When city and state officials worked toward getting a second Amtrak train from Lynchburg to Washington, D.C., the idea was to get travelers to Washington. There’s so much to see and do in the nation’s capital. At the same time, business travelers always seem to be heading north.
But there are also things to see and do in Lynchburg. And the city’s tourism officials are working on making the Hill City a destination for those getting on the train in Washington.
In fact, Beckie Nix, tourism director of the Lynchburg Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau, said last week that the bureau likes to refer to the new Amtrak service as the train from D.C. to Lynchburg. On that train, she hopes, will be travelers to Central Virginia who will spend some of their money at local hotels, restaurants and shops.
That, obviously, would be good for the regional economy, especially the city’s economy, which could use a good batch of tourism dollars to jump start the sagging economy.
Tourism is important to the communities here because it brings new money into the local economy — $139 million in 2008, Nix told a group of about 50 people representing local hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions and governments.
So what is the Visitors Bureau doing to attract new people to Lynchburg and its surroundings? It is planning to intensify advertising efforts in the Washington area this year in an effort to get more people to at least think about traveling to Lynchburg.
In April, the region will participate in a Virginia Tourism Corporation advertising blitz in D.C. metro stations.
Nix said she is also working with tourism organizations in other cities with stops along the Amtrak line to develop cooperative offerings for visitors.
Also in the future is an interactive kiosk at the Kemper Street station for travelers arriving in Lynchburg with little knowledge of the landscape.
The kiosk would help by giving users information about local attractions. It would also let them plan and print custom itineraries.
Nix said she hoped “one of the side effects of giving them more information is that they will ... stay longer.”
With enough success, the advertising campaign for Lynchburg could generate a car rental agency on Kemper Street that would provide transportation for travelers from Washington and points north. They could then use the city as a hub and drive to the D-Day Foundation Memorial in Bedford, the Civil War surrender grounds in Appomattox, Smith Mountain Lake and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Let’s not forget the Lynchburg Museum on Court Street and historic Point of Honor on Cabell Street.
The surrender grounds at Appomattox will be especially important for the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War in 1861.
Amtrak’s new train to and from Washington provides new opportunities for tourism in Lynchburg. It will be up to the city’s Visitor Bureau to make the most of those opportunities.
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