Before Mickey Rowley became Pennsylvania’s Deputy Secretary of
Tourism, he worked at the Embassy Suites in Philadelphia. Often working long days, Rowley spent many nights in the brewpub across the street. One evening, the restaurant manager ran up to Rowley and, in a frantic, breathless voice, asked if the Embassy had received a busload of tourists that afternoon. Her restaurant had gotten slammed and they were unprepared. From then on, the Embassy began providing their occupancy as a matter of public record. Everyone from tourist attractions to
Wawa locations would request these numbers to avoid a panic of their own.
“They needed to know our occupancy to schedule staff,” says Rowley. “That’s how much impact a hotel has on a downtown.”
In cities like Philadelphia, a full hotel can mean a full restaurant versus a few slow nights. But in the hundreds of small towns that dot the landscape between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, a popular downtown hotel can mean the difference between survival and bankruptcy for nearby businesses. As Pennsylvania rebuilds tourism efforts post-recession, eyes turn to rural destination hotels, where community synergy is not a fad, it’s a way of life.
When architect John DeVitry unveiled plans for a rehabilitation of a Harrisburg Pike storage facility, his idea was to recreate a European-style “arts hotel” that would help support the burgeoning Lancaster art scene. In 2006, he opened the
Lancaster Arts Hotel, complete with boutique room designs and an in-house art gallery. Over the years, their commitment to the local economy has only grown. Today, everything from the furniture in the rooms to the paper in the printers is produced locally.
“When I do site tours and someone says to me ‘I really like this chair,’ I tell them that they can get it right here in our own backyard,” says Lancaster Arts head of sales Mara Sultan. “We have created relationships that we never would have, had we gone to the bigger box stores outside our area. It creates a real community feel.”
That community feel is big business in tourist towns like Gettysburg, where battlefields and historical monuments draw nearly 3 million visitors each year. The
James Gettys Hotel is a restored, historic building that sits on a piece of land owned by the town founders, the Gettys family. From 1787 to present day, the building has been everything from a tavern to a youth hostel, serving the majority of its life as a hotel. When Alan Hoeweler bought and refurbished the building to its 19th century glory in 1996, he made a conscious connection to the local community. Each of the 11 suites in the hotel is named for a business that operated either in or around this historic piece of land.
“One of our suites is named for the Blue Parrott Tea Room, which is known as the Blue Parrott Bistro today. It was the most popular restaurant on the Lincoln Highway in the 1920s,” says Gettys hotel manager Stephanie Stephan. “It is also the first place my grandmother ever had a job as a young lady.”
Stephan and other local hotel managers have made community their goal by working together on larger, off-season events--like the annual Civil War ball--that the hotels would not be able to accomplish on their own. The group has even created an availability chart so that they can more effectively recommend each other to potential visitors.
“Nine times out of ten, people have already chosen to come to the battlefields but it’s a choice as to where to stay,” says Stephan. “Our hotel may not always be the best fit but it is my goal to make sure people come to Gettysburg and have a great time.”
This focus has turned places once thought of as daytrip destinations into overnight vacation spots. According to Rowley, this is a reaction to current economic conditions.
“Places like Hawaii, Florida and Las Vegas suffered not only a bad economy but also bad press as places that companies like AIG shouldn’t be traveling to,” he says. “Their losses were huge. Pennsylvania has hung on.”
This concept is nothing new. In November 2001--two months after 9/11--the travel industry took a hit that it didn’t fully recover from until 2002, as every airplane in the U.S. was grounded. That month, Philadelphia launched a $3 million ad campaign, announcing ‘Philly is more fun when you sleep over.’ It was geared toward local residents who couldn’t get on a plane for their vacation to come and visit local, more affordable attractions in their own backyard. As a result, Philadelphia tourism recovered from 9/11 faster than any city in the country.
“What you are seeing now is similar, with destinations advertising the value of their destination. Small towns like Punxsutawney, when people come to see the groundhog want to experience the community by staying downtown” says Rowley. “Everything we do when promoting main streets and downtowns across Pennsylvania, we always want to package that offering with the ability to experience the whole community by staying overnight.”
The overnight experience creates an itinerary that hotels and local businesses can use to show guests all that their destination has to offer. At the James Gettys Hotel, it is about showing visitors the historic community beyond the battlefields. For Mara Sultan, its about involving visitors in the life of Lancaster. From a local opera company singing to diners in the restaurant to making your own pottery and touring the town market, its all about creating a sense of place for each new face.
“Lancaster City has a population of 60,000 people. We all know each other so it’s very easy to create those local partnerships,” Sultan says. “Nothing beats that personalized experience.”
John Steele is a freelance writer and blogger
in Philadelphia. He enjoys music snobbery, trash television and laughing at
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All photographs provided by the Lancaster Arts Hotel - Lancaster