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The Fredericksburg Welcome Center on I-95 has a variety of brochures from attractions throughout the region.
Visitors look over a selection of brochures yesterday |
BY KELLY HANNON
There is an unwritten policy at Virginia welcome centers.
Guests at the state-funded tourist offices can help themselves to a few brochures about local attractions. Just keep it to two brochures or fewer.
Maria Sutton, 26, of Spotsylvania County ran into this limit when she stopped at the welcome center on I-95 in Fredericksburg.
Sutton, who works at Marine Corps Base Quantico, was putting together conference packets for a group of visiting Marines and their spouses.
Sutton stopped at the center on a weekday afternoon in June. She began perusing the brochures and taking handfuls.
A welcome center staff member approached Sutton and told her she was limited to two brochures for each attraction because the center stocks a limited supply.
"They said they get a lot of event planners who stop and clear out their racks, and real estate agents," Sutton said.
Sutton assumed the welcome center was the natural place to go for such materials, since it's on a public highway and funded with taxpayer dollars. "I think it's ridiculous to have brochures for free for people to take but not let them take them," Sutton said. "It's kind of counterintuitive."
Sutton left and went to a local Hampton Inn, where the staff encouraged her to take as many tourist brochures as she wanted from the kiosk in the hotel's lobby.
Virginia welcome centers are usually located within interstate rest areas. The Virginia Department of Transportation pays to maintain the rest area--the restrooms, the parking--but the Virginia Tourism Corp. staffs and funds the welcome centers, where the tourism brochures and maps are located.
Richard Lewis, public relations manager for the Virginia Tourism Corp., said the state agency is happy to provide pamphlets in large numbers when people contact the Richmond office to request them.
"We have people call us quite frequently who are planning events and they say they need 20 of those and 50 of that, and that's wonderful," Lewis said.
Welcome centers are different because of the high volume of traffic passing through, Lewis said.
"They see hundreds and hundreds or maybe even thousands of people a day, and I bet the things just fly out of those brochure racks," Lewis said.
The two-brochure limit is not posted, but Lewis said he'll suggest welcome centers do so in the future. "You always want the public to feel at ease," Lewis said.
PROFITABLE PROMOTION
Virginia makes money by allowing businesses to display brochures at welcome centers. During 2008, attractions were charged $20 to $240 a month per welcome center to display brochures, depending on the number and style of display. There are 11 welcome centers around the state.
"Assisting more than three million travelers annually, our Virginia Welcome Centers can significantly impact the travel patterns of visitors to Virginia. Ensure that your organization is well represented by participating in the VTC's Brochure Program," reads the Virginia Tourism Corp. Web site.
The Web site emphasizes the centers' ability to reach local residents.
"Each VWC distributes and promotes information for Virginia as a whole, but each VWC also influences travelers within its region. It is at this local and regional level that industry partners can really increase visibility and awareness," it states.
When welcome center staff notice that a brochure is running low, they contact the attraction, hotel or restaurant to see if it wants to restock them, Lewis said.
State policy requires attractions to pay for shipping the brochures.
Sutton contacted state tourism officials to ask about the limit, and a staff member encouraged her to contact the publishers of the individual brochures she wanted.
A SERVICE TO TOURISTS
Guests may have more success picking up materials at Fredericksburg-area tourism offices.
Julie Perry, manager of the Fredericksburg Visitors Center at 706 Caroline St., said her staff frequently pulls together free folders of information for tourists, wedding guests, reunions and corporate events.
Perry estimates the center gives away thousands of folders a year, each containing a mix of information on regional attractions. The folders contain information printed using local tourism funds. "It's a regular service," Perry said.
There's no charge to display tourism information at the visitors center, but local attractions pay printing costs. "Like the welcome center, we are careful about the distribution of other people's printed materials," Perry said.
Before Perry fulfills a request for an abnormally large number of outside brochures, she checks with the organization. The requests can be large. At the moment, a request is pending for 750 brochures from a local service, Perry said.
If the organization says it is OK, she will send them out. Otherwise, she may advise the group to contact the publisher of the brochure directly, or to use abbreviated information included in the regional guide printed with local funds.
"Our visitor guide does include all our attractions," Perry said. "It's a comprehensive piece."
TAPPING OTHER SOURCES
At the Spotsylvania County Visitor Center, supervisor Debbie Aylor said she's happy to work with tourists and groups on a case-by-case basis to provide packets of materials. There's no charge to display brochures at the visitors center, and there is no set limit on materials.
However, Aylor does keep an eye on the number of brochures being taken.
The center does get repeat visitors who take handfuls of the same brochures day after day to send out as "feelers" to potential real estate clients, not committed people moving to the area or tourists, Aylor said. That is not why the tourism center exists, she said, and printing is expensive.
"It costs so much to do," Aylor said.
The Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce prints a relocation guide for new residents that may be useful for real estate agents, Perry said.
The guide is free and copies are available at the Chamber's office at 2300 Fall Hill Ave., Suite 240, in Fredericksburg.
Sales directors at local hotels are another resource for groups, Perry said. While booking a block of rooms, guests can ask about tourism materials, she said.
"I think there are a lot of ways to get the material you need," Perry said.
But Sutton thinks it shouldn't matter where a person picks up material, as long as it's going to tourists. "I would think the publishers and the places that create the brochures would want to promote them," Sutton said.
Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com
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