What do local leaders believe makes Orange County attractive to visitors?
That’s the question recently asked and answered by the Orange County Visitors Bureau, after it rolled out a third-party study last fall to see how aligned its community is as to why people should come visit. After sifting through the data, the bureau recently released the results and noticed some clear trends.
To help conduct an objective survey, the Orange County Visitors Bureau turned to a familiar name: Shelly Green. Green was the first executive director of the bureau in 1992 before going on to work with the Asheville Visitors Bureau and Discover Durham. Now employed with the consultant company MMGY NextFactor, she helps other destination marketing groups with their strategies and projects like this survey.
Green said the DestinationNext study has been used for a decade across 400 different communities. She began talking with current executive director Laurie Paolicelli in late 2022 about implementing it, tweaked it to fit Orange County’s geography, and rolled it out in November 2023. Hearing from local leaders like business owners, elected officials, tourism partners, prominent residents and customers, Green said Orange County had a strong pool to pull data from.
“There were 228 respondents for this survey,” she told Chapelboro in an interview. “For a community of this size, that’s a fantastic turnout.”
The survey looks at two elements of respondents’ answers: their feelings on the destination strength – or what makes it attractive to visitors – and the community’s alignment with supporting and complimenting tourism.
“That gets into, like, does the business community support what you’re doing with visitors and tourism? How’s your workforce development – do you have enough employees out there to get the job done? Those kinds of things.”
After the survey was finished, the visitors bureau held a gathering for community leaders at the Carolina Inn to go over the data and discuss the takeaways in breakout sessions. Paolicelli said leading up to the event, she felt nervous about hearing the results from a survey she had no control over.
“Shelly had total reign and objectivity, had no influence from us,” said the executive director. “I had nightmares of walking into this presentation [and her] saying, ‘Sorry guys, you are really behind the eight-ball as a visitors bureau and as a destination to visit.’”
Thankfully, Paolicelli said, that concern was unfounded. Orange County’s community members ranked the area in the top quadrant for both destination strength and alignment on variables posed in the survey.
Among the destination strength options, respondents rated the area’s cultural and heritage attractions, outdoor recreation options and sporting events very highly. They also said the community promotes good health and safety, and provides attractive dining, shopping, and entertainment choices. Those who took the survey also said they were aligned in understanding the importance of tourism to the county’s economic development and felt like they receive consistent support from the local governments.
“Overall, the community reacted very positively to the strength of the destination,” said Green. “But they also told us what the little pain points were that somebody needs to look at.”
Some of the biggest areas that locals scored poorly, according to the survey, are regional mobility and the lack of events and festivals. Green added that other areas where people feel strongly are the presence of unsheltered populations and concerns over the workforce – although she said Orange County’s scores are still higher than other places surveyed with DestinationNext.
Other issues the respondents aligned on largely revolved around access for those in the workforce. Orange County scored relatively poorly in access to affordable housing, healthcare options and daycare options, according to survey answers.
It’s not just Chapel Hill and Carrboro’s downtowns that attract visitors, but also Hillsborough historical downtown. Respondents to the DestinationNext survey indicated people had a desire to see more events and festivals locally, like the Handmade Parade in Hillsborough that went on hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo via Visit Hillsborough.)
Green said in the responses, there were no significant differences between community affiliation; generally, most everyone agreed on how they felt about supporting tourism and the community. The surveyor said that stood out – as did the data of what parts of Orange County people said they’re from or engage with the most. The categories available were Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough and Rural Orange County, but Green said there were more people who chose two of those options than in other studies.
“By saying, ‘Who do you identify with,’ we thought that was a better way of getting at [where someone spends their time],” she said. “What we didn’t anticipate was that almost 70 percent of the people who responded selected more than one community [in the county].”
With this data, Paolicelli said the Orange County Visitors Bureau will move forward with affirmation of community alignment and in its strategies of attracting more visitors. She added she believes quantifying people’s views of what needs to be improved should also encourage her organization and others in Orange County to better step up.
“I was really happy to see that we have what people want in a destination,” Paolicelli said. “If we rank so high as a satisfying destination, a place that people want to visit… then I think it’s worth it for us to invest in those areas that are showing some troublesome feedback, so that we can help ensure a healthier and safe community for the future.”
The full breakdown of Orange County’s DestinationNext survey, as presented to the visitors bureau at the Carolina Inn, can be found here.
Featured photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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