Fight On For Local Tourism Dollars | Bill proposes agency to focus on MetroWest attractions
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CENTER STAGE: The Center for Natick Arts, pictured above, is one MetroWest group that hopes a new tourism bureau would benefit the region.
Talk to leaders of some of the museums, history centers and performance venues in MetroWest and they will tell you there is a robust array of tourist attractions in the region attracting visitors from all over the area and surrounding states.
But something is missing.
As these organizations have grown in size and number they have supported each other informally.
There has never, however, been a unified organization that can inform visitors about the attractions in the area and advocate for the interests of the organizations regarding state issues.
That could change.
State Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, has filed a bill calling for a large-scale reorganization of the state’s economic development and tourism agencies. One provision of the bill calls for the creation of a new MetroWest Tourism Bureau, an official Regional Tourism Council as designated by the state. It would be the 14th such RTC in Massachusetts and would act as an advocacy and promotion group for the region’s tourism attractions.
And while cultural and tourism leaders in MetroWest are excited about the potential benefits of such an organization, some tourism officials outside the region are wondering what spreading limited state tourism dollars across even more organizations will mean for them.
The two RTC’s between the MetroWest area, the Central Massachusetts Visitors Bureau and the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, both represent areas of MetroWest tourist attractions. But local officials and Spilka, among others, say MetroWest has enough to offer as its own regional tourism destination point.
“We’ve always been a step-child to Boston,” said Annie Murphy, executive director of the Framingham History Center. “But if you really look around, we have a lot going on here. We’ve really turned into a cultural corridor.”
Down the street from the History Center in Framingham is the Danforth Musuem, which houses a more than 3,500-piece collection. Also in Framingham is the Amazing Things Cultural Center. And in neighboring Natick is The Center for Arts, a performing arts venue.
David Lavalley, executive director of the Center for Arts in Natick, said he’s excited not just for the marketing partnerships that a tourism bureau would help foster, but also for the advocacy the organization could provide on behalf of the region’s cultural organizations.
For example, Lavalley has been closely monitoring the casino debate in Massachusetts. Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo earlier this month released legislation that would allow for two resort-style casinos to be built in the state and some developers are already eyeing MetroWest as a spot for one.
A casino in the area could have a devastating effect on Lavalley’s nonprofit organization, which runs an annual concert series, among other activities. Allowing a casino that would attract the same types of acts Lavalley’s organization hosts would mean increased competition and less business, he fears.
Having a MetroWest Tourism Bureau, Lavalley said, would help to make sure his interests and those of the other cultural organization in the region are heard during debate of statewide issues, such as casino legislation.
“We’re nervous about it, and I could see a real benefit to having a regional advocate that is focused specifically on cultural organizations in MetroWest,” he said. “We need to have true safeguards to make sure we’re not hurt.”
Looking North
MetroWest isn’t the only area vying for increased tourism attention. An amendment to Spilka’s bill would create two other RTCs, one in North Worcester County and another in Hampden County.
David McKeehan, president of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, said it’s unclear if the amendment will make it through to the final bill, which still must be voted on in the state Senate, House of Representatives and by the governor before becoming law.
The North Central Massachusetts area already has a tourism group named the Johnny Appleseed Trail of North Central Massachusetts, which began about 11 years ago and connects various tourist attractions along Route 2.
“Certainly having a brand for a defined region in order to facilitate its marketing and hospitality industry has been vital,” McKeehan said.
Now that organization could have even greater authority if it too is made into an official RTC by the state legislature.
But not everyone is convinced now is the time to add a new tourism bureaus in the state.
Larry Davis is chairman of the board of directors for the Central Massachusetts Visitors Bureau, which is the tourism clearinghouse for communities from North Worcester County all the way to the Route 9 corridor in Westborough.
“The establishment of any new (state tourism bureau) would have a fairly tremendous effect on all the other RTCs in the state, simply because of the budget cuts we’ve gone through the last couple of years,” he said.
There are only so many tourism dollars to go around, Davis argues, and if another organization is brought into the mix, that means the state’s current 13 official tourism bureaus would likely each take a budget cut. And that’s on top of deep cuts the organizations have already taken in the past years. The RTC’s are currently funded through a portion of the hotels and meals taxes collected by the state.
“When you don’t have money, that’s not the time to expand,” Davis said.
Spilka said she’s conscious of the importance of having a funding source for new RTC’s that are created and she said if the tourism bureaus are created she would work to get new funding sources for them. But she could not say where that money would come from.
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