Virginia tourism moves beyond Jamestown
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by Heather B. Hayes
for Virginia Business
July 2007

Queen Elizabeth has returned home, and so too have the 68,500 spectators who poured into Jamestown in May to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in North America.

Virginia tourism officials, however, don’t believe the party’s over. In fact, according to Alisa Bailey, president and chief executive of the Virginia Tourism Corp.(VTC), the state is likely to receive dividends on its investment for years to come.

Thanks to infrastructure improvements, promotional efforts and media exposure, “we think this is really going to put the idea of Virginia as a destination in the forefront of travelers’ minds,” says Bailey.

Jack Berry, president and CEO of the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, notes that Virginia’s most valuable tourism product has always been history. “This was just a wonderful campaign that drove that point home,” he says.

While the three-day Jamestown festival didn’t draw as many visitors as the event could have accommodated (90,000), Bailey says state officials were “ecstatic and very gratified” about the attendance. Just as importantly, they were thrilled by the media coverage, which attracted national and international television news outlets.

“Unless you’re Coca-Cola, you just can’t buy the kind of media attention the state has received as a result of this,” says Bailey. “People now know that we’re here, they’ve got a better sense of what we have to offer, and they know the Jamestown story a lot better. So when they think about planning a trip, they’re going to say, ‘I really want to go down there and see it and experience it too.’”

Based on anecdotal informa­tion from various museums and attractions, the state has definitely seen an uptick in tourism activity so far this year, according to Bailey. Official numbers on the direct impact of the Jamestown factor, however, won’t be known until the end of the year.