MAY 2015 Living with Success Revisited: Summit on Heritage Tourism in our Nation’s Most Beloved Historic Cities PASTFORWARD 2014 NOVEMBER 14, 2014 | SAVANNAH, GA Living with Success Revisited was made possible by the generous support of Historic Savannah Foundation, the City of Savannah, Visit Savannah, the Tourism Leadership Council and the Downtown Neighborhood Association. Cover photo courtesy of National Trust for Historic Preservation Living with Success Revisited: Summit on Heritage Tourism in our Nation’s Most Beloved Historic Cities In 1995 Historic Annapolis Foundation brought together a group of civic leaders representing some of the most heavily-touristed historic districts in the nation. In these cities, the influx of visitors was bringing welcome economic energy, but the sheer number of tourists was often negatively impacting the historic fabric of the city and diminishing the quality of life of its residents. The findings and recommendations of that convening were published in 1995 and shared more broadly during the 1998 National Preservation Conference in Savannah. Almost two decades later, as part of the 2014 PastForward National Preservation Conference, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Historic Savannah Foundation, the City of Savannah, Visit Savannah, the Tourism Leadership Council and the Downtown Neighborhood Association reconvened this group to consider whether those initial findings and recommendations remained relevant and how contemporary issues could be addressed. Before the summit, a committee convened by the National Trust developed a survey which was sent to 24 people who engage in heritage tourism in some portion of their work. Nineteen responses were received, from locations ranging from Newport, Rhode Island, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and from Santa Barbara, California, to Sitka, Alaska. Most respondents lead local nonprofit organizations, while others are historic commission members or preservation planners. Respondents were asked a number of questions about tourism in their cities, beginning with a question regarding the impact of tourism. Ninety-four percent of the respondents affirmed that the impacts of tourism and how to manage those impacts was a concern for their local city or community. More specifically, respondents listed the following as their top concerns: 1. Inadequate parking 2. Congestion in high tourism areas 3. Loss of neighborhood character and quality of life 4. Loss of resident amenities and services 5. Inappropriate behavior and noise 6. The consequences of short-term rentals Living with Success Revisited: Summit on Heritage Tourism 2 7. The impact of cruise ships 8. Lack of adequate transportation 9. Decrease in market-rate and workforce housing Many of these issues are not new, but after 20 years there has been an evolution in how the issues play out in our communities. In addition, technological advances have made Airbnb and Uber, for better or worse, part of the tourism equation. Communities are also seeing new modes of tourism and a rising impact of cruise ships in small coastal communities. What has also changed, due perhaps in part to the 1995 report, is the recognition by more cities of the need to budget, plan for and implement tourism management. After reviewing the survey results, summit planners chose the following issues to frame the conversation at the 2014 Tourism Summit: • Parking and transportation; • Congestion in high tourism areas; • The balance between tourist needs and resident amenities and services; and • The need for approaches to tourism management planning. A summary of the complete survey findings and participants can be found at the end of this report. The summit featured a panel of speakers well-versed in heritage tourism who provided a lively discussion, moderated by Amy Webb, Field Director of the Denver Field Office at the National Trust, and a question-and-answer session for attendees. The panel included the following speakers: • Daniel Carey: president and CEO of Historic Savannah Foundation, • Lisa Craig: chief of historic preservation & executive director, MainStreets Annapolis Partnership, • Kristopher King: executive director of the Preservation Society of Charleston, • Bridget Lidy: Director of the Tourism Management & Ambassadorship Department for the City of Savannah, • Meg Lousteau: executive director of the Vieux Carré Property Owners, Residents and Associates, Inc. in New Orleans, • Bruce MacDougal: executive director of the San Antonio Conservation Society, and • Kitty Robinson: executive director of the Historic Charleston Foundation An informal poll of the audience included attendees from Savannah, Georgia; St. Augustine, Florida; Beaufort, South Carolina; Newport, Rhode Island; Nantucket, Massachusetts; Sapelo Island, Georgia; Hillsborough and Asheville, North Carolina. Living with Success Revisited: Summit on Heritage Tourism 3 PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION The discussion of parking and transportation was framed around the survey results and the panelists’ challenges and experiences in their cities. All cities represented at the summit, whether on the panel or in the audience, reported having significant issues accommodating parking. Annapolis, Charleston and Savannah have each addressed this problem in different ways. In Annapolis, the city has created permitted parking zones specifically for residents, and requires proof of residency before a new permit can be authorized. For tourists, the city has built two new parking garages since 1995. The City Council also recently approved a new way-finding plan to help drivers get from the highway to the garages and then, once they’ve parked, to the downtown area by foot. Annapolis has found that providing parking for both locals and out-of-towners, instead of just focusing on one group or the other, offers a better long-term solution. In Charleston, the city has employed a number of strategies to help with parking. A subcommittee of the city’s Tourism Management Advisory Committee was created to focus exclusively on traffic and transportation issues. The city, together with the Historic Charleston Foundation, commissioned traffic expert Gabe Klein to write a report focused on transportation issues. The report suggests replacing the current parking meters with new, technologically advanced ones that take payment via credit card or smart phone. It also recommends locating the visitor’s center farther outside the city’s historic core. The plan is to have tourists park at the visitor’s center, then take a trolley downtown. Kristopher King from the Historic Charleston Foundation said that this is really just a first step. What is needed is a comprehensive traffic and parking study that provides concrete data about current parking availability and future trends. Such a study, he said, would require substantial political buy- in and funding, but would result in data that could show what the city currently has to offer in terms of parking as well as what it needs in the future. Such a study ties in to one of the management strategies first identified at the 1995 summit: gather better data. Charleston has also addressed parking issues by modifying parking ordinances near the College of Charleston. Parking in the predominately residential neighborhood had been limited to two hours, but was often taken up by students. The City changed the parking allowance to one hour, resulting in a decrease in student parking. The city worked with the college to improve off- campus parking and start a shuttle service to ensure that the parking problem was not simply shifted to another neighborhood. Living with Success Revisited: Summit on Heritage Tourism 4 In Savannah, the public transportation authority has implemented a number of new strategies to address parking and transportation in the downtown. A new transit center opened in 2013 has diverted downtown buses off Broughton Street, a main artery of the city, to the same center where Greyhound buses also arrive and depart. The transit center is located within walking distance of the downtown historic district. The city has also begun operating dedicated express buses between the airport and the transit center, a service which has proven so popular that the hours of operation needed to be increased to accommodate the demand. The transit center is also one of the pick-up locations for a bike share program launched in January 2014. The bike program, however, has spawned new concerns. Tourists in Savannah are not well-versed in the rules governing bike transportation in the city, which calls for the city to do a better job familiarizing visitors and Savannah’s many students with these rules. Savannah’s convention center, which is located across the river from downtown on Hutchinson Island, also provides some parking relief. The center has ample parking away from the city core, and is connected to downtown by a convenient free ferry. TAKEAWAYS: While parking is an issue in most cities, historic ones often laid out before automobiles existed pose unique challenges. Annapolis, Charleston and Savannah have all taken steps to address their parking issues. These specific actions may not work in all cities, but they do offer specific models that may be adaptable including: 1. Use permits to enforce parking restrictions and accommodate residential needs. 2. Provide satellite parking outside the congested core. 3. Add public transportation options that can move visitors around. 4. Invest in studies and data gathering to inform and prioritize decision