Provided by the West Virginia Division of Tourism
Tourism in West Virginia accounts for roughly 44,400 jobs. Visitors to the state have a vast and diverse array of events, locations and activities from which to choose. It is not surprising, then, that the West Virginia Tourism Commission and the Tourism Advisory Committee recently released the results of a report entitled the “West Virginia Ten Year Tourism Plan,” a comprehensive plan to guide investment in and development of the state’s tourism industry over the next 10 years.
Growth in any economic sector requires ongoing attention and wise investment, and tourism is no exception. The West Virginia Legislature charged the Tourism Commission with reviewing the current tourism environment, exploring best practices and developing recommendations for the development of a blueprint for growth in the industry. Given changes in demographics, leisure activity participation and visitor expectations, as well as an increasingly competitive environment from surrounding states, the path to growth must be well thought out and deliberate in order to further the state’s tourism potential. The quality that visitors expect, from the availability of good pre-trip information, attractions and accommodations to accessibility of cellphone signals and access to the Internet, is essential to delivering a valued visitor experience that results in guests who visit again and again. The “West Virginia Ten Year Tourism Plan” reflects the realities of the market along with recommendations to expand on what works and ideas for increasing greater awareness of the state’s vacation value and industry practitioners.
Early on, the expectation was that the plan would identify a single action or investment or several key investments that would accomplish the objective of taking West Virginia tourism to a higher level. It was revealed, however, that the path to growth was marked by a range of investments in all segments of the industry.
A Blueprint for Growth
The tourism industry in West Virginia is an important component of the state’s economy. Growth over the past decade has propelled tourism to the third-largest economic sector in the state, with tremendous upside for continued growth given its attraction base, scale of available markets, regional accessibility and presence of large-scale investments in such things as the Boy Scouts Summit Bechtel complex. At the same time, however, the industry itself is characterized by great diversity in geographic distribution, scale of attractions, accommodations and experience and expertise of its members. The recommendations made through the study target the areas of capital funding, hospitality training, technical assistance, quality of the visitor experience, convention and visitors bureau (CVB) structure, infrastructure, industry recognition and intergovernmental relations.
Capital Funding
Recommendation: Task one of the state universities or colleges that has an active tourism program with creating an inventory of available funding programs to address the lack of knowledge tourism businesses and nonprofit organizations have about funding, marketing and business operations and training, as well as how to access these programs.
Recommendation: Amend the West Virginia Economic Development Authority’s Direct Loan Program to explicitly acknowledge tourism as an industry eligible for funding, and amend the loan program requirements to ensure access by tourism businesses.
Recommendation: Amend the West Virginia Tourism Development Act to remove the cap on the dollar volume of authorized projects, which often prevents participation by small tourism businesses or may prevent several small projects or a large project from receiving funding.
Recommendation: Establish a Product Development Grant Program that would provide grants up to $25,000 on a matching basis to qualified public, private and nonprofit development or enhancement projects for businesses with smaller lending needs who otherwise cannot obtain loans.
Technical Assistance
Recommendation: Task one of the state universities or colleges that has an active tourism program with creating an inventory of available technical assistance programs to address the lack of knowledge tourism businesses and nonprofit organizations have about technical assistance programs and how to access these programs.
Recommendation: Create the West Virginia Tourism Center, which will bring together the resources of West Virginia University Hospitality and Tourism and West Virginia University Extension in collaboration with other colleges and universities as appropriate.
Hospitality and Professional Training
Recommendation: Task one of the state universities or colleges that has an active tourism program with creating an inventory of available training and technical assistance programs to address the lack of knowledge tourism and nonprofit organizations have about the availability of applicable programs and how to access them.
Recommendation: Task Workforce West Virginia with collaborating with West Virginia University to create an online hospitality training program that can be self-administered and autograded, is suitable for local knowledge module add-ons and results in certification upon completion.
Recommendation: Continue career-oriented training programs, such as ProStart, and other programs best suited for an educational setting with existing sponsors, and task the West Virginia Tourism Center with the oversight of hospitality training.
Structure of the State’s Convention & Visitors Bureaus
Recommendation: Amend the hotel/motel tax legislation to limit the number of convention and visitors bureaus to a single organization for each county, and amend legislation to enable separate jurisdictions within a county to retain up to 50 percent of the hotel/motel tax revenues based on a local option decision.
Recommendation: Require all CVBs to participate in the accreditation program of the West Virginia Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus to ensure that all CVBs are meeting minimum acceptable standards of performance in order to promote better industry communications and to provide better access to industry support.
Quality of the Visitor Experience
Recommendation: Use hospitality training and technical assistance programs to enhance the quality of the visitor experience by delivering more knowledgeable frontline employees and management; encourage industry associations to implement or expand voluntary secret shopper and peer review programs and encourage industry associations to provide training to members on managing social media as a tool of quality communication.
Recommendation: Develop sector-specific quality programs that would include development of performance standards, independent assessment of performance and awarding of quality designations.
Infrastructure
Recommendation: Establish representation of the Division of Tourism on government councils that advise on infrastructure decisions.
Recommendation: Prepare a signage master plan to develop a statewide visitor-friendly signage program.
Recommendation: Install high-impact audiovisual presentations in welcome centers to significantly elevate their ability to influence future trip planning and interest in West Virginia.
Industry Recognition
Recommendation: Increase public relations activities touting tourism benefits and opportunities.
Intergovernmental Relations
Recommendation: Create an interagency tourism development council to focus state government agencies on tourism needs and opportunities.
