Rail Heritage is Good Business for The Region

The Virginia General Assembly designated areas running from Covington to Lynchburg to Roanoke as “Virginia’s Rail Heritage Region” in February, laying the groundwork for six rail-related museums and historical societies to formalize their relationship and join forces for the purpose of creating a regional tourist destination in Western Virginia.

The region’s heritage involves the largest concentration of rail facilities in the state. William H. Fralin, Jr., the retiring 17th District Delegate, and John Edwards, State Senator (Roanoke) were chief patrons of the resolution.

Last week executives of C&O Railway Heritage Center in Clifton Forge, the National Railway Historical Society in Lynchburg and Roanoke, the O. Winston Link Museum, the Norfolk & Western Historical Society and the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke announced their intention to seek and attract more railroad enthusiasts to the region.

The main goal of the partnership is joint promotion of the region’s rail heritage and related assets, including multiple museums, active rail lines, historic sites and the activities of the related societies.  By promoting multiple attractions, it is anticipated that visitors will stay more nights in the region and spend more while here.

This is “one of the more significant developments in the Roanoke Valley,” said Virginia Museum of Transportation Executive Director Bev Fitzpatrick.  O. Winston Link Museum Director Kimberly Parker remarked, “This is a great example of the diverse audience that can attract and support regional tourism and create a destination for the area.”

Virginia Tourism Corporation’s research indicates that visitors to museums in Virginia spend 4.5 nights, compared to an average of 3.2 nights by non-museum visitors.  Traveling parties that visit museums spend an average of $968, more than double the $449 spent by traveling parties that do not include a museum visit.

Research conducted on a national level by the U.S. Cultural & Heritage Tourism Marketing Council, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Commerce, indicates that 40 percent of all leisure travelers in the U.S. actively engage in cultural and heritage travel. Twenty four percent of U.S. leisure travelers (36 million adults) plan to take a cultural / heritage trip within the next 12 months.  Roanoke hopes to take further advantage of those numbers.

There is evidence of the national and international draw of tourists by the partner organizations.  The O. Winston Link Museum reports New York, Washington, D.C., and London as its second, third, and fourth top cities of travel party origin.  The Virginia Museum of Transportation reports that 65 percent of its visitors originate from more than 100 miles away, with half from out of state or out of the country.

The Norfolk & Western Historical Society reports that it has members in 40 states and 16 foreign countries.  The recent jam-packed excursions hosted by the Roanoke Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society included passengers from California and Canada. “Per Hotel Roanoke, the most sought out package is the rails package,” said Fitzpatrick.

Virginia’s Rail Heritage Region will soon have a website. Plans are underway for live rail web cams in Roanoke, Lynchburg and Clifton Forge; the creation of signage to be strategically placed on interstate highways and other roadways, promotion of the region through online tourism marketing; advertising in Trains magazine; the further development of hotel packages, and agreements with travel agencies and tour bus companies.

By Susan Ayers
[email protected]

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  1. Roanoke has a good foundation for rail enthusiasts’ tourism. It has one of the few grand old railside hotels, a unique passenger station and Link Museum and the nearby interesting, but underfunded, Transportation Museum. When I worked as a volunteer at Link, we had a number of tourists from all over,a fair number of whom came for the specific purpose of seeing Link. They would usually visit the Trans Museum also.. Obviously what is missing is the biggie-rail travel. If we had that I think we could successfully market the rail tourism package on a fairly broad scale.

  2. Promotion is a word that is not understood by Roanoke tourism folks. It will be interesting to see what they mean by “online tourism marketing”. I am sure the budget will be so small it will hardly be worth their time! What are “live rail web cams”? Will they show our once in 12 year rail excursions and our empty new
    train station? What in the world is in Clifton Forge that anyone cares to see?(Sorry Clifton Forge!), Maybe they can show Kemper Stations’ civil war era train station in L’burg. If the Va General Assembly and William Fralin are involved in promoting rail tourism in our region I am sure it won’t succeed!! So Sad and pathetic!

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