do not relate positively to their phrases such as "Carrboro . . . sell its magic . . . have to sell the destination." Why should we, who live here and in the vicinity, want to sell our town?
The population in Orange County is growing fast enough on its own without the bureau commissioning writers to peddle the glorious small-town attributes of Carrboro (add Hillsborough to that, as well). Please emphasize "small town."
Let's do all we can to keep these towns small where we can get around easily; where we cross paths with neighbors we know; where the individual matters; where poetry, art, the forests, people, animals flourish. Let's not become another, well, another Detroit.
-- Kassandra Smart, Chapel Hill
For background, here is the original article in which "The Chapel Hill-Orange County Visitors Bureau commissioned Wallace... to write the article, 'Getting to Know Carrboro -- a Step-by-Step Guide.'" And just FYI, here is Daniel Wallace's adorable web site.
Issues:
Comments
Someone during our Madison
Someone during our Madison trip made a witty, but profound statement--"For each of us, Chapel Hill was perfect the day we arrived, and has been going to hell ever since."
The point being that change is inevitable, and we need to embrace change and think about what we want.
Cutting off our tourism promotion is not going to keep our community from sprawling or growing in ways we don't like----good land use planning does that and it is the responsibility of our elected officials to manage our land use and make decisions about whether we will grow or not, and if we do, what the growth looks like.
What promoting tourism does is to bring $$ into our community from people who visit and then go home. Some of them may decide they just have to stay, but many of them will most likely just decide that they need to visit again----and spend more money in our restaurants, shops, and hotels.
How many times have you moved based on a nice weekend vacation experience? Probably not many. Tourism is a very effective economic development strategy that has less impact on infrastructure than some other approaches.
Along those lines, it
Along those lines, it appears Lewis Black visited Chapel Hill, like what he saw and what he remembered and plans to move into the $1M dollar McCorkle place condos.
Lewis Black? That's funny!
Lewis Black? That's funny!
Not as funny as a
Not as funny as a thousand-pound badger, though.
I thought Lewis Black was a
I thought Lewis Black was a UNC student once upon a time?
With any luck I'll be there
With any luck I'll be there when Lewis Black runs into John Edwards.
is that true? Lewis Black
is that true? Lewis Black is a smart guy!
I'm not opposed to tourism. I'm not even opposed to people moving to Chapel Hill after I did (1973, for the record). But I'm not sure we need to be spending money to promote tourism. People are already naturally attracted to Orange County by several factors including a beautiful University, thriving historic downtowns, and a rich array of arts and cultural events.
Yes, Lewis Black started at
Yes, Lewis Black started at the University of Maryland and transferred to Carolina, graduating in 1970 as a Dramatic Arts major. I vaguely knew him, he was friends with my roommate.
Ruby, it takes constant
Ruby, it takes constant marketing to keep Chapel Hill and Orange County at top of mind awareness for tourism nationally. There are plenty of people in this country who do not know much about our community but who would like to come here if they knew how awesome we are.
This was the most painful lesson I learned as a small business owner. I thought everyone knew about my business, but they just didn't. We constantly have to think about our town from the point of view of a customer, and that changes our perspective and our marketing strategy.
Orange County could benefit
Orange County could benefit from a baseball/soccer facility that could host youth tournaments - as well as fill the need for more athletic fields for our growing population.
Mark, they're building
Mark, they're building additional fields out on New Hope Church Rd. behind the new "difficult" juvenile facility.
I've been to some youth
I've been to some youth baseball tournaments around central NC and we don't have anything like those kinds of facilities. It just seems like good clean fun (tourist money, etc.).
Where exactly are those new fields & what type?
I favor tourism for all the
I favor tourism for all the standard reasons, but I question something.
Whenever I read that tourists stay in our hotels, eat in
our restaurants, etc., I wonder.....
In reality, what fraction of restaurant meals are eaten by
tourists? My gut feeling, non-scientific, is that restaurant
customers are primarily local, while tourists
are a small minority. Anyone have the real data?
Joe, I was wondering the
Joe,
I was wondering the same thing about a month ago after reading a local article on tourism and asked for some stats. I just put them on http://www.thepeters.org/tourism/ for you. Perhaps they will answer some of your questions.
M
Thanks Mark, I looked at
Thanks Mark,
I looked at them and found them very interesting, especially
the value of a UNC home football game. But neither of
the studies addressed what fraction of local restaurant
diners are tourists.
Joe
The thing is that the Chapel
The thing is that the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitor's Bureau is paid for entirely by the hotel industry and almost no one local stays at a hotel. The hotels are not interested in persuading anyone to move here (at least not for longer than a week or so.)