August 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 34

TOURISM
Six years later, Prince William
County's tourism market is thriving,
jumping from the ninth to the seventh
largest tourism economy in Virginia,
due in large part to the collaborative
synergies between two agencies with
a shared talent for experience curation
(tinyurl.com/y84w7ezz).
Reflecting on the myriad community
benefits
Prince William
County realized by consolidating
tourism and park and recreation
functions left me wondering what
similar models exist across the park
and recreation sphere and how our
shared experiences might inspire
other communities to follow suit.
The Park/Tourism
Connection
The nexus between the U.S. tourism
industry and parks dates back more
than 100 years, to the creation of
the National Park System and the
proliferation
of
the
automobile,
which unlocked remote, unspoiled
landscapes to millions of people
seeking escape from urban areas.
According to the National Park Visitor
Spending Effects
report
(tinyurl.
com/3u5hj3ua), approximately 297
million people visited a national
park in 2021 - equivalent to nearly
80 percent of the U.S. population.
A 2016 survey by AAA (tinyurl.
com/822ryc88) showed that 85
percent of Americans have visited
at least one national park, and 73
percent said national parks were a
" must-see " vacation destination.
Today, outdoor recreation and
travel sports have a major impact on
the U.S. tourism economy. A 2021
Sports Events and Tourism Association
study (tinyurl.com/mry4sf32)
indicated Americans spent $39.7
billion on sports-related travel expenditures,
and the U.S. Bureau of Economic
Analysis reported $454 million
(1.9 percent) in Gross Domestic
Product attributed to the outdoor
recreation economy in 2021 (tinyurl.
com/5ay3f5he). These numbers lead
one to assume the consolidation of
parks and tourism management under
a single governing entity would
be common, but the rarity of such
a model is glaring. Of the approximately
10,000 public park and recreation
agencies in the United States,
only a small fraction appear to contain
a tourism marketing function.
Interestingly, the majority of these
" unified structures " exist in South
Carolina and Virginia. Most of the
unified agencies are found in small
rural and suburban communities
with less than 100,000 people.
Tourism Operation
Structures
Most local tourism entities, also
known as destination marketing organizations
(DMOs), are structured
as quasi-government units with operating
autonomy granted by the
local government taxing authorities
that formed them and control their
revenue. Examples of independent
DMOs include CVBs, tourism authorities,
chambers of commerce and
regional tourism boards. According
to Destinations International (DI),
the global association for tourism
destination professionals, about 10
percent of the 2,500 DMOs in the
United States are integrated into
a city, county or state government
agency. There are no standard operational
alignments for DMOs nested
within local government organizations,
but tourism functions are most
commonly found in economic development,
park and recreation, and
communications departments, or
function as standalone departments.
Spectators watch a bike
race at the Rock Hill
Velodrome.
34 Parks & Recreation | A UGUS T 2 0 2 3
| PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
Follow the Synergies
The logic behind Prince William
County's consolidation is simple
to grasp. Public parks and cultural
sites draw the bulk of outside visitors,
which the former parks and
recreation department and CVB
were marketing in parallel. Prince
William County boasts two national
parks, the Potomac Heritage
National Scenic Trail, two national
wildlife refuges, one state park, the
National Marine Corps Museum,
15 local historic sites, a bicycle motocross
(BMX) track and two waterparks,
among other assets. When
weighing options for structuring or
realigning tourism functions,
" it's
important that communities assess
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROCK HILL COUNTY
PARKS, RECREATION AND TOURISM
http://tinyurl.com/y84w7ezz http://tinyurl.com/mry4sf32 http://tinyurl.com/5ay3f5he http://tinyurl.com/5ay3f5he http://tinyurl.com/3u5hj3ua http://tinyurl.com/3u5hj3ua
August 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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