Alliance Working on Creating Lodging Task Force

By Desiree Parker Friday, November 11, 2011

The Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance is working on creating a Lodging Task Force made up of Alliance members who will tackle the serious issues facing the Triangle lodging industry.

“Our lodging sector has been under stress for a number of years now,” says Alliance President Dick Schreiber. “There has been considerable conversation and rhetoric on the topic, but not much getting together.” This task force is an opportunity for representatives of all areas of the industry to see if they can come up with some ideas on what can be done.

“We have an obligation to our members to improve economic conditions,” Schreiber says.

Currently, the Alliance has 36 member businesses that fall under the “accommodations” grouping in its membership listing, and seven timeshare resorts along with various guest houses and campgrounds.The Williamsburg Hotel Motel Association is a member of the Alliance, and WHMA President Billy Scruggs, whose Fife and Drum Inn is listed as a member business, will co-chair the task force along with President of Colonial Williamsburg’s Hospitality Group John Hallowell.

According to Schreiber, the group will conduct analysis of some issues facing the industry including looking at supply and demand factors and lodging trends in the Triangle and elsewhere, and then members will come up with recommendations they would like to share with various organizations in the area.

The group is being created to tap into “the combined knowledge of the industry and come up with recommendations that haven’t been suggested yet,” Schreiber says, and to help industry members “make their sector more successful.”

This task force is just a way to “put a toe in the water” when it comes to tackling the issue, but Schreiber says, “I think the process will prove to be invaluable.”

For now, the task force will be temporary, but “if the group feels it is important to for a continuing relationship,” then it would likely continue, he says.

The Alliance’s Vice President for Tourism Bob Harris will work as group facilitator; Schreiber says he’ll not be involved to make sure he doesn’t influence the group. The task force's organization is currently being developed, and the first meeting is expected to happen in December.

The Alliance has collected some initial lodging-related data over the last year or so. Last year, it shared a report on timeshare business helping to muscle out hotels when it comes to picking up guests (read a story on that report here).

It also commissioned a tourism analysis last year comparing Williamsburg to some comparable destinations in the country (read more about the report results here).

About two years ago, roughly 25 hoteliers along with a few restaurants withdrew their membership to the Alliance, citing a dissatisfaction with the organization's handling of tourism marketing.