Second Look: Invasion of '75 (1975 special report)
[Music] virginia's historic triangle enjoyed its best year ever in terms of tourism in 75 more than a million people came to the area visiting the amusements at busch gardens old country with the flavor of three european villages like the elizabethan village in britain and the tourists thronged to historic colonial williamsburg stepping back 200 years sampling the flavor of a bygone age or the victory of american forces over british troops at the battle of yorktown the record years for tourists met many things but foremost it helped the economy of the area and the state williamsburg alone visitors spent 10 million dollars double the amount of 1974. for the next 30 minutes we'll look at the effect of the invasion of 75 [Music] [Music] more than a million people have visited virginia's historic triangle this year that's more people than in any previous year the increased tourism at colonial williamsburg jamestown yorktown and busch gardens means more dollars more jobs and more headaches [Music] for nearly 50 years taurus had been coming to the attractions at colonial williamsburg and the historic locations of jamestown and yorktown well now there's a new kid in town the busch gardens old country already more than one million people have seen the attractions that are located right here hi young lady three adults please the millionth visitor passed through these gates last month by labor day the old country met its projection for the year of 1.3 million people thank you admission costs adults 6.50 and children 550. at an attendance that reaches as
high as 20 000 people a day that adds up to a lot of money [Music] passing through the gates you enter a magical world spending a day in the old country [Music] there's england the pageantry history and scenes of the mother country cobbled streets and old world shops the flavor of britain complete with beef eaters shakespeare's globe theater and elizabethan villages the flavor of paris is captured with sidewalk cafes boutiques and artists the look of a french village or a busy paris street and then the um papa of germany a bavarian village alive with craftsmen and the smell of beer [Music] busch gardens is a combination amusement park from the standpoint it is very entertaining but more importantly we have tried to pick up the flare and the color and the sights and sounds and smells of european villages [Music] don't so [Music] oh it cost more than 30 million dollars to build this theme park capturing the atmosphere of the three countries represented here england france and germany and in addition to the international flavor you also get rides like this one the log plume ride in germany tourists hop into the log type cars ready to whisk them along a river of water and through a whirring sawmill it's one of the most exciting rides in the gardens and it's easy to see why foreign [Music] [Music] from life in the old country to life in 18th century america tourism in colonial williamsburg is up more than 41 during the first seven months of this year over the same period in 74 and it's up almost 13 over the previous record year of 73. more than 200 000 people wound their way through cw in july what they call main street here this is this is it basically this one is it within one plastic one feet over just a foster yeah right and um and here's the powder magazine which is right in center of town with the courthouse and that's that right there is the courthouse that's over here right and this is the peyton randolph house this white one which you'll see here on the mail yeah we just went okay it is hot [Music] [Music] oh [Music] what is the impact of colonial williamsburg on the economy well i guess a a good conservative estimate would be something like in excess of a hundred million dollars in uh sales uh merchandising and services directly related to uh tourist visitation i think that's a a year figure for a for the community the economy is what tourism is all about every day thousands of visitors are brought to various spots to unload their wallets there's no better place in williamsburg to spend money than merchant square would be 312. retail sales in williamsburg during july rose more than 20 percent the second successive month that's happened merchants are delighted with the increase hearing the sweet song of a whirring cash register uh be 203 ma'am number 95 and 8. sales tax division in richmond to see how much money has been coming into the area in june of this year williamsburg had more than 10 million dollars in retail sales in june of 1974 it was like five million dollars in other words we've nearly doubled the retail sales business here in williamsburg over the annual period this money gets spent over and again in fact this is in sort of economics what we know is the multiplier effect if you count this multiplier effect it probably means that 10 million dollars grows into something on the order of 20 million dollars or possibly even 25 million dollars too limited orange orange thank you so much sales in the park account for a great part of their revenues but there's another part of the picture just getting here helps the state's economy once again john roberts last year we made an economic impact study and we made some projections and i believe people will now see that they're not only very true but they could have been somewhat conservative because according to the virginia travel council of every 11 cents spent in an attraction such as busch gardens by a tourist almost 89 cents is spent traveling either to the attraction or staying in lodging not only are there souvenirs to take home from the various attractions but the weary tourists certainly need some nourishment happy days [Applause] who so let's tell the world about it now happy days the tourist dollar is not the only thing that's affecting the economy in this area in addition to that money there are also jobs hundreds of college of william and mary students are employed at jamestown yorktown busch gardens and colonial williamsburg the last thing i will be adding to this solution is if you were watering ox bile i'm doing now is coming as streaking pulling the colors these patterns i'm forming actually are very modern but the marbling process actually predates the 18th century the first date we have on it is 11 18. diane hanratty has been employed by colonial williamsburg for the past three summers she says it's good work and it enables her to continue her education is it a good job for a college student yes it really is i do enjoy it because you get to meet a lot of people it's a good job as far as opportunities go and moving up it's not you know just stay put in one place although a lot of times you have to repeat the same thing over and over again the people the questions they ask your mind doesn't vegetate completely so it's a good job and i've enjoyed it and i enjoy working with people because we have not only college students working here but people who are full-time and you get across of people you work with and it's enjoyable is it good money for a college student i found it's very good money i am saving up money for college and i found that the paychecks are very pleasing because it is a good job good paying job all the color that is in the basin will be lifted up with the paper [Music] it's a complete transfer process and you can see here your pattern now this is washed with water and all these although these are our watercolors that we've used beeswax sets them into the paper they used it on the edges they would marble the edges of book they would also use paper like this on the end sheets of books they would cover trunks boxes decorations things like this diane is one of hundreds of william and mary students employed by cw and busch gardens when students are looking for a job they come here to see linda allen cw employs 150 to 200 students and busch gardens employs about 300 this summer is that good work for a college student it really works in well with their schedules this summer for instance students would be taking a course in the morning and summer school since that's when most of the courses were offered and then they could work the evening shift at bush and a lot of students were working full-time they were part-time during the year and full-time during the summer [Music] about a half a million people come to see this sport on jamestown every year another half million visit jamestown island the original landing of the first colonists that's a far cry from the numbers that first came when this park opened in 1957. while they're not vast
numbers of students employed here at jamestown the tourist industry is booming up almost 30 percent over last year and heading for a new record well we've had the best year here since the park was opened in 1957 it was open you know on the 350th anniversary of the first permanent english settlement in 1607 up until 1956 there were only about 125 000 people a year that went to jamestown island well the state opened this in 1957 and the park service greatly improved what's over on jamestown island with the result that today about a half million people come here every year and a half million people go to the island right next door we had about 54 passengers and 17 crew members in the season and 105 people all together and all the three ships and how long did it take to cross about four and a half months with several stops along the way once in the west indies and one of the canary islands to pick up the fresh water and supplies no indications it's been a banner year for tourism in the historic triangle hundreds and thousands of people have come to see the attractions at colonial williamsburg jamestown yorktown and busch gardens and all those tourists translate into dollars hundreds and thousands in fact millions of dollars are pumped into the economy here in williamsburg and across the state and if you thought there were a lot of tourists around this year you ain't seen nothing yet [Music] good afternoon chamber of commerce for this evening well i'm sure they're kind of few and far between how many in your party well we have um taken a survey today and we find that it that there are very few rooms available i'm not sure where i could recommend frequently they have cancellations at the last minute would you like me to make a few calls for you and see if i can find something i'd like to register please what's your name uh it's registered mr and mrs cliff asbury [Music] if you have a reservation at one of the area's 25 hotels you're fortunate the city has 4 500 women they were hard to come by this year and will be nearly impossible to find in 76. and you're here for three days uh two days two days okay would you fill this out at the bottom please hotel businesses probably shown one of the outstanding increases that i've ever seen in the business in over 27 years that i have been connected with hotels throughout the country july was uh 80 ahead of last july and there's a certain peak we can reach which we have reached we are running 99 for august and occupancy and we'll run uh in october we'll run close to 99 so it's uh with those figures we can't increase anymore it appears that williamsburg will be completely saturated the bookings that we have turned down for next year would practically refill the hotel again you turned away as many people for next year in certain periods yes it's not to fill the place again that's right and this year actually in july and august we could have filled the hotel by just people walking in off the street [Music] there we go what will 1976 look like that is a great question i wish i knew we can only guess of course at the moment we think it will be at least what it is this year possibly some better but i really think the great bulk of the tourists are going to be going to washington dc and philadelphia for example ordinarily washington dc gets around 18 million to 20 million tourists in a year they are now expecting something on the order of 45 million tourists and the same sort of thing is true of philadelphia as well so the great crunch is probably going to come up there but this undoubtedly is going to spill over down here into williamsburg and people may be tired of the crunch will decide to come down see king's dominion the restored area here and busch gardens as well as jamestown yorktown and so forth so i think we can look forward to a good year next year maybe even slightly better than this year provided of course we don't have a horrible energy crisis or war in the middle east or some catastrophe that defaults us but barring all of that i would say the outlook is is very good for next year the major question everyone in the tourist industry is asking is why are the people here in such numbers this year there are many answers a better economy improved gasoline supply higher overseas rates but almost everyone has agreed on one major cause the opening of the old country well busch gardens beyond the shadow of a debt is responsible for the great increase but i think that according to our statistics that visitations in the colonial area has also increased drastically it's uh real good for the economy and and it's no knowing that busch gardens is adjacent to williamsburg people are sort of making the two visits as a connection and if colonial williamsburg's over flown then they can visit busch gardens and vice versa and this is happening daily scott cobb lives in memphis he brought his family to the area this year primarily to see the old country we had heard that busch gardens had just opened i guess this is the first year for it and my children actually wanted to see the busch gardens rides exhibits etc and also from williamsburg we wanted to see the educational aspects of it for their schooling as well as for myself like the other attractions in the area tourism here at the yorktown battlefield is also on the increase but the big show isn't until 1981 the 200th anniversary of the end of the american revolution [Music] [Music] hey we leave you there for a week will you behave yourself okay i'll let you out come on wait i want to get you on daddy you could let him out now [Music] from jamestown to yorktown williamsburg to busch gardens it's been a year like none other more tourists than ever before more money spent more jobs available 1975 will go down in the record books as the year of the tourist but its record will only stand a short time by all indications the nation's bicentennia will bring even more people into virginia's historic triangle people willing to spend money to keep the area's economy strong for another year the prospects of the year even better than this one as everyone in williamsburg grinning from ear to ear from the merchants to the hotel owners restaurateurs and the operators of the historical and amusement attractions while the tourist industry has been an up and down proposition during the past five years 1975 and 76 will put the area's number one industry on strong financial footing a footing that should remain strong through america's bicentennial celebration [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i care not for these ladies that must be wooed and praised give me kinda amaryllis the wanton country maid nature art disdain her beauty is her own and when we court and kiss she cries forsooth let go but when we are where comfort is she never will say no very good i stay today [Music] [Music] mr [Music] [Music] this is [Music] [Music] [Music] you
2022-07-16 19:30
