Well, it’s on my website for one thing. The Tourism Development Council has already done all of that work (see the executive summary, presentation, and full report) and has been using it to work on promoting our area.
The Town of Christiansburg wants to take a good portion of that money back and start from scratch in creating their own tourism program. Well, look at the reality of what such an undertaking requires and what the Town has done thus far (see the tourism study by me report):
- The Town of Christiansburg has done an extremely poor job of promoting this excellent source of revenue over the years (except for parks and rec. department which has had Art Price working hard for sporting events).
- The Town of Christiansburg has no plan for how that money is to be used.
- The Town of Christiansburg has no staff with the background experience and training necessary to support such efforts.
My personal opinion would be that rather than start from scratch on another unplanned project (Aquatic Center comes to mind) that the Town leave things alone for now and takes some time to study the situation and begin doing some of the small things that they ARE capable of doing right now. This will allow them time to work out issues, discover problems, and find solutions BEFORE they jump off that diving board (yes, I mean make sure there is water in the pool before you jump). We do not need ‘knee-jerk’ reactions without proper planning and coordinating to serve as another sink-hole for public funds.
A program for promotion of tourism does not develop overnight. It will take several years and a lot of work before the Town would show it is having an effect. Multiple free sources for promoting events or themed areas are already available and the Town has not made use of them. The Town has had a website for more than 10 years that did not help promote tourism. Why on earth would they expect people to believe they are ready to do so now?
The TDC has been working on this, knowing that it would take time to get the ball rolling and yet they already present sufficient facts in their reports to indicate to me that they are making progress.
So, let’s cut off money going to something that is working (albeit slowly – because it takes time to build a reputation). The Town needs to be making competent use of the resources it already has before it starts demanding more. What is there on the NEW and better website to promote tourism? Why hasn’t the town working on getting signage established to help people find things in Christiansburg? Maybe that is what some of that big chunk of money in reserves should be used for. You have to invest in order to obtain a return. When you have a failure to invest the time and energy into a garden you already have to be able to harvest from it, why in the world would you try to get someone else to donate their time and money to till a bigger garden for you.
Hitting businesses with more and more taxes, then turning around, hat in hand, begging for more money just isn’t going to work in today’s economy. It’s time to deal with reality and take active steps rather than flapping lips to make things happen.
