You’ll have to forgive Anne O’Neill, but she remains unconvinced that officials in Providence understand the tourism activity and resulting economic impact going on in South County. She also wonders if state officials have developed a plan to either capitalize on — or compete with — the enormously successful casinos at Foxwoods in Ledyard, Conn., and Mohegan Sun, in Montville, Conn. This is not a new concern for O’Neill, executive director of the South County Tourism Council. Talk to her at any length and the question eventually will come up. Does the state have a regional plan – an overall blueprint for tourism?
For months now the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council has been on a campaign of sorts – promoting the idea of a regional economy.
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The regional econ-omy concept has Rhode Island as part of a Boston/Metro region that is part of an even bigger region that includes New York and competes for business on a world stage. To many economists, it makes perfect sense.
O’Neill doesn’t quibble with the concept of a regional economy. But then she looks at the “Metro Resource Composite” of the region put together by the EPC. The charts – published in the Nov. 22 edition of the Providence Business News — show a series of economic clusters and detail the region’s highway and transit systems, its retail hubs, research and education institutions and tourism hot spots.
The tourism hot spots for the region, according to the composite, include Newport, Cape Cod and a part of Connecticut.
There is no special designation for South County and its miles of beaches and acres of golf courses. O’Neill was perplexed enough to write to PBN.
Anne O’Neill
In part, she wrote; “If the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council sees tourism between Connecticut, Newport and the Capeyou have to pass through South County to get there. Our office has asked the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and the Economic Policy Council the value of tourism in economic return to the state by region. Neither office has figures available.”
But Christopher “Kip” Bergstrom, executive director of the EPC, said the state is well aware of South County’s impact on the tourism industry. Bergstrom said the tourism hot spots depicted in his charts actually represent a “coastal corridor” stretching from Cape Cod through Newport to New London. South County, he said, is included in that journey.
”We show that whole area – from Newport to New London – as a tourism center,” he said. “New London to Newport is a tourism corridor and all of that goes through South County. We’re saying that this whole area has a special tourism flavor. We’re agreeing with her.”
The tourism numbers that O’Neill would like to see – an economic impact broken down by each region of the state – apparently do not exist. If they did, Timothy J. Tyrrell, a professor of resource economics at the University of Rhode Island, would have them. Tyrrell is an expert on tourism who studies the industry and its impact on the Rhode Island economy. But very specific tourism numbers, he said, can be elusive.
”I have been trying to do regional studies for a long time,” said Tyrrell. “It’s difficult. People may stay in Narragansett and then visit Foxwoods. I have to make assumptions about where people go during the day — that’s my problem.”
Tyrrell mentions the thousands of campers who visit Burlingame State Park in Charlestown each year and transient boaters who dock in South County. Where they spend their money, he said, is anybody’s guess.
Tyrrell also calls the impact of the Foxwoods casino on the Rhode Island economy “very significant.”
None of this comes as a secret to O’Neill. She sees plenty of evidence that South County, in fact, is poised to become an even bigger economic generator for the state. Take a look, she said, at the Boulder Hills Country Club in Richmond. Now owned by Foxwoods, the club plans to build a hotel.
”They are certainly marketing it with Foxwoods,” O’Neill said.
The soaring popularity of golf, she said, is further evidence that South County is well positioned to lead the state’s tourism efforts.
”There aren’t a lot of public courses around and we have a good supply of that down here,” she said. “These communities have targeted tourism as the major economic generator for small businesses here. We are not going to develop a major manufacturing base.”
O’Neill looks out in South County and sees a renaissance of her own taking place. She mentions not only the beaches, but also the under-construction South County Bike Path and the soon-to-be-built Convocation Center and ice rinks on the University of Rhode Island’s Kingston campus.
Division has long marked the state’s tourism community. There is the Blackstone Valley Tourism Center, the Providence Warwick Visitor and Conventions Bureau, the Newport County Tourism Council and Chambers of Commerce in every corner of the state.
O’Neill’s message is simple. With as many as two million tourists visiting South County each year, there needs to be a concerted effort to coordinate marketing efforts, to share information and resources.
”Somehow, southern Rhode Island has to be factored into the economic forecast of Rhode Island,” she said. “No one in government seems to be looking at it from a regional standpoint.”
While officials at the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation were unavailable for comment, Bergstrom said such efforts are under way, including links between Rhode Island and Connecticut, he said.
Bergstrom believes that Rhode Island’s focus now should not be so much on attracting more tourists, but in getting those who already come here to spend more.
”The trick is to market it as a more intensive stay for those people who are already here,” said Bergstrom.
O’Neill doesn’t disagree. But the years roll by and the state’s tourism sector still feels a bit disjointed. If in fact there were a plan in place – or in the works – she’d like to hear about it.
“The growth is going to continue to come,” she said.
