2002-11-11 Regular Meeting and Workshop Meeting

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The San Jacinto Battleground State Historical Park is within our area and is a major State, National and International tourist attraction. Over one million visitors travel through our area to get to the park and little is being done to work with the State Park or other tourism marketers to extend the stay of the visitors in the adjoining communities and/or to visit the local historical properties and other attractions. Presently the State Park is in a redevelopment program designed to improve its educational potential and thus enhance itself as a tourist destination. Actually three programs are being developed: one associated with the U. S. S. Texas, one associated with the Battleground and the Monument/Museum facilities and one with increasing the nature preserve value of the property. Upwards to $100 million will be spent by a public -private partnership that should greatly increase the visitation to the Park. In addition, the Texas Historical Commission has reactivated the promotion of the Texas Independence Trail, which is aligned with State Highway 225 through the Pasadena, Deer Park and La Porte communities and with an extension to Morgan's Point. This is a separate state tourism - marketing program that provides grants and education to communities along its route. The Texas Independence Trail was announced in January 2000 and its benefits are available for five years. In 2001 the Texas Legislature designated State Highway 225 specifically as the "Texas Independence Highway." This provides a marketing potential unique to the SJATC area. Historically the communities to be included in the SJATC have not worked together promoting themselves as a travel industry destination. Most of the potential travel venues have not developed a marketing plan and have done very little in letting anyone outside of the local community know about what they had to offer. According to the Texas Travel Industry Association, the number one reason for NOT visiting a site was a lack of AWARENESS about it. The best -kept secrets in Texas (e.g. the heritage assets in the local area) are being underutilized and therefore cannot maximize their educational, heritage or income potential. By joining together, developing a marketing program and pooling a portion of their marketing budgets each venue has an opportunity to be successful.. And by clustering, the overall marketing budget increases and a larger audience becomes aware of what the local venue has to offer. For instance, the Sylvan Festival by itself cannot afford to market in Dallas, Chicago, Paris or Tokyo, but in partnership with other local attractions and communities and in a regional tourism relationship with the GHCVB, information about the festival can be included in packets delivered to these markets. While approximately 50% of the travelers are from within Texas, the other 50% are from other states and other countries. And it is those out of state visitors that utilize local lodging as well as spend money in local restaurants and service stations. Goals: The first goal of the SJATC would be to inventory what tourism assets are available in the area, with specific emphasis on the heritage/historical assets. Since the San Jacinto Battleground State Park is already known and is being promoted by the State, the GHCVB and the NASACLCVB, there is a built in market that can easily be catered to if David Pomeroy 8/19/02 2 Proposal2lp