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Tallahassee Democrat

Originally published January 1, 2008

Start 2008 with a day at local tourist spots

By Dave Hodges DEMOCRAT BUSINESS EDITOR

Tourism marketers in Leon County hope visitors and residents will add one more New Year's resolution to their list, namely to visit local attractions and become more familiar with things to do locally.Many parks, museums and points of interest are open today, hoping to lure friends and relatives who are in town to visit kinfolk. They might enjoy a visit to the Challenger Learning Center, a stroll through Maclay Gardens or a bike ride along the St. Mark's Trail.

"We don't have a theme park or a beach, so we have to market Tallahassee differently," said Sharon Liggett, president and CEO of the Tallahassee Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Here, we have many cultural heritage, history and ecotourism amenities."

The goal of tourism promotion, she added, is appealing to people who already have an interest in those activities, and that includes marketing local tourist spots to area residents.

Tourism researcher Mark Bonn agreed. Bonn, who is the Robert H. Dedman professor in services management at the Dedman School of Hospitality in the Florida State University College of Business, noted that visitors come to Tallahassee first and foremost to see family.

"Visiting friends and relatives represents a very big part of our market," he said.

While many guests tend to stay in homes while they visit, Bonn said about 30 percent of visitors opt to stay in hotels, which provides an added boost this time of year, when the lodging business is slow.

Other visitors who don't incur a big hotel bill spend more on dining out while here, research has shown.

Whether the fourth quarter of 2007 had an uptick in visitors won't be known for a few weeks. Liggett said the fall was a busy time, but tourism overall is about even to last year.

"If we can hold our own, we're in pretty good shape," she said.

New experiences at area museums and attractions help considerably, and many are timed to occur during the holidays. The fourth quarter is when Tallahassee historically has its fewest number of visitors; 443,000 people visited Leon County between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2006, which was the lowest number of fourth-quarter visitors since 2001.

Contact Democrat Business Editor Dave Hodges at (850) 599-2321 or dhodges@tallahassee.com.

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