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Vulcan needs to shoot for the stars to get most out of tourism |
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Written by Delon Shurtz LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Friday, June 26 2009, 8:38 PM |
If the Town of Vulcan wants to live long and prosper, then it really needs to shoot for the stars when it comes to capitalizing on its connection with the planet of the same name.
“The ‘Star Trek’ thing is what puts them on the map,” says Roger Brooks, a founding member of Destination Development, a tourism and economic development company in Seattle, Wash.
Brooks was hired to assess how well the community is doing as it promotes the “Star Trek” theme, and after spending a week in the area, he’s convinced the town isn’t doing nearly enough.
“There should be a lot more that they’re doing,” Brooks says. “Play it up to the max.”
That doesn’t just mean promoting itself more. In fact, Vulcan has done a good job marketing itself. What it hasn’t done so well is to get people to stay in town and spend money.
“Tourism is about getting people to spend money. That’s where they’re falling short.”
Brooks says people may come from far away because they’ve heard about the town’s connection with “Star Trek” and its annual Galaxyfest and Spock Days celebration. But after they’ve been to the Vulcan Tourism and Trek Station — a visitor’s centre and gift shop — there’s nothing else to keep them there.
“When people come to Vulcan, the ‘Star Trek’ experience lasts an hour. Now what?”
The community needs to figure out a way to move tourists from the Trek Station to downtown where they spend money. They should also be enticed into staying overnight. And while some businesses may have a “Star Trek” poster on a wall or some other token representation, it’s mostly just window dressing and not enough to keep people in town, especially in the evening when stores are closed.
Brooks has a few ideas of his own, like restaurants serving Star Trek-related food and drinks, such as Romulon ale, or perhaps a paintball shooting range using the space ship’s holodeck as the theme. Waitresses could be dressed in “Star Trek” attire and serve food from a replicator and other businesses could figure out how they might best promote the “Star Trek” theme. The town could even build a Star Trek Hall of Fame for all the actors who have been involved in the movies and TV series.
And now is the best time to do it.
Brooks says the latest movie has attracted a whole new generation of fans, and the best way to attract them to the town is to capitalize on the movie and provide more high-tech offerings in addition to the standard “retro-Jetsons” Trek Station. And while such ideas will cost money, Brooks says the town must figure out a way to keep people in town spending money, rather than have them come for a short visit, and then never return because they’ve seen all there is to see.
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