Tourism and Trails is Dollars and Sense

By Big Jim Charles


Awhile back somebody on the Trail Rider's Community web page asked a
question about up to date information regarding the economic impact of
the Hatfield-McCoy Trails.
I have been laid up following surgery for a few weeks unable to
access news stories I did in the past about tourism and the trails.
But over the past few weeks I have been looking this stuff up for you
guys and gals so you can see what effect you have had on our region.
And it has been a more major impact than most would ever have
imagined!
In 2010 a special Tourism Roundtable came to Southern West Virginia
Community Technical College at their Logan Campus and Hatfield-McCoy
was a major player.
Jane Bostic of the West Virginia Division of Tourism welcomed the
guests and explained the purpose of the meeting was to help area
businesses to network with others who dealt with tourism to better
assist them with working together.
Bostic also distributed new research material about the economic
impact of tourism in West Virginia from a study done from 2008
figures. The information was compiled by Dean Runyon Associates.
The total amounts of which came as a surprise to many in attendance
who had no idea how much money tourism was generating in the
mountains.
* Travel spending amounted to $4.3 billion and created 44,000 jobs
which generated $544 million in revenues in the Mountain State for the
period studied (2008). Local travel alone generated $47 million.
Travel spending in West Virginia increased every year from 2000. Such
spending brought in a total earnings of $912 million.
Without the revenues from visitors each household in the state would
have had to have contributed an extra $799 a year in state and local
taxes to maintain current state service levels.
The local impact was also staggering. Mind you, when I say, "Local
Impact" I am talking specifically about HATFIELD-MCCOY RIDERS in the
trail communities.
* In 2008, Logan County saw $51.8 million spent by tourists which
brought in $150,000 in local tax revenues.
* Mingo County saw $28.3 million in tourism spending which brought in
$128,000 in tax revenues.
* Boone County saw $33.5 million brought in by tourists which
amounted to $83,000 in tax revenues.
The states' biggest winner from tourism was Jefferson County which
saw $729 million in tourist spending for a total of $10 million in tax
revenues.
"Tourism pays," Bostic said, noting that it was also changing the
way people viewed West Virginia.
The primary purpose of the meeting was networking and a lot of people
found others to talk with about what they did and their interests.
Jim Frye of the Aracoma Story Inc. and Pepsi met with Gilbert Mayor
Vivian Livingood and discussed the outdoor dramas at Chief Logan Park
and the many different ways of drawing visitors to small southern West
Virginia towns.
Mayor Livingood was there to see what opportunities there were for
her town, which was why she attended the tourism round table.
Livingood, who is also the director of the Gilbert convention and
visitors bureau said her town has grown dramatically over the past
decade due to the increase in tourism brought in by the Hatfield-McCoy
trails.
"Tourism has changed us and we have to come on board and grow with
it," she said. "And you meet so many nice visitors. During the recent
floods we actually had trail riders and tourists who came and brought
cleaning supplies and wanted to help out. These were tourists who came
back to help. When you experience that, you realize you are still
living in a good America."
Other local CVB directors were also present at the roundtable.
Debbie Carver spoke with many people about how they could work
together for mutual benefit and to help those interested in visiting
the Mountain State.
She noted the tremendous impact the Hatfield-McCoy trails have had on
tourism in West Virginia pointing to motorcycle enthusiasts who are
now coming to the region in droves.

Hatfield-McCoy's Deputy Director Jon Fekete was also there, with
Executive Director Jeff Lusk and others from the Hatfield-McCoy
Regional Recreation Authority.
"We constantly have vendors and others asking us to do more for them
and this meeting was a very well planned out concept that could have
done just that for a lot of potential entrepreneurs.
Fekete himself took the opportunity to talk with representatives of
a customer service company who he felt might have the ability to
provide some much needed help to the Hatfield-McCoy Trails authority
in providing information to potential visitors, and spoke with Mayors
Nolletti and Livingood about municipal issues.
Hatfield-McCoy's executive director Jeff Lusk discussed the success
the trails have had with others in the tourism business and spoke
about areas of opportunity.
Betty Carver said another important side benefit from tourism was how
it changed peoples misperceptions about West Virginia and rural
Appalachia for the better by destroying old stereotypes.
"They are happy and excited to find out when they get here that West
Virginia is not like what they sometimes expected from outdated
views," she said. "When they leave they have a whole different
attitude about our state and they tell others how enjoyable they found
it."

Also in 2010, Executive Director Christie Bailey of the Coal Heritage
Highway Authority and the National Coal Heritage Area Authority
discussed local tourism and heritage projects across the region in
July when she was the special guest speaker for the Rotary Club of
Logan.
Bailey is a resident of Pineville and a member of the Wyoming County
Economic Development Board. She explained that the Coal Heritage
Highway Authority and the Coal Heritage Area Authority were designed
by the National Park Service to recommend local spots for preservation
as part of the scenic byways program.
"It is promoted through the federal government," she said. "The Coal
Heritage Area is one of 40 heritage areas designated because o a
nationally known historically significant story. It is part of the
industrial development of our country and that part of history.
Remember, without coal you would not have had a steel manufacturing
industry."
Some 12 communities are a part of the National Park Service
designated areas and have a mission of using tourism to boost economic
development. Currently Bailey's organization is working on the New
River building in Mount Hope and is setting up offices there and a
gift shop. It is expected to be finished by 2013. She said that when
it is done a national Boy Scout Jamboree will bring thousands to the
town.
Another project in McDowell County is to set up a park near one of
Henry Ford's old mines. One in Logan is the Country Roads Scenic
Byways Interpretive Center which will be located on the corridor.
Funding is in place and the design plans are done. The center will be
a visitors' center with displays for the public and brochures about
local amenities.
"We are also working on a museum in Boone County," she said, noting
that the Beckley Exhibition coal mine gets 55,000 visitors a year. "It
is one of our biggest projects. We try to get people to visit smaller
communities which are more authentic."
She said Hatfield-McCoy had made a major impact in the state showing
how well tourism can work.
The Matewan Depot and Hawks Nest Rail Trail are also projects
Baileys' organizations are involved with.
"We are always looking for coal heritage projects, like the
Williamson Railroad Museum," she said, noting that locally heritage
tourism brought in $4.3 billion in new money to West Virginia in 2008
and helped support 44,000 jobs. Unfortunately the Obama
administration has slashed budgets for heritage tourism projects to
the bone, she noted.
In 2006, Jeff Lusk saw the impact was getting bigger and bigger than
anybody expected when he realized the Hatfield-McCoy Trails might
eventually overtake the Whitewater Rafting industry in West Virginia
as the state's top tourism draw.
"We will be the biggest tourism draw in the state eventually and we
are getting there rapidly," Lusk said.
Jeff Lusk is not a newcomer to believing in the success of the trails.
In fact, he was there in the beginning.
"In 1993, Paul McCallister, Left Moore, Mike Whit and I used to meet
at the Depot restaurant in Matewan about this new and great idea," he
quipped. "Needless to say, we were not as popular back then as we are
now."
Lusk pointed out that less than a decade later and their are over 500
miles of managed trails in a system that has nine counties signed on
for more.
"Right now, we are the largest state managed trail system in the
nation and the best," Lusk said. "We have a unique niche. No other
state will ever catch up to us."
Lusk points out that it is easier to create a large outdoor trail
system in West Virginia than in other states because so much of the
vast tracts of land needed are owned by a few land companies, which
means that there are less people to work out land useage deals with.
"Many of our out of state riders are from Ohio," he said. "The land
ownership pattern in Ohio is not conducive to having big ATV trail
systems there. There are just too many small property owners to deal
with."
Lusk points out that the Hatfield-McCoy
Regional Recreation Authority has emphasized ATV safety from day one,
and has been influential in the passage of safety oriented
legislation.
Currently the Authority is sending rangers to school systems in the 8
original counties to promote ATV safety and awareness among young
people with a special CD Rom from the National Off-Highway Vehicle
Conservation Council. All full time rangers are certified with the
ATV Safety Institute as ATV safety instructors as well.
This expertise on safety came in handy when the Authority stepped in
to help the Outfitters located in the state who were facing financial
hardships due to insurance rates and possible lawsuits.