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Supes To Look At Regional Economic Diversification ReportFriday, October 08, 2010 A regional focus group has recently completed a report on economic diversification, which James City County supervisors will have a chance to discuss on Tuesday. To gear up for the Triangle’s regional master plan set to get underway in 2012, the Historic Triangle Collaborative (a group of tourism industry representatives and local government heads) set up the task force on economic diversification in fall 2009. The group is led by Jim Golden, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at William and Mary and former chairman at the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance. Other members represent Colonial Williamsburg, Kingsmill, the Alliance, the two colleges in the Triangle, and representatives from the three jurisdictions’ economic development divisions.In August, the focus group completed its report on current successes, initiatives and weaknesses in economic diversification in the Triangle along with suggestions for future improvements. Now Williamsburg and James City and York counties are getting a chance to read the report and possibly enact some plans or policies in response. The report (which can be found in its entirety here) begins by pointing out that over the last 20 years, the Historic Triangle has experienced dramatic growth far beyond that in other areas, with an expansion of over 56 percent over two decades versus 24 percent in Hampton Roads and 22 percent in the country. The Triangle is highly concentrated in businesses related to tourism, hospitality and retail, according to the report. The tourism and hospitality sectors accounted for over 40 percent of employment in 2009, while the local lodging current capacity of around 15,000 rooms “exceeds the current demand driven by our two major attractions,” the report finds. Also, at the beginning of the recession in 2008, there was significant expansion in tourism-dependent business, housing and retail, which needed continued high growth to succeed. Not only was there not significant growth, instead, there was a sharp decline due to a devastating and long-lasting recession. “Many of the assumptions of the last decade clearly no longer apply,” the report concludes. “We need to take a new look at our regional economy. While understanding that the three jurisdictions will always have some competing objectives, we need to explore ways in which a regional perspective might open new opportunities. “We need a realistic assessment of our region’s economic potential. We seek mutually beneficial strategies that can be used collaboratively to augment the individual efforts of the three jurisdictions. We want to achieve a more balanced economy that can exploit new opportunities, while simultaneously strengthening and diversifying the tourism sector.” Some of the challenges that face the area include work force issues (not many young professionals), a culture of inertia (fear that change will harm brands and the rise of a ‘no-growth’ attitude), lack of common identity, lack of collaboration, high cost of residential and commercial property, poor transportation, and minimal funding sources. The task force identified six related goals for diversifying the Triangle’s economy. The area should emphasize smaller companies and exploit its position between Richmond and the rest of Hampton Roads; explore revenue sharing projects (including a regional incubator and potential projects along common jurisdictional borders); support entrepreneurs; leverage the substantial capabilities of our major institutions; develop a clear business brand and marketing strategy; and support further diversification in the tourism sector. “Those related strategies recognize regional strengths, promote business scale and composition consistent with our high quality of life, position the region for the recovery, improve regional collaboration, reduce incentives for redundant competition, and leverage existing tourism infrastructure while further diversifying the economic base.” As for tourism, the report stresses the importance of supporting Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens as the main tourism drivers, expanding tourism programming, promoting tourism diversification, and trying to entice a third major attraction to the area. More controversial on their tourism to-do list is the group’s suggestion on how to improve regional tourism cooperation. The report suggests focusing efforts on supporting Colonial Williamsburg’s plan to beef up its visitor center to become a regional center. Thus far, Colonial Williamsburg’s regional information area has been tucked away in a corner of its own visitor center, though CW has said it plans to expand this area. The Williamsburg Hotel Motel Association has been working for months to get its area tourist information center (located in the Kingsmill Shops) recognized by the state to become just such a regional hub, and so far all it lacks to gain approval is the support of the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance (Jim Golden, who chaired the economic diversification task force, is on the Board of the Directors of the Alliance). The HMA plans to continue operating its regional information center. "There is precedent all over the state for multiple centers in one locality, such as Salem/Roanoke, Charlottesville, Richmond and Virginia Beach to name a few," said Priscilla Caldwell, director of operations at the HMA tourist information center. "In these locales, tourist information centers and visitor centers operate in close proximity. The more help we can provide travelers to and through our area, the better." “The HTC should lead efforts to elevate the tone of the discussion about regional tourism and to present a unified image to potential visitors,” according to the task force report. Beyond tourism, the report recommends emphasizing attracting many small businesses versus a few large companies is a good strategy because these businesses are revenue and job generators. Targeting marketing to “clusters” of similar small businesses, such as commercial general contractors, hotel management, civil and environmental engineering, software development and others is one way to accomplish this goal. The report also stresses the need to support entrepreneurs and create a positive environment for young professionals. James City County’s partnership with the College of William and Mary on the Business and Technology Incubator is an example of how to go about this, and the report suggests a similar regional incubator. Revenue sharing is also critical to economic diversification, according to the report, especially when it comes to large projects that need significant acreage. These big projects bring significant benefits to the entire region, and the focus group says “now is the time to identify and agree on the remaining areas that are suitable for such projects and focus some of our collaborative efforts on them.” Working with the three major institutions in the region – Colonial Williamsburg, William and Mary and Thomas Nelson – is also important, the group says. Colonial Williamsburg and William and Mary are strong national and even international brands, and “their presence creates an attractive and stable environment and generates interest among business people and retirees to locate in the Historic Triangle.” The colleges can provide considerable professional expertise that can help individual companies, expand workforce capabilities, and help with regional planning efforts. Developing a business brand is also something the region needs to do, according to the report. “Our area does not have a strong economic development brand beyond tourism, and it does not have a clear vision of what our economic development brand should be,” according to the report. “‘Historic Triangle’ does not evoke strong tourism or business perceptions.” The report suggests the Triangle should develop a brand that is based on a community-wide vision, targets a particular customer or niche, attracts young professionals and implies the high quality of life in the area. The brand label doesn’t need to be limited to “Historic Triangle,” the group believes. James City County Administrator Bob Middaugh distributed the focus group report to the Board of Supervisors to discuss at their upcoming meeting Tuesday evening. In a memo, Middaugh wrote, “the report is quite thorough and very well written, with an abundance of data and ideas on how to diversify the economy and Historic Triangle area. “At a minimum, it is my recommendation to the Board of Supervisors that this report be accepted after the discussion at the Board of Supervisors meeting.” The supervisors will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in building F of the county government complex.
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Comments
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Everybody knows the problems are much more serious than the report implies, especially the catastrophic damage being done to the entire region by Colonial Williamsburg's counter-effecti ve and self-serving leadership.
You can easily read between the lines - CW is likely going to have another down year but is maneuvering to seize yet another 1.5 million dollars in tax bailouts from the city taxpayers.
The report is clearly just another vehicle being used by the self-serving insiders to squash new entrepreneurshi p, such as HMA, in order to protect their own high-paying insider jobs.
Why do we keep getting spineless reports like this - which protect the guilty - rather than unlocking real change? Because the people who generate these reports do so to justify and conserve their own status to the detriment to the rest of the locals.
And my oh my how they pay themselves handsomely for doing it, while the economy their supposed to be leading keeps going down and down and down.