Keeping tourism on track

Businesses fear that fewer visitors will make trip to see area attractions if information centers, MBTA service are cut

May 03, 2009|Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff

Spring plantings at the Phillips House on Chestnut Street in Salem sow the seeds for a new tourism season. Trolleys carry folks around Lowell National Historical Park. Cruise ships due in Gloucester and Boston hold the promise of drawing new visitors to historic and cultural sites across the north region.

But state budget cuts for facilities such as the Maria Miles Visitor Center in Salisbury, and the Greater Merrimack Valley Visitors Center in Chelmsford, along with a possible reduction of MBTA train and bus service from Boston, could derail the summer tourism season, local officials said.

"We're looking to hold our own," said Julie McConchie, executive director of the North of Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau in Peabody. "But state funding is critical to what we do. If we go through the whole budget process and end up with no funding, we'll have a problem."

William Luster, director of the North Shore Alliance for Economic Development in Salem, said curtailing weekend train and bus service is unfair.

"The communities along the commuter rail line have spent decades building tourism economies," Luster said. "They did that believing MBTA ridership would grow, and the service increased, not decreased."

The MBTA is considering steep cuts to train and bus service as part of a proposal by the cash-strapped agency to save $75 million in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

The North of Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau is asking its members, which include hotels, restaurants, and attractions, to press state legislators to support three amendments to the state budget now being debated on Beacon Hill.

Governor Deval Patrick eliminated funding for state-run visitor centers in his proposed fiscal 2010 budget. Funding for 13 regional tourist councils, which operate locally in Peabody and Lowell, is due to be reduced from $9 million this year to $6 million in the proposed budget, according to McConchie.

Budget amendments being proposed could restore some funding. One amendment would increase funds for the regional tourist councils to $7 million. Two other amendments would add a combined $1.7 million to fund visitor centers across the state. The Maria Miles center - on Interstate 95 south, just across the New Hampshire border - serves about 500,000 visitors each year, officials said.

"We're the first thing someone sees when they enter the state," said Bill Pickles, chief of visitor services at the center. "What will it say if we're not open?"

Meanwhile, the MBTA, facing substantial revenue shortfalls, has proposed eliminating train service on weekends, and after 7 p.m. on weeknights. Bus service would be cut back after 8 p.m. on weeknights and eliminated on weekend days.