麻豆AV

To the editor:

The support for a new visitor centre on the lakefront from Inn-Trust Hospitality and Quails鈥� Gate is revealing. After searching for what Inn-Trust actually does, I discovered that they are a hotel management company with an address in Florida who (from their website) 鈥渟treamline the work process resulting in highly profitable hotels鈥︹��; they turn 鈥渁round distressed and under-performing luxury and boutique hotels into highly profitable assets and market leaders.鈥�

So Killingsworth鈥檚 support for the tourism centre downtown is attempting to assist the bottom line of a hotel somewhere in 麻豆AV. I don鈥檛 know which hotel. His letter is, in any case, so full of meaningless language鈥斺�渨e need to move to the next level," 鈥渨e need to put our best foot forward," 鈥渂e where the people are," 鈥渟tudies show that the vast majority鈥︹�濃�攖hat I suspect Mr. Killingsworth simply isn鈥檛 here and therefore literally doesn鈥檛 know what he鈥檚 talking about. If he is here perhaps he could identify himself and the hotel he thinks will profit from the elimination of public waterfront in downtown 麻豆AV.

However, his idea that we need to have a building on the waterfront to 鈥渆nsure the comfort of our visitors鈥� is just weird. Does he think that there is a disturbing confusion in the downtown area? "Where do I go? OMG I鈥檓 lost! I think I鈥檓 in a park and enjoying it but I know I鈥檓 supposed to be spending money somewhere else鈥�."

Tourism 麻豆AV itself is not the attraction. I have travelled a lot and 鈥榤y study shows the vast majority鈥� of cities have tourism centres in train stations, airports and other areas where people are in transit.

There isn鈥檛 a tourism centre in the Louvre telling people what there is to do in Paris. The Louvre is the attraction.

We have natural beauty that is highly prized by visitors. There is very little we could build on the waterfront that would be more interesting than the lake. We should be very careful that we don鈥檛 eliminate the attraction in our zeal to promote tourism.

Tony Stewart is even more transparent. It seems that he considers the raison d鈥檈tre for Tourism 麻豆AV is to steer people from the downtown area to his winery. He trots out old standards like "the basic rule of business is go where the customers are." Perhaps he鈥檚 planning to occupy a section of the proposed centre himself.

What he doesn鈥檛 seem to understand is that the people who go to the downtown area and walk along the waterfront or go to the beach are actually enjoying what they are doing. That鈥檚 why they鈥檙e there. They aren鈥檛 lost. It鈥檚 one of the reasons they are in 麻豆AV in the first place.

Tourism 麻豆AV shouldn鈥檛 be working for the Stewarts. Many major cities have recently done costly rehabilitation of waterfront areas, bringing them back to the public. Can we not learn from them?

If 麻豆AV city council created a competition for urban planners, not one of them would suggest building a 5,000-square-foot structure on the waterfront. Not for any reason. Makes you wonder who the planners are and where they got their training.

Neil Cadger, 麻豆AV