Economy's toll on our tourist towns

Last week about this time I was lucky enough to be driving around the back roads of Texas Hill Country, enjoying the twists and turns and majestic scenery.

Late one afternoon, needing a break to stretch my legs and mine the AAA guide for a likely-looking motel, I buzzed down Highway 281 into Johnson City – hometown of the 36th President of the United States.

Vintage storefronts, antique shoppes, the LBJ boyhood home, eateries. Perfect. I rustled up my guidebook and headed for an eclectic-looking tavern next-door to an old mill. Its door was propped wide open – but not in welcome mode, unfortunately. The interior was dismantled and the fixtures were being lugged out to curb. “We closed down,” the owner told me apologetically.

Further investigation showed that most of village’s antique and gift emporiums were shuttered as well – some for the day, some permanently. I backtracked a ways and found a sort of breakfast diner that also boasted a four-table tavern area and a TV tuned to CNN. The sole employee apologized for being out of Lone Star beer; demand was so sparse that they only had stocked the ubiquitous national brand.

“It’s just been really slow around here since everything changed,” she said, gazing out at the deserted main drag. “Nothing going on.”

It stands to reason that Johnson City isn’t the only tourist town struggling after two years of recession. If you’ve got one of these quaint crossroads in your region – and most of us have – it might be time for a checkup. How was their summer, and how do they plan to weather the cooler months? This story screams for a narrative, building-by-building census, detailing the history and fate of each storefront and small business person. Online, an interactive pop-up map, slide show and behind-the-scenes video would complement your prose.

To augment your anecdotes and balance the tendency of business boosters to accentuate the positive, contact the state treasury department for sales, use and hotel occupancy tax revenue data, so you can analyze the trends. (Check with counties too; tax levy systems vary by jurisdiction.) Review bankruptcy filings and talk with local lenders and landlords about small-business struggles.

If you don’t have a town nearby with a critical mass of tourist trade, find some other local attraction – a ski or sports resort, theme park, museum. Readers love the inside scoop on local landmarks and the leisure industry is a natural for an entertaining and informative business feature.

Here are some links to get you started:

U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a related site with quick links to local chambers and visitors bureaus nationwide.
RoadsideAmerica.com, a guide to offbeat tourist attraction
Waterparks.com
Amusement Today, an online trade paper for theme and water parks, carnivals and other parts of the leisure sector; be sure to check out the helpful links to other industry groups.
American Hotel and Lodging Association with 11,000 hospitality-industry members nationwide.
American Independent Business Alliance and the National Federation of Independent Businesses
These lobbying groups tend to focus on anti-chain-store activities but may be a good conduit to local entrepreneurs groups.
ConventionBureaus.com, a rudimentary but helpful online directory of some 2,000 local groups.

Perhaps you’ll find more than doom and gloom. Here's how Jerome Weeks put together a multimedia package for North Texas's KERA public broadcasting of how an entrepreneur snapped up most of a moribund town and is trying to revive it as an arts center.


Come back to Your Daily Tipsheet each morning for advice on where to find sources, background and creative ways to make financial news and trends relevant to your audience.

Taking the Temperature of Tourism

Even though the calendar says it’s been summer for less than a month, we’re about halfway through “fiscal summer” – the vacation and tourism season that runs from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.

This midway point is a logical moment to do a checkup on the travel and tourism business in your state or region. And even though by most accounts the weather and the economy are conspiring in 2009 against a blockbuster season, a tourism story is hard to beat for a lively and engaging business read.

They’re also good opportunities to incorporate multimedia features – like video or a slide show – into your Web presentation. Interact with your audience by asking your Web editor to post a survey (“How much are you spending on vacations this year?”) with the story, or a showcase for readers’ own travel photos. Perhaps a weather outlook graphic or a map of road construction projects would be a good fit, depending on your angle. Bring your stay-at-home reader into the experience with a camera’s-eye view from a new thrill ride or tour of a cheese-making plant.

Sources abound. Generally, you’ll want to start with your state statistics office to get a feel for how large the industry looms in your territory. (And rest assured there is some angle – not every region can boast Disneyworld but someone, somehow in your neck of the woods depends on travelers for part of his or her livelihood.) This directory of government Web sites includes links to all of the state tourism offices; while aimed primarily at consumers, most feature a media page with contact information, FAQs and economic impact figures. The visitor info will provide you with leads on attractions you can call for input, from state parks to motorsports tracks to tribal casinos. Each state’s AAA branch keeps tabs of tourism activity, too.

Other voices you’ll want to hear from are as diverse as vacation-rental managers, local motel franchisees, campgrounds operators, chambers of commerce, RV sales and rental dealers, marinas, tour guides, bars and boutiques. You may want to home in on one sector, if it’s huge in your area, but try to avoid the trap of the perfunctory annual “boat sales” story if that’s commonplace to your readers. Find something quirky and off the beaten track instead. Festivals.com offers a fascinating 40,000-strong list of gatherings and shows; sign up at the site to sort by date and locale for events in your area.

And of course, get out there and talk to tourists, whether they’re on a full-time road trip or area residents splashing away a day at the water park. Ask what they’re spending on, what they’re scrimping on and how their leisure budget stacks up this year compared to previous seasons.

Anecdotes are appealing, but keep in mind that most industry representatives will put a positive spin on even the most dismal season. Make sure you probe for hard numbers. Don’t overlook the financial performance of publicly traded travel and leisure companies headquartered or having a large influence in your area. If you’re not sure, here’s link to MarketWatch Inc.’s tracking site for the Dow Jones Travel and Leisure index, which will point you to major players. The companies’ investor relations Web sites generally will post a list of industry analysts you can call for comment. While some analysts are guarded in discussing specific stocks, many will give you an overview of this year’s seasonal ups and downs.

Come back to Your Daily Tipsheet each morning for advice on where to find sources, background and creative ways to make financial news and trends relevant to your audience.