“Disney’s not coming to the Flint Hills,” Ted Eubanks told his audience Thursday afternoon. “Large industry? Not coming.”
But tourists could be and, by using the right tools, they should be coming in droves.
Eubanks, who is chief executive officer for Fermada, a consulting firm that has been hired by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to develop a strategic plan for a 22-county effort to identify the state’s attractions and to advise the state on ways to bring tourist dollars to Kansas. He was in Emporia to make a presentation for marketing and parks and recreation classes at Emporia State University.
“We don’t do resorts, water slides... We look at tourism as a means to an end, not an end,” he said.
The state’s natural assets and its potential for developing tourism impressed Eubanks. Eubanks and his crews have been scouting the state to assess natural, cultural and historical features that could pique the interest of travelers. The firm has found some wonderful sites — Great Bend, Quivira, Cheyenne Bottoms and others in addition to the Flint Hills, he said.
“This is one of the last places on the planet where you can truly stand and see the way things were,” he said. “Something fundamental about the American character is right out there. ...
“It is your incredible, special, singular natural landscape that helps define you. This is where you can get a sense of what it must have been like if you were a Plains Indian or one of your great-great-great-great-grandparents,” Eubanks said.
Those assets are a natural fit for the hands-on style of Baby Boomer travelers, who are “trying on other lives. We want to be immersed in the experience, we want to participate,” he said.
And, because Baby Boomers have the flexibility and finances to travel, and are interested in participating in activities, the state has opportunities to attract them.
The trends in tourism in the United States point toward parks, outdoor recreation, cultural and historic sites and museums are popular among about 80 percent of tourists surveyed, he said.
“These are not small markets; these are huge, very large markets and growing,” Eubanks said.
Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina brings in about $5 billion a year from the visitors who enjoy that scenery. The Flint Hills and other Kansas sites offer similar opportunities.
Improving “experiential tour opportunities,” Eubanks said, should in turn improve economic development and job growth, with economic benefits coming both directly and indirectly. The tourist spends money to buy goods or services; the local worker spends a paycheck in the community, and those dollars are re-spent again and again by the people who receive them.
“These small communities don’t have the breadth of goods and services that can support these types of services,” he said. “One of our great challenges is ‘How do we capture the dollars?’ It’s a very difficult, very delicate challenge.”
He recommended not following the Wal-Mart business model, which emphasizes cheap prices, a wide array of products, convenience, and a formulaic approach that seems to have “bled over to travel and tourism.”
Tourists want goods and products that are high quality and authentic, he said. The Flint Hills as a tourist destination should more closely follow the low-volume, low-impact, high-yield approach of Don Vasco de Quiroga, who many years ago encouraged natives in Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico, to make guitars, pottery, woven goods, copper and cloth.
“Five hundred years later, they still do it,” Eubanks said. “That’s sustainable economic development in my book.”
Patzcuaro remains one of Mexico’s major tourist attractions.
Eubanks talked about the need to improve outsiders’ perception of Kansas — and Kansans’ perception as well — which often is depicted negatively on T-shirts, on television, and in other arenas.
“If you don’t care about it yourself, trust me, the other 49 states don’t care,” he said. “In my experience, bad things fill voids. If you’re not saying anything (good), then, fine, we’ll say something bad about Kansas.”
Kansans need to value the state for the great resources it has and for what it is. He invited the group to say something good about Kansas and to utilize the Internet, particularly blogs, to keep that positive information flowing.
“I’m convinced that the first place to start is to make you aware of what’s outside your door, make Kansas understand,” he told the classes.
Investments can be made in trails, recreational, educational and other amenities that tourists as well as community members can enjoy.
Those enhancements to a community can attract businesses. Facade renovations and “gateway” planning to beautify city entrances also can be helpful.
“Something that says, ‘Hey, we care where we are,’” Eubanks said.
Those amenities, which can help create more jobs, will help hold young Kansans who typically get their degrees and move to metropolitan areas for employment.
He told the students to follow the paths of businessmen who found success by seeing a need and fulfilling it.
“Bill Gates didn’t enter an existing industry. He just made it up,” he said, adding that “there wasn’t even an industry for what I wanted to do” when he started his own consulting business.
“It doesn’t have to be made for you,” he said. “You need to make it. I think the opportunities are here.”
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