Tom Whitehurst

Selena's tourism impact

IIn life and in death, Selena increased Corpus Christi's cultural awareness and international exposure. Soon, she will help us become smarter and better informed.
   The sixth anniversary of her death Saturday, and the crowds it drew to her memorial on the bayfront and other sites, underscored for local tourism officials that they need to know more about Selena Quintanilla-Perez and her enduring ability to draw people here.
   This much they know: Her statue on the bayfront, an outright gift to the city by philanthropist Dusty Durrill, attracts a steady stream of visitors any day of the year, not just on the anniversary. The Convention and Visitors Bureau receives a handful of requests per day for directions to the statue and other Selena sites of interest - her grave at Seaside Memorial Park, her family homes in the Molina neighborhood, her father's recording studio, the museum inside the studio and her boutique.
   But they have made no attempt to discover how many overnight stays, restaurant meals, transportation or other tourism-related expenditures might be attributable to Selena. That could change, soon.
   Wayne Bennett, the visitors bureau's new president, has been on the job only a month, but that's long enough to have noticed the crowds at the statue.
   "I drive by that statue at least twice a day and there are always people around it. There are people there taking pictures, day and night. And so, obviously, it is a draw for the community."
   How much of a draw, Bert Quintanilla, the bureau's vice chairman and a cousin of Selena, wants the bureau to find out. He has been talking with officials at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi about conducting a survey.
   "I think the statue, as well as the Selena museum, has been a very hidden tourist destination. And I say hidden because there is no formal marketing in place."
   The managers of the bayfront Ramada Inn and Omni hotels, which are within short walking distance of the statue, say they're sure that Selena brings in guests. How many, they don't know. They don't survey the guests and they don't offer Selena-related packages. But they do strike up conversations with guests and ask what brought them to Corpus Christi.
   "I've been told the number one answer, sometimes, is 'We came down here for Selena's gravesite and the memorial," said Ralph Ehrlich, general manager of the Ramada. "So, yeah, they do come, but I don't know how it'd be a measurable event."
   Likewise, visitors bureau chairman Brad Lomax knows that the Selena statue brings more customers to his three nearby restaurants, but he has no idea how many. He recognizes a lack of both marketing and measurement, and says that Quintanilla's presence on the bureau's executive committee, and his push for a survey, will help to change that.
   "We are getting accidental benefit without doing anything at all," Lomax said.
   The next likely steps, he said, are to pursue the study and develop a marketing plan - within boundaries. There is a shared concern that any efforts in that direction show good taste and proper respect.
  

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