The Fraught Nature of Tourism

By Charles Houston

Visit Loudoun has been meeting with various groups touting the importance of its mission – bringing more tourists to Loudoun. Its influential president, Beth Erickson, comes armed with a presentation focused on a survey it commissioned. VL also has a nifty booklet with a county map in the centerfold, locating the forty-five wineries and thirty breweries in Loudoun. (That many?)

Take a look at VL’s very professional website, www.visitloudoun.org to understand what it is, and what it does. 

Erickson’s tour has put VL in the spotlight, which has prompted a close examination of the organization, its survey and its aims and claims. There are skeptics, particularly many conservationists who worry that too much tourism is incompatible with our campestral values. 

Tourism’s primary purpose must be to benefit the community broadly, not just by focusing on its economy. Tourism should not degrade citizens’ peace and quiet and property values.

Types of Tourism

There are three styles of tourism: Touring, Rest and Recreation, and Entertainment.

Touring tourism can be sightseeing (and there are great things to see here!) history, nature, hiking, photography and such. These activities diffuse tourism’s impact, protect nature and heritage, and support small businesses. It’s about all the qualities that make up the character of the place and it is benefic.

Ramp up the intensity to R&R tourism. Think rural resorts, country inns, spas. This kind of tourism can be a mixed bag since these things can contribute to sprawl. R&R tourism can be a boon, but it should be managed through land use controls, specifically by requiring special exceptions to ensure that each proposal fits the fabric we want woven.

Entertainment-style tourism is problematic. Conjure noisy outdoor recreation, convention centers, concert venues and breweries. It should be obvious that these uses need to be carefully controlled. Ideally, entertainment-style tourism must require special exceptions so each application is reviewed by the Board for appropriateness. (This would not affect existing businesses.)

The Problem of More

There is a nagging worry that tourism encourages commercial enterprises, and we fear crowding, traffic and noise. Visit Loudoun’s own poll showed that the number one concern of respondents was the loss of open space. We could not agree more.

What Do We Want?

Visit Loudoun’s survey claims that we lust for tourism, with 70 percent of poll respondents in support. These numbers jump out so boldly that many exclaim, “That can’t be right.” Some academics say the poll’s methodology was defective: There were a limited number of respondents, which included VL board members and people in the industry, and a scientific poll would have used a random sample of residents.

I side with the skeptics and note several kernels in VL’s survey which won’t please breweries. Only 9 percent thought Loudoun should be known for breweries. Of nine activities from vineyards to dining to horses, breweries were sixth. Another recent poll found similar results, with only 10 percent saying that breweries were their top tourist interest. Some news is also not helpful to breweries – Loudoun must spend $500,000 towards mitigating dangerous traffic on Rt. 7 as it crosses the Blue Ridge.

A Path Forward

It’s a simple directive: Align VL’s mission and the necessity to preserve rural Loudoun. Simple, but very difficult. Two examples: VL opposes scaling for businesses; (scaling would increase the required acreage as the size of a business increases.) VL also does not support requiring that farm breweries be on actual farms.  

 I’d prefer that VL get a specified stipend from the Transient Occupancy Tax, but state code probably won’t permit that. Therefore, since we cannot align our interests by adjusting revenues and incentives, the remaining option is to address governance.

The County should amend the Memorandum of Understanding it has with Visit Loudoun: Reduce the size of VL’s board of directors to nine, with each county Supervisor appointing one member. Those members should be residents, but specifically not people from the tourism industry. 

That could move Visit Loudoun to focus on “touring tourism” where visitors seem like invited guests and away from what many perceive as its current focus on entertainment tourism. This would produce the maximum benefit to community and sustain the character of place – our environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage. 

My Op-Eds are my personal opinions. Because I’m on the Zoning Ordinance Committee, I stress that my writings are not any sort of “official” statement. My perspectives come from having developed more than six million square feet of office buildings throughout the south for an Atlanta-based firm, but more importantly from living on a small farm in Paeonian Springs.