The wherewithal of local tourism was the focal point of a presentation given earlier in the week to the Chapel Hill Town Council on behalf of the Orange County Visitors Bureau.

The presentation was made by the bureau’s executive director, Laurie Paolicelli, who explained that visitors recognize the particular combination of services and style within the county.

“The panoply of assets and services that we trade and that we give to the visitor is really making us a unique destination that you just don’t find other places,” she stated.

According to Paolicelli, understanding this combination and how it attracts visitors is crucial to bolstering the local economy and retaining guests as permanent residents.

“It’s about asking the customers what they like, why they’re coming, why they’re spending, and why they’re tending to move to other communities around us instead of our own Orange County communities,” she claimed.

Paolicelli also noted that the appeal of metro areas in the county may be attributed to municipal development plans that attempt to minimize gentrification while maximizing amenities.

“Our tourism success is as tied to historic preservation as it is to economic development,” she noted. “Our tourists’ first comments are, ‘This is not a gentrified place.'”

Based on Paolicelli’s statements, a decrease in statewide tourism as a result of legislation passed by the North Carolina General Assembly may force municipalities to find new ways to attract visitors.

“You have 30 percent more hotel rooms coming online, and HB2 [House Bill 2], so the message there from our board is, ‘Can we work as a community to generate more demand,'” she posed.

Council members were asked by Paolicelli to consider the sports fields and theaters that metro areas in neighboring counties developed to address this issue.

“We’ve already approved these properties; we’ve already approved mixed-used development that has parcels zone for hotels,” she explained. “If we’re going to see more and more growth in this industry, we must be prepared with demand generators.”

Figures released by Paolicelli specified that the tourism industry in the county generated $184 million last year, which is a 185-percent increase over revenue made from visitors in 1992.

Photo by Orange County Visitors Bureau.

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