Todays Free Lance Star Editorial references King George. Supervisors in King George County have a peculiar—even bizarre—attitude when it comes to tourism in the county. Who needs it?, they say. Who would want to come here anyway? They sound like the police officer directing traffic around an accident scene: Move along, nothing to see here. Let’s review comments at a recent board meeting. Supervisor Dale Sisson Jr. is not interested in bringing “droves of people into our county.” Board Chairman Joe Grzeika agreed, adding, “[W]e’re not looking to be Kings Dominion.” Supervisor Cedell Brooks Jr. summed it up. “There’s not a lot of stuff people would come to see.” County residents must be wondering whether to just laugh at these guys, or try to shake some sense into them. It’s doubtful that this is the sort of attitude voters are looking for. Where does one begin? As the Gateway to the Northern Neck, King George County is situated between the beautiful Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, smack in the middle of one of the nation’s most historic regions. The Fredericksburg area and the Northern Neck enjoy perhaps the best tourism there is—historic tourism. It is low-impact tourism, not the kind that brings “droves of people,” and obviously not the Kings Dominion sort of crowds. As the Northern Neck Tourism Commission puts it, “Experience the road less traveled.” It’s a quiet but steady kind of tourism with people who come to visit your parks, explore your natural beauty, enjoy a meal and sample your wine and oysters. They aren’t likely to commit crimes or cause traffic jams. But they will probably leave behind a few bucks that the county didn’t have before. And those dollars can be reinvested in making people feel more welcome, or the county can choose to ignore the opportunity. This issue emerged when supervisors indicated a preference to sending tourism tax revenues to the general fund, even as one board member pointed out that state code requires such funds be spent on tourism-related initiatives. The law aside, it seem a no-brainer to use the revenues to beget more tourism. It’s easy money. It takes a while, but if you look hard enough on the King George County website you can find a paragraph that lists the county’s parks and historic sites. Right there it says, “The county has many points of interest ” Much easier to find is the tab on starting a business in the county, which is curious given that the supervisors see no reason to get to know the county in the first place. New motto: “King George—Nice place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit here.” That’s a tough sell. The supervisors did ask economic development director Linwood Thomas to look into producing a map showing county business and tourism sites. He can start by checking the county website, which has one of those. It actually says, “Welcome to King George County.” What a concept.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 13:20:57 +0000
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