Beaufort County tourism | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    According to a front page article in the 11/15 WDN, we have a group of Citizens that wants to undertake a "study" to determine if Beaufort County would benefit from a county tourism authority.

    According to the article: "The 'committee' will prepare a description of a county tourism authority operations, develop a list of objectives that could be achieved by the creation of a tourism authority and determine the sources of and expected revenue from an occupancy tax to fund authority activities, among other objectives." What I didn't see was any mention of paying for the study.

    Five of our Commissioners apparently believe there is something to be learned from the proposed study. I started to say that the four Commissioners apparently "think" there is something to be learned from the study, but changed my mind - it wasn't clear that they were "thinking". Reportedly all the municipalities have passed resolutions supporting this study. The municipalities presumably are Aurora, Bath, Belhaven, Chocowinity, Pantego, and Washington Park.

    What I find puzzling about this entire situation is the notion that anyone needs to ask the County Commissioners for approval to do a study; any study. If all the communities that are already not "covered" by a tourism authority want to commission a study, what is to stop them?? Go for it!!

    Of course getting the County Commissioners "involved" at this point sort of commits them to going along with whatever the study comes up with. But wait..

    I can save you the expense of doing the study by telling you right now that the study will find that imposing a tax on visitors will be in the best interest of everyone. I believe the prediction will be that such a tax would result in $30K (or more) annual income which would be dedicated to increasing tourism and managed by a group of volunteers who would recommend to the Commissioners how the windfall would be spent.. The "study" will discover that if we could only put into place such a tax, we could increase our employment significantly (actual % to be determined - based on what it would take to ensure the "correct" outcome of the study).

    So here is what the report is going to tell us we are going to be able to offer to lure more tourists here.

    We can bring tourists to Belhaven where they can visit the Belhaven Museum and the Black Bottom cemetery (that the town has in the last several years been cleaning up) and see the impressive monument marking where Little Eva is interred. Then what?? They could head toward Pantego. En route they could view the site where the Panelization Project was going to be built. Remember that one?? It was going to bring unending prosperity to Pantego and Belhaven. When they get to Pantego, they could visit the Pantego Academy Museum. Then our visitors could head to Bath where they could visit the Bath State Historic site (the first real tourist attraction so far).

    As an aside, if we could get our former Economic Developer to come back and resurrect the Secotan Project, it could be a real attraction. If we could develop a "Colonial Williamsburg" type of operation at Bath honoring the Secotans, we could bring in a whole lot of tourists. Yeah right. But wait. The $30K of income we have heard bandied about would not even likely pay the travel expenses for a Secotan project manager, much less the Princely sum that would likely be required to bring our former EDC Director back. But I digress..

    From Bath, a half hour ferry ride across the Pamlico river (on the free ferry) will take them to Aurora where they can visit the Fossil Museum (another legitimate tourist stop). Perhaps they could then go to Chocowinity and view the Industrial Park site to see how good things are going to be - someday - maybe - if we don't run out of other people's money before it materializes.

    So there yo have it. All you need to do is add an Executive Summary and a recommendation that the Commissioners implement a Tourism Authority (composed mainly of the good folks who
"commissioned" the study) and impose a tax on visitors. That should help to interest a whole lot more folks to visit us and stay over. I can see the signs now: "Stay in Beaufort County!! Help fund our Tourism Authority!!"

    It was interesting to see the tape of the presentation requesting approval of the "study"and the Commissioners' reaction to the discussion. Two conservatives and one Commissioner (who claims to be a Republican) seemed to be the only ones who had an opinion - until the vote. Well, actually only two of 'em had an opinion. The other needed to see a study before he could formulate a position. The remaining four commissioners sat there like bumps on a log. (Your tax dollars at work.) Hmmm...

    I believe that the great results (i.e. all the "tourist tax" income) reported by the State Tourism Authority as accruing to Beaufort County is based on "models". I suppose it would be much too complicated to add up all the receipts we have actually collected to see how well our tourism tax is really doing. Of course.. But then, perhaps, the results wouldn't look so good. I commend you to Warren Smith's analysis of the figures we have been "fed". Click here to see that very illuminating analysis.

    But wait.

    If we really wanted to improve the local economy, why wouldn't we would be looking at making the County (including Washington) a good place to retire. The retirees would bring their Social Security checks, their Medicare benefits, their AARP supplemental insurance coverage, their 401K payouts, and their CD investments. All we would need to do is add a few things to complement the beautiful and bucolic environment the Good Lord gave us. Beaufort County is already a relatively low cost place in which to live. If we had the will to lower our taxes, we could certainly "sweeten" that pot which would certainly be an added incentive to come here. Then all we need to do is ensure the availability of high quality (and convenient) medical care. Vidant should be more than willing to take care of getting that word out. I would not expect that the "retiree" cohort would create the need for a great deal more "policing". Most would not be bringing enough children to create the need for additional schools (which is where most of our "tax money" currently goes). All in all, it seems like a good deal for everyone.

    Do you suppose anyone has considered the possibility of bringing more residents here - especially retirees - as a way to beef up our economy?? Trust me, you don't beef up your economy with more and higher taxes.

    D'ya think??