>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

‘Civic tourism is an enabler of healthy place making. Focus on developing healthy communities rather than growing tourism.' — Vicki Dugger - Executive director of the Oregon Downtown Development Association ().

- Trish Yerges

- Correspondent

ELGIN — If you build it, they will come.

Building a healthy community complete with easy way-finding via the Internet, enticing ambiance, easy parking and retail energy were among some of the topics discussed at the Union County Tourism Summit held last Wednesday at the Elgin Community Center.

About 36 community leaders and business owners participated in the summit following a short ride earlier that evening on the new rail diesel cars of the Eagle Cap Excursion Train.

The ride was sponsored by the Wallowa Union Railroad and hosted by the Friends of the Joseph Branch.

Janet Dodson, executive director of Union County Tourism, welcomed the summit participants. She invited County Commissioner Steve McClure to share his opening remarks on tourism in Union County.

"Good things are coming to Union County," he said as he cited the Eagle Cap Excursion Train as a steadily growing tourist attraction. "So far we've had 420 riders and have generated over $17,000. As a result, tourists have filled up the Minam and Wallowa motels and Elgin, too."

Dodson credited good marketing to part of their success.

"It's exciting to see such direct response from our train ads," she said.

Keynote speaker Vicki Dugger, executive director of the Oregon Downtown Development Association, added, "You have the train, but you also want to get people to your shops and restaurants."

Downtown businesses are the connecting thread, she said. She recommended downtown revitalization through civic tourism.

"Civic tourism is an enabler of healthy place making. Focus on developing healthy communities rather than growing tourism," she said.

Civic tourism involves developing a community that has unique and interesting places to visit, a good website presence, easy ways to get around and great experiences, said Dugger.

She said tourists like basic goods and services, shops where they can browse, and dining options.

"They also like unique offerings that celebrate the place and extend their memories," Dugger said.

Also not to be overlooked is great customer service, convenience, value and fun events, she added.

"Businesses with better customer service will sell 30 to 40 percent more,'' she said.

Conversely, one out of two customers experience service problems when they shop, Dugger said.

These customers are five times more likely to tell others, and the story gets embellished along the way.

Fifty percent of those hearing a bad report, said Dugger, will not shop at that store.

Marketing and advertising were also topics at the tourism summit. The majority of business owners in attendance at the summit said they engaged in niche marketing through Internet web sites that make generous use of pictures to attract visitors.

Likewise, posting clear and understandable signs at city entries, gateways and on highways is also an important marketing tool that offers tourists easy information and convenience, said Dugger.

Dodson said that UCT puts out more than 12,000 advertising brochures each year, and that UCT piggy-backs with larger tourism publications.

"We also have a full page on our web site devoted to UCT," she added.

The importance of creating a tourist-friendly ambiance through downtown revitalization was also discussed.

By way of illustration, Dugger showed before and after photos of a retail store front. The first showed a clean but undecorated store front.

The second photo showed the same building revitalized with canopies and sidewalk flower pots. The summit participants indicated they were impressed with the revitalized store front.

"Where would you shop?" Dugger asked.

When developing a downtown with tourism in mind, Dugger suggested that restaurants should be scattered and that stores that appeal to the same sub-market should be grouped together.

She also recommended that secondary locations be used for personal and professional services and that stores should be interspersed with businesses offering complementary goods.

Following Dugger's presentation, tourism summit participants broke off into a number of groups to discuss topics such as cross marketing, free ways to promote business, downtown revitalization, best practices in service, way-finding, niche marketing, hospitality and other methods to build healthy communities that attract tourism.

Ideas were born including attracting bikers to this area via the excursion train, featuring musicians at the Third Thursday Art Walks, inviting OPB's "Art Beat'' to cover the work of local art studios, hot air ballooning, an indoor ice skating rink, parking validation tickets for shoppers, more local history signs, offering a "birders'' excursion train and greater promotion of hiking trails.

Dodson said there are committees at the state level that are working on some of these niches already.

Despite this, some in attendance suggested that UCT host a follow-up summit where committees could be formed to develop some of the ideas born from this meeting.

For more information on tourism in Union county, visit http://www.visitlagrande.com or contact Dodson at 963-8588.