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Wednesday, Sep. 30, 1998
Improved beaches rated Job 1
Tourism study puts focus on future needs
By JEFFREY TOMICH
Staff WriterCorpus Christi must improve its beaches, develop luxury resorts and build a new convention center to realize its potential as a travel destination, a national consulting firm says.
The city has done a good job building its tourism base in the past decade, but there's still much work to be done, the firm told the Greater Corpus Christi Business Alliance.
An $85,000 master plan for tourism was developed by Economic Research Associates, whose 15-member project team logged more than a dozen trips to Corpus Christi during the past few months and spent 1,500 hours on research and analysis.
Consultants said the area's beaches are the city's No. 1 tourism asset but have been largely overlooked as a tourism resource.
``The primary asset in the entire Corpus Christi area is the beach on Padre Island, but it is not treated like the asset that it is,'' the report stated. ``It lacks day use facilities, clear signage, well-defined parking areas and is not user friendly.''
Suggestions for boosting tourism included improving area beaches with restrooms, better parking and other amenities.
David Coggins, a member of the Padre Island Business Association's board of directors, said beach development has been on the organization's short list of priorities along with the opening of Packery Channel and elevating the JFK Causeway.
``There's already a lot of infrastructure here,'' Coggins said. ``A lot of the streets have already been built and there's a lot of property available. There's an awful lot of space that needs to be filled up that would enhance the attractiveness of the beach.''
Other recommendations include attracting resort development, building a new convention center and linking together existing and future harborfront developments.
Gary Bushell, the alliance's president and chief executive, said much of what's contained in the 130-page report didn't come as a surprise.
The alliance's hope is that others will realize the importance of the projects. The group's work will be used to leverage support for improvements on Padre Island and other projects that could help Corpus Christi increase its tourism and convention business, he said.
``I'm hoping that this will help develop the political will among our elected officials to make the island more of a priority than it has been in the past,'' Bushell said.
Another project Bushell hopes will become a higher priority as a result of the report is expansion of Bayfront Plaza Convention Center, which stalled last fall when voters rejected a sales tax initiative that would have been a funding source for the project.
While the projects outlined in the report seem daunting, Bushell is confident that most can be under way within several years. ``I think that we can cause a great deal of what is in that report to happen within a five-year time frame,'' he said.
The study of Corpus Christi's tourism industry isn't the company's first. The firm was hired in the mid-1980s to do feasibility studies for projects that included development of a retail and entertainment district in the harbor area. Their conclusion at the time was that the projects likely wouldn't succeed.
That conclusion has changed with the addition of the Texas State Aquarium, the Lexington aircraft carrier museum and other attractions, Economic Research principal Dan Martin told alliance board members.
``The key to this report is the number of positives that they uncovered on what has occurred here in the past decade,'' said Bill Pruet, chairman of the alliance's Convention and Visitors Bureau directors council.
The task now for the alliance is to develop its tourism business further, Pruet said.
As for how the city rates as a tourist destination, Economic Research consultants compare it to San Antonio during the 1970s. That city has since made great strides in developing its tourism industry and is the state's No. 1 vacation city, according to the Texas Department of Economic Development.
Corpus Christi has likewise considerably built its travel base in the past decade. In 1996, the last year for which figures are available, the city drew 4.4 million visitors who spent more than $500 million here in 1996.
Tourism is now the city's fourth-largest industry. It's estimated that the industry directly or indirectly employs an estimated 9,000 people with an annual payroll of nearly $136 million.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web