Tourism can provide a revenue boost to local downtown retail businesses, including those that serve the daily needs of local residents. Communities can help their merchants realize the full potential of tourism by partnering with them to evaluate local attractions, poll visitors, and tailor events and services to appeal to visitors and locals alike.

"Downtown businesses need to understand what attracts people to their town and who the tourists are in terms of demographic, activity and lifestyle characteristics. This information will help retailers adjust their products and services to appeal to tourists," says Jim Bloms, an author of a study on
tourism entitled "Tourism & Retail Development: Attracting Tourists to Local Businesses."

Granted, drawing more tourists to your downtown is not a job that can be done overnight. But the study, by the University of Wisconsin Center for Community Economic Development, can be a great help. It clearly explains ways to capture additional tourism dollars. As more tourists are attracted to a downtown, new businesses often open to fill the growing demand for retail merchandise and services. Tourism affects both the number and variety of stores in a community. In fact, the study found that downtowns that successfully courted tourists often had
more than twice the number of retail businesses than other towns with similar resident consumer spending potential. Although the study focused on small towns in the Midwest, its findings are relevant to downtowns of all sizes.

The study advises downtowns to take the following three steps to understand their tourism market:
1) Conduct an attractions inventory; 2) Develop a visitor profile; 3) Expand product lines and develop new stores for tourists.

To attract more tourists and other customers, you first need to understand your downtown's attractions. You can do this by taking an inventory of the following: 1) Natural attractions; 2) Cultural/man-made attractions; 3) General services; 4) Transportation; 5) Businesses and institutions.

Be sure to record any special comments such as hours of operation, peak utilization periods or type of visitors. In addition, think of ways your downtown retailers can forge partnerships with existing attractions. By working together, they can make your downtown a place visitors will want to return to.

Merchants should carefully examine the place or origin and characteristics of their out-of-town customers. Differences in party size, age, travel purpose and other characteristics will directly affect their purchasing behaviors.

By understanding who the customers are, what they do in the area and how they spend their money, retailers can identify their most important customers and target existing and new services to them.

Courtesy of Downtown Promotion Reporter,
December 2001