Smooth Sailin': Is it time to tap the brakes on the city's tourism promotions?
Posted: August 31, 2015 - 12:16am
By BOB TIS
The party this weekend is a big deal. I’m sure it will be a blast and it will also give us the opportunity to speak among ourselves as residents of the Ancient City about our future. The bounty from the tourist trade has given the residents of this area a unique opportunity to chart an independent course, and that should be celebrated.
This idea might not be popular with certain bigwigs, but I think that after this weekend’s gala events, Rick Goldman and his promotion team down at the Visitors Convention Bureau should take a year or two off. St. Johns County might also consider scaling back the massive funding the Tourist and Development Council receives to entice tourists to come back to the area. Both these groups should get a big “thank you” — they have done a fantastic job.
The nonprofit VCB, and the TDC (funded by a bed tax on hotel rooms) are both made up mostly of people who own local hotels and tourist business. They have really put St. Augustine on the map. Not that we haven’t been on the map since 1565, but now we are on the map as a place that has plenty of hotel rooms, restaurants and countless attractions.
The mission of the nonprofit VCB, which curiously is also known as “St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and The Beaches,” has always been simple: to line the pockets of their members. Their mission statement suggests that they want to “brand” this area as a “destination” of historical significance, natural beauty and cultural vitality.
Well, mission accomplished. By now, everyone has seen our name on a list of the best, cutest, happiest and friendliest cities in the United States. The Weather Channel will be broadcasting from the Bayfront this weekend, and plenty of other national media outlets will be on the story. Anyone who has spent any time at the beach at all knows that over-exposure can often be a bad thing.
And anyone who has ever dabbled in a shaky stock market knows that you should really diversify your portfolio.
Do we need more hotel rooms, restaurants and attractions? No. Should the residents of the Ancient City be asked to endure another street-clogging, parking-place-stealing, weekendlong festival at Francis Field? Definitely not. Would more train tours guided through the narrow byways of the Ancient City add to our ambiance? Hardly.
In fact, if Goldman needs a new project, St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and The Beaches probably could stand to attract some jobs that are not focused on tourism.
Clearly, Goldman, who previously put Amelia Island on the map, and his team should be commended. Certainly the six-figure salary the nonprofit pays the VCB CEO for selling something like the beaches — that belong to the people of St. Johns County — is a partial recompense for the many dollars he has no doubt helped to trickle down to the people. Maybe now is the time to concentrate on making sure the jobs that have been secured in the tourist industry pay a living wage?
Goldman had the opportunity recently to complain to the St. Johns County TDC that all the hotel rooms in the Ancient City were not sold out yet because a “street festival did not appeal” to his “regular” visitors.
Good. Hopefully Goldman’s regular visitors will stay in Ohio or wherever they come from this weekend.
Maybe for once this party can focus on the residents of St. Augustine who graciously put up with the business-as-usual tourist hoopla on a regular basis.
Goldman has crowed that 5.3 million tourists dropped about $1.6 billion in this region last year. No doubt this a boon.
But the solipsistic mind set that expanding on that windfall is the best way to go could sink St. Augustine.
Maybe it is time to take the good feeling and unity from a gathering like this birthday party and set a course for a better destination, before we are mistaken for Fort Lauderdale.
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