Tourists Are Big Biz

Tourists Are Big Biz

Many residents and businesses in Rappahannock County depend on outside visitors — tourists, that is — for their livelihood. Outside money supports Rappahannock.

Tourists spend money. At the Spring Festival in Sperryville last weekend, several thousand tourists were handing out the green for food, gifts, souvenirs, artwork, gasoline, catalog sales, pony rides, overnight accommodations, and much more. They were being treated to free music, exhibits, store displays, and our natural beauty.

Even businesses that have little direct contact with outside visitors benefit from them. They sell to the establishments that sell to tourists. This diverse group includes, for example, farmers, insurance agents and suppliers and services of all all kinds, even the Rappahannock News.

Thirty years ago when the Sperry ville Emporium was a school house and the Inn at Little Washington was a garage, Rappahannock County was not a tourist center. Travelers stopped here for gas and apple juice on their way to Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park.

Skyline Drive is still the primary destination for most tourists. But more and more folks linger for a while. They come for the Spring Festival, Fourth of July celebration, or ;the Apple Harvest. They linger to enjoy our unique shops, ;uncrowded mountain springtimes, brilliant autumn foliage and .‘softly gurgling streams.

The future of Rappahannock County does not lie in heavy industry or manufacturing. Our future destiny lies in what the land and its people itself can give. We offer visitors a way of life that is fast disappearing. We offer them what may be a final chance to see the land, the mountains, the streams, and the forests in a near pristine and unspoiled state.

Some residents feel that Rappahannock County should be for day visitors only, and we should not encourage overnight guests. Let them look and leave. Why should they stay longer?

We feel this is short-sighted. The Rappahannock experience is more than a day trip. We should encourage ; visitors to stay longer. It’s good for them, and it’s good for us.

To do this, we need to make the special features of Rappahannock County so attractive to visitors that they will want to spend their limited vacation dollars here and not someplace else.

Both visitors and residents will benefit. The tourists receive full value in the unique and enjoyable vacation they are •seeking. We, the residents, can make an adequate living ^without smoking factories or two-hour commutes to the city. * If we don’t keep our special features, our Rappahannock way of life will erode away. Eventually we will become just another extension of the D.C. metropolitan area, an exurb -With strip malls, department stores, and chain motels, as is .happening today in Warrenton, Culpeper, and even Front -Royal.

If you want this to happen, do nothing. In a few years you’ll get what you want.