Tourist Commission Debates......Tourism
2/19/04
The tourist commission is debating an auto show grant that
it has been provided to the Gator Drag Car and Truck Show. In the past year the
tourist commission fronted money for the show to cover awards for the show’s
competitions. The show brings car and truck enthusiasts from across the state
and receives national coverage from hot rod magazines.
It appears that unnamed and a number of unnumbered local residents and hotel
guests have complained over the show attendees so the commission is questioning
its involvement in the show.
The issues came up in a recent meeting attended by Brandon Leblanc, a representative from Gator Drag asking for the $2500.00 Grant. Jennings Holiday Inn Assistant Manager Pauline Trahan who is also a member of the tourist commission board took the opportunity to air complaints claiming that the attendees were rowdy and disturbed a number of (unnumbered) guests. “We ended up having to refund the rooms of several guests who were disturbed all weekend long by your attendees” said Trahan.
Ms. Trahan who is a manger of a local hotel chain, a member of the tourist commission, and a double benefactor of the Gator Drag Show referred to the attendees of the show as “your attendees” when addressing Mr. Leblanc. In my opinion if your sitting on the Tourism board, and a manager of a local Hotel that benefits from the event, then the attendees should be referred to as OUR attendees, shouldn’t they?
Ms. Trahan recounted an incident where show attendees “surrounded” a female guest and her elderly father during last years show. Her term “surrounding” was not explained, but it sounds awfully sinister. No details of the surrounding event were explained. Rooms received damage and the parking lot was “trashed”. She noted however that the majority of the hotel was booked due to the show during the weekend. Ms. Leblanc pointed out that the show brought in 200 vehicles and anywhere between 750 – 1,000 attendees. Mostly from out of town and the enthusiasts that come, stay in local hotels and eat in local restaurants.
Another tourist Board member pointed out that such disturbances at the hotels not only inconvenience guests, but they count negatively toward a hotel’s performance evaluations. The executive director of the tourist commission expressed concerns over the traffic situation the show causes. I’m not a traffic expert but I would have to say a car show will cause traffic issues because…well…there’s cars involved. If busloads of people showed up and started walking around Jennings to see the sights you would probably have pedestrian related issues. You can use any number of scenario’s and come up with similar comparisons.
The tourist commission is in the business, I thought, of promoting tourism that will fill the hotels, bring people in to spend money, and attract more visitors, and have an economic impact. BUT, we don’t want crowded hotels with rowdy people. We don’t want a bunch of traffic. We don’t want to inconvenience anyone, we don’t want noise. But most of all we don’t want to be a victim of "surrounding".
The message I am getting is that what we want is people to come see our alligator, our ducks, our shops, our museums and we want them to stay an entire weekend so they can stay in our hotels and we want them to eat but don’t make a mess. Leave your vehicle at home because we don’t want any traffic or noise. You can walk everywhere but don’t surround anyone. Lets not get too rowdy at the hotels or trash the parking lot because we will get a negative performance evaluation. I guess hotel performance evaluations occur during Gator Drag weekends. I wonder if an empty hotel will get you good performance evaluations?
This report sent a clear message that the tourist commission is in fact debating tourism. Mr. Leblanc has done what I think is an admirable job. His group is attempting to do what the tourist commission is supposed to be doing and he is having to shove it down their throats. Keep in mind if the Gator Drag show was something the tourist commission went out and found on it’s own then it would be aggressively trying to defend it. Instead, it was handed to them on a platter and they don’t want to have to sit down and hammer out a plan to deal with all the things that come with an event, that was someone else’s brainchild. It should not only issue the $2500.00 grant, it should increase the grant amount. The extra support would contribute to it’s growth, instead of an effort to contribute to it’s demise. No matter what event you have there is going to be issues that will have to be dealt with. There will always be incidents of "surrounding" (whatever that is!). Don’t look for ways around them. Look for ways through them. If your hotel fills up over a weekend and you have to refund a few guests that were unhappy….do the math! If the vision for tourism is one of “safe mediocrity” then there’s no need for a vision at all!
Joe Semmes
Update: Gator Drag website at
http://www.gatordrag.com
Gator Drag Website Advertising local hotels on their website
at the same time the hotels are trying to
cut their throats
http://www.gatordrag.com/hotels.htm