Road trips: Virginia's tourism gets a boost because it's an easy car ride from big cities

The plunge was sudden and dramatic, like a skier going full tilt on a downhill run. Immediately after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, people began canceling reservations at The Homestead, Virginia's luxurious mountain resort. "We were seriously impacted immediately. We lost several thousand room nights," recalls Gary Rosenberg, the Homestead's president and CEO. Losses shot up to a quarter of a million dollars as fearful company executives cut conferences and pleasure travelers stayed home.

Yet, as seems to be the case for much of Virginia's tourism and hospitality industry, business at the Homestead quickly bounced back. In fact, one recurring theme is the number of guests who canned trips to more far-flung spots to book at the venerable Allegheny Highlands establishment, renowned for its pristine and challenging golf courses. "We've had several groups since Sept. 11 who have visited who canceled trips to Europe, Puerto Rico, California and Hawaii," says Rosenberg. Several called on short notice and, for the most part, drove to the resort. Sixty-five percent of the Homestead's business caters to corporate meetings and business travelers, but families are coming as well. Visitors flocked to The Homestead during Thanksgiving, and the resort was sold out for Christmas. "The family unit is wanting to draw back together, travel together, stay together, be together. If there is a silver lining in that market sector, it's that families wanted to go buy a car and be together for the holidays," Rosenberg says.

Rosenberg's experience seems to be repeated over and over. Virginia is benefiting almost by accident from travel anxiety caused by the terrorist attack. Centrally located in the Mid-Atlantic, the Old Dominion is an easy drive for an average of 33 million people a year, including those from Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. More guests are coming because they don't have to fly to get here - 80 percent of all visitors to the Commonwealth come by car. Sixty percent of the American population is within a five-hour drive of Virginia. And some of the lowest gasoline prices in years may be just the incentive for people to plan a road trip.

Tourism officials are waiting to see whether American travelers will stay in their cars or return to the air in great numbers. "It's hard to imagine there's any silver lining anywhere after Sept. 11, but like every institution out there, particularly in the travel business these days, we need to be looking forward," says Tim Andrews, spokesman for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Looking forward was difficult when the terrorist strikes seemed to spell immediate disaster for Virginia's tourism industry, which was already being squeezed by recession. Even before Sept. 11, travel in Virginia was starting to flatten compared with 2000, a record year for the travel industry. The domino effect after the attacks was fast acting: People stopped flying. Companies canceled meetings. Most troubling for many Virginia travel destinations - school groups canceled their trips. At Mount Vernon, George Washington's historic home some 16 miles from D.C., where a third of the annual visitors are school children, visitation plunged by more than half in September. For 2001, lost revenues for Mount Vernon could hit $2 million.

Overall, Virginia was hard hit, too, losing $1.2 billion as a direct result of the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon. A task force appointed by Gov. Jim Gilmore to assess economic damage from the attacks estimates that 20 percent of the 943 travel agencies in Virginia will close next year; those that remain will cut staffs by 20 percent to 25 percent. Much of the impact could be felt in Northern Virginia, home to 46 percent of all of tourism-related jobs in Virginia. Of the $13.1 billion travelers spent in Virginia in 2000, $5.6 billion of that was spent in Northern Virginia. Tourism dollars for 2001 are expected to be way down compared to the banner year figures of 2000.

However, Virginia is in a unique position. Tourism leaders say the country's renewed sense of patriotism, as well as Virginia's longstanding reputation as an easily accessible and affordable destination, could blunt the long-term impact from Sept. 11. "With everyone feeling jolted in their personal and business lives, we believe people will spend more and more time with their friends and families," says Gayle Morgan Vail, president and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corp. "A good portion of travelers come to Virginia to spend time with friends and family - it's a good way of connecting and cocooning, staying close to home. Another thing that gives us an edge is that real sense of patriotism that has flooded this country - it all started here … People have really gotten a lot of perspective and that sense of history will draw people to Virginia."

Tourism leaders think Virginia is in a great position to capture travelers who still want to travel post-Sept. 11, but may be looking for a destination closer to home. The state's tourism office is pushing dozens of discount travel deals from Luray Caverns to Williamsburg on its Web site, www.virginia.org. Other states, like North Carolina, also push the just-a-day's drive message. But, says Virginia Tourism Corp. spokeswoman Martha Steger, "Virginia enjoys an advantage because our heritage sites are so popular, and we have an abundance of them, probably more than any other state."

At some historic destinations, visitation is on track. Colonial Williamsburg and attractions at Jamestown and Yorktown saw visitation fall immediately after the attacks. Colonial Williamsburg, with almost a million visitors in 2000, saw a decline in attendance of about 25 percent in September. Within weeks, visitors returned, holiday bookings were strong and school groups and business conferences that had canceled trips rebooked. A special Veteran's Day program at Colonial Williamsburg that offered discounts and free tickets to firefighters, police officers and emergency services workers was a sell out. "Americans right now want to reconnect with their country. This nation's history has never been more relevant, and it just so happens that Colonial Williamsburg is one of the very best places in America to learn about how this country came to be," Andrews says. There's no question that the travel industry has taken a beating since Sept. 11, he adds, and Colonial Williamsburg has fared better than most. "But to say we are proceeding cautiously at the moment is, if anything, an understatement. It's no time for anyone in the travel industry to be complacent."

Nearby, attendance at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation's two museums, - the Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center - fell after the attacks; attendance dropped 37 percent in October alone. But the sites had boomed during the spring and Susan Bak, director of marketing and retail operations for the foundation, expects year-end visitation totals to reflect a small amount of growth in attendance despite Sept. 11. More than 700,000 people visited Jamestown-Yorktown in the last year, many of them families who stay in time-share condominiums in the area. In the aftermath of the attack, "I think people felt safer returning earlier to a place that seemed a lot like home," Bak says.

Also easing the blow is that the attacks occurred just as the off-season for tourists was starting. At Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, for instance, the peak season for visitors is spring and summer. One exception appears to be Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. It is so close to the epicenter of the attack on the Pentagon that the negative impacts of the attack are expected to last longer. With an average of 1 million visitors annually, Mount Vernon is one of the most-visited historic homes in the country. Yet it is also closely associated with the nation's capital and is considered a stop-off for tourists visiting D.C., rather than a destination. "We used to emphasize how close Mount Vernon is to D.C., and now we emphasize that Mount Vernon is a very long 16 miles from D.C., that it's a safe and tranquil environment," says James Rees, Mount Vernon's executive director.

Mount Vernon is also turning its attention to boosting visitation from within Virginia as it tries to tackle an uncertain future that could include large financial losses. "When Mount Vernon isn't so busy, the offerings for our locals are spectacular," says Sally McDonough, Mount Vernon's spokeswoman. "We're delivering on the message about George Washington's role in democracy, that Mount Vernon is a symbol of the nation's founding." And if that's not enough to spark excitement in visitors looking for answers after 9/11, Mount Vernon has gone a step further - for the very first time it's displaying Washington's dentures. Visitors can also view an 18th-century portrait of the president by Peale Polk, on loan from singer Barbra Streisand.

Another tourism industry sector not enjoying a quick recovery are bus line operations. Virginia's motor-coach operators have been devastated by the loss of school groups and dwindling interest in bus tours to Washington and New York. "We thought once things settled down that [the number of] people traveling by coach and private vehicle would increase," says Doug Douglas, executive director of the Virginia Motor Coach Association. But business isn't bouncing back. "It's going to be very hard for some people to stay in business. We will lose operators."

For its part, the state is working to help Virginia tourism destinations deal with the economic impact of the terrorist attacks through a $500,000 emergency grants program. Sectors of the tourism industry hardest hit were eligible for a maximum of $25,000 each. And the state launched a $1.5 million "Virginia Stands for Freedom" advertising and marketing campaign in the weeks following the attacks to get the word out about Virginia. Part of that campaign included a full-page ad in The New York Times. "The tourism industry has all pulled together," says Vail. "We were jolted. It has opened up a dialogue among competitors that really wasn't there before."

Whether that renewed spirit of cooperation combines with Virginia's natural geographical advantage to bring even more tourists to the Old Dominion remains to be seen. Tourism officials say they'll know more once the spring season begins. "All of us are going through this together. None of us has read the book on this," Rosenberg says. "Those who are positioned to withstand this will really prosper, but I don't know how big that universe is. A lot of it depends on who you are and where you are."