I wish General Patton (who went to VMI before transferring to West Point) was still around.
Posted on 09/03/2018 4:21:17 AM PDT by Drango
LEXINGTON — Rockbridge Regional Tourism approved a recovery plan to boost its marketing after The Red Hen restaurant controversy brought a slew of negative national media coverage this summer.
The regional tourism board, with members from Lexington, Buena Vista and Rockbridge County, met with the Lexington City Council on Thursday for an update on tourism initiatives and numbers.
The board had initially approved the recovery plan soon after news of The Red Hen controversy was spreading across the country. At the end of June, the restaurant’s owner declined to serve presidential press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders when she visited the restaurant.
Sanders tweeted the day after the incident that she had been asked to leave because she works for President Donald Trump. Soon after, Lexington was flooded with protesters who stood outside the restaurant, chanted and held signs. Others posted both positive and negative reviews of the restaurant online.
All three localities met and decided to pull together emergency funds to increase digital marketing and spread positive messages of the area, especially Lexington, which brings in the largest number of tourists.
Rockbridge Regional Tourism agreed to spend an additional $5,000 per month from the office’s emergency fund from July through September.
The tourism office receives 0.8 percent of the lodging and meals tax collected from each locality. About 20 percent of its annual budget, which is around $800,000, is put into a reserve for emergencies.
Typically the money is saved. But each locality agreed the region was in desperate need of positive coverage after The Red Hen incident.
Director of Marketing Patty Williams said the area is still feeling effects from the controversy — the tourism office received a letter Thursday from a family in Georgia who said they would never come back to the area because of what happened. And during the immediate aftermath of the incident, the tourism office received thousands of phone calls and emails.
“For a town our size, it was a significant impact,” Williams said.
The tourism office also decided to conduct a perceptions survey in its top four markets — Roanoke, Richmond, Norfolk and Washington, D.C. The office is working with a survey company to find frequent travelers living in those areas to answer questions about whether they recall the incident, where it took place and whether it would affect their decision to travel there. A total of 400 people will be surveyed.
The responses will help indicate where marketing money should be spent and what kind of messages need to be sent out, Williams said.
“We would certainly try to portray ourselves as a friendly, welcoming place,” she said. “And focus our marketing toward accomplishing that goal.”
The tourism office is already working toward that goal with a new video in the works that will feature that message.
In addition to the perceptions survey about The Red Hen, the office is also conducting three surveys that focus on the types of groups that stay in hotels in the area, the activities and spending patterns of visitors, and people who request information on Lexington, but never visit.
These surveys, which are typically done about every five years, provide the basis for tourism and marketing decisions. The last time the surveys were done, in 2011, the research showed baby boomers were the largest segment visiting the area looking for natural beauty and historic sites.
Williams said the office doesn’t think those numbers are as accurate now that baby boomers have gotten older. Now, the tourism office is focusing on attracting younger generations and has switched its marketing to focus more on outdoor recreation.
“For years we’ve used history as our hook,” Director of Tourism Jean Clark said. “But as visitors change, we have to change with them.”
Just kick out Red Hen.
Then vow NEVER to allow such a business there
Rockbridge Regional Tourism agreed to spend an additional $5,000 per month from the office’s emergency fund from July through September. The tourism office receives 0.8 percent of the lodging and meals tax collected from each locality. About 20 percent of its annual budget, which is around $800,000, is put into a reserve for emergencies. Typically the money is saved. But each locality agreed the region was in desperate need of positive coverage after The Red Hen incident. Director of Marketing Patty Williams said the area is still feeling effects from the controversy — the tourism office received a letter Thursday from a family in Georgia who said they would never come back to the area because of what happened. And during the immediate aftermath of the incident, the tourism office received thousands of phone calls and emails. “For a town our size, it was a significant impact,” Williams said.
The Red Hen should be sued class-action right the **** out of existence by all the other businesses which rely on tourism. Thanks Drango.
The language of desperation. They’ve been hit with a bunch of set up no- shows
The Red Hen makes the community sound unfriendly. Why would anybody go there? Also ... what would be found by a customer who was super particular about food safety and cleanliness?
Not a member of the council but I think I may have identified their problem.
We have visited Lexington twice, and stayed overnight once. My wife bought jewelry, cloth for drapes, and we had dinner. No, I wouldn’t return to visit. W&L is going to be a changed institution. Maybe Washington?
Save your money. That's a waste.
This is what you need to do:
#1. Expunge all hatred from your hearts.#2. Jump on the Trump Bandwagon (which is the same thing as #1)
Don’t bother, we got the message. You want a conservative free zone, you got it! Good luck surviving.
Yelp wiped all of the negative reviews from the Red Hen's page, but left all the good ones. That was a several weeks ago.
I wish General Patton (who went to VMI before transferring to West Point) was still around.
“Director of Marketing Patty Williams said the area is still feeling effects from the controversy — the tourism office received a letter Thursday from a family in Georgia who said they would never come back to the area because of what happened. And during the immediate aftermath of the incident, the tourism office received thousands of phone calls and emails.
“For a town our size, it was a significant impact,” Williams said.”
Let us all hope that Lexington, VA continues to suffer a serious decline in tourism until they tell the Red Hen to close up shop. Both sides can play this game! If you insist on polarizing our country RATs, you will loose.
They are home to one patriotic university, Virginia Military Institute and a much larger one, Washington and Lee which is not.
Another dirty little secret about Lexington is that they treat illegal aliens better than citizens. We were college shopping there back in 2005 when my daughter stepped back a little too far while trying to take a picture of some of the beautiful landscapes and architecture in the region. She stumbled, landed hard on her elbow and screamed in pain.
We weren't sure if she had broken a bone, so rushed her to the nearest clinic in the area which happened to be open . . . in Lexington.
It wasn't particularly busy, but she had to sit writhing in pain while a couple of illegal alien looking patients with sniffles type symptoms got ushered right in with a Spanish translator and zero questions about insurance or co-pays.
Even though we had waited longer than some of the previously described freebie patients, when it finally was my daughter's turn, they carefully checked our daughter's insurance, took a $50 co-pay and led her in to take an x-ray. This was a Saturday and they told us there was no MD on duty who could read the x-ray, so to call back on Monday for the result. I demanded to at least see the x-ray that I'd paid for and from my rudimentary training (my father was a veterinarian and sometimes I accompanied him), I could tell it PROBABLY wasn't a fracture.
I then asked if she could at least have the wrist splinted and put in a sling as a precautionary measure and they told me no because they weren't sure of the result. After some discussion that went nowhere, I ended up driving to a nearby drug store, bought the supplies and splint it and put it in a sling myself. Lexington is not exactly a small town. It has two universities and should've had someone available who was more capable of reading x-rays, even from a distance, I thought.
When we finally got a return call on Monday, they told us it wasn't a fracture and to bring her in for a splint and a sling. I told them we were back in Pennsylvania and we would take care of it.
My father (God rest his soul) had told me never to tell MDs that you had practiced medicine or you might get in trouble. Although, in his later years when he had seen them regularly, he often told those less competent that he'd done better work on a horse!
. Now, the tourism office is focusing on attracting younger generations and has switched its marketing to focus more on outdoor recreation.
Using history to make yourself unique for visitors is good, and it makes it hard for other areas to compete. It's hard to create history....:^)
But, when it comes to outdoor recreation I bet lots of nearby areas can compete.
Does Lexington have any unique items/events/attractions in the “outdoor recreation” field?
“........Director of Tourism Jean Clark said. “But as visitors change, we have to change with them.””
Curious if the liberals even understand they screwed themselves by not teaching American history to those potential visitors when they were in their care specifically for such instruction.
THAT IS the reason the visitors have changed. They know nothing of history to cause their curiosity to visit Lexington, and then the liberals compound the problem by being rude, and discourteous.
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
How dare they treat Sarah Huckabee and her family with that type of contempt. How would they feel if a 'gay' couple was asked to leave a restaurant - then when they left - were followed across the street and bullied again. Or a black couple? We don't treat citizens with that level of contempt. The effers at the New York Times and Washington Post would still be screaming - except they hate Sarah Huckabee and the people who voted for Trump too... They would put on their white pointed hats - being 'ready to ride'... up with the evil mob mentality.
No gay couple has been treated that badly in the United States and NO black couple has been treated that badly since 1965... Don't these people know the evil is in the deed - NOT in 'the choice of victim'? The Red Hen's staff - bullies - were no different than the KKK and White Citizens Council thugs. Establishment thugs who harassed black people years ago knowing 'the elites' of that time were with them.
Liberals ARE the new KKK... the new haters. And the liberal hateful 'establishment' showed themselves for what they are at the McCain funeral: mean, out-of-touch haters...
So many pussies in that photo.
Translation: We aren’t really nice regular people, but pppplllleeeease give us your MONEY because everyone else should be supporting lazy commierats like us.
Don’t know about Lexington alone, but it’s in Rockbridge Country which went for Trump 63% to Hillary 33%.
https://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/virginia/
You're not wrong on the Title IX front. Their coordinator combined a false accusation with a kangaroo court to expel a kid. That case is known as John Doe vs Washington & Lee University.
I hope that the new DeVos changes prevent any more kangaroo courts - or any thoughts of them.
“They are home to one patriotic university, Virginia Military Institute and a much larger one, Washington and Lee which is not.”
My (limited) understanding is that VMI’s the patriotic one, and W&L is for the socialites.
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