Hoteliers Announce Launch of Triangle Visitor Center

By Desiree Parker Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Williamsburg Hotel Motel Association announced Tuesday the launch of what they hope will be a new player in the local tourism game, the Greater Williamsburg Tourist Information Center.

According to HMA president Chris Canavos, a main visitor center is something the much-touted Nichols Tourism Group report recommended five years ago, and something that’s been needed for some time. “It’s always been in the back of our mind [at the HMA],” Canavos said to a small gathering of HMA members, restaurant association members, local government officials and press on Tuesday. “These trying times brought it to the forefront.”

The HMA has used $200,000 of its own funds to create the area’s newest visitor center within their existing office in the Kingsmill shops, which will serve as a vacation planning center for the Historic Triangle. The center will sell tickets to every area attraction and have information on hand on all local retail, restaurant and lodging facilities along with the ability to book reservations for hotels and restaurants for visitors.

Canavos told WYDaily that the new center applied with the Virginia Tourism Corporation to become a state certified visitor center, and has gotten verbal approval from a VTC representative. As part of fulfilling requirements (see breakout) the HMA has been working cooperatively with York County, which is where their office is located.

“This is a center that every venue in town will have access to,” Canavos told the crowd. “Everyone in the community will have a say.” This includes businesses, attractions and other local tourism groups.

“We’ll have more people to employ and jobs in the community,” he said. “Our objective is to sell one more room, one more meal, one more retail sale or golf game.” That, Canavos said, is how the HMA will measure the center’s success.

He pointed out that other areas in the region, like Newport News, Norfolk and Richmond, have centralized tourist information centers, and he showed examples of signs on major roadways directing travelers to those locations. These are signs the Williamsburg location needs to have on major thoroughfares like Interstate 64, Route 60 and other roadways to help guide people to their office.

Newport News’ center has about 30,000 visitors each year, according to Canavos. He expects 60,000 or more annually to hit a Triangle-focused center.

The goal of the center will be to reduce confusion for visitors, Canavos said; this was a suggestion originally made by the 2005 Nichols study. In the study, the tourism group “found the region difficult to understand from a visitor perspective” and suggested the Triangle get a centralized visitor center. Until now, one hasn’t existed for the Triangle, though many attractions and businesses offer maps, tickets, and information about the area.

To promote their new idea, the WHMA has advertisements running in the Virginia Beach, Nags Head and Richmond destination magazines promoting their Tourist Information Center, various ads in the HMA’s Williamsburg magazine, and they’ll soon have information on the HMA’s GoWilliamsburg.com site. There’s a new Facebook page for the center, too, with 111 fans as of Tuesday evening.

“We have put in a tremendous amount of investment,” Canavos said, “and we look forward to the community embracing this.”

York County Board of Supervisors Chairman Donald Wiggins attended the meeting, and told the group the first thing he asked the HMA when he first heard about the idea a few weeks ago was, ‘How much money are you asking for?’ When he heard they didn’t want money, his next question was, ‘What’s the catch?’

He went on to say he didn’t see how this would be in competition with any of the local destinations. “I looked at all the possible catches and didn’t see any – just an organization willing to put up 200,000 dollars” to invest in the destination, he said. Wiggins seemed very supportive of the idea.

Other HMA and restaurant association members voiced their support.

Also at the meeting were James City County Administrator and Chair of the Historic Triangle Collaborative Sandy Wanner; York County Administrator James McReynolds; and Williamsburg city council candidate and HMA member Doug Pons.

Though no representatives from any major destinations were present, Busch Gardens spokesman Kevin Crossett told WYDaily, "We support initiatives to bring more tourists to the area and expose them to the variety of vacation options here. We wish the WHMA the best of luck in their endeavor."

Colonial Williamsburg’s take was cautious. “We look forward to learning more about the objectives of the proposed center and how such a facility might complement and support what currently exists including what we provide in Colonial Williamsburg's Visitor Center,” said Colonial Williamsburg spokesman Tom Shrout, who pointed out his organization’s visitor center also offers visitor services, tickets, information and transportation around the area.

Spokesmen for the city of Williamsburg, James City County and the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance said so far they knew little about the plan and couldn’t comment on the new center until they had more information.  Aside from Wanner, no other city or county officials were present.

Councilwoman Judy Knudson mentioned at Monday’s City Council work session that she’d received an email about the new visitor center, which prompted Alliance President Dick Schreiber to say his organization would find out more information from the HMA Tuesday, though no Alliance members were present at the meeting, either.

Canavos said HMA Executive Director Alvin Garrison alerted organizations about Tuesday’s meeting, and will be talking to them more as the center develops.

Right now, the Greater Williamsburg Tourist Information Center is testing the waters as a pilot program, Canavos told Tuesday’s group. Look for a grand opening in the next month or so.