Mary Strominger Raum City of Palestine Dear Ms. Raum: Please find the following copy of the Palestine Community Tourism Assessment Report conducted by state agency members from the Office of the Governor – Economic Development and Tourism, Texas Historic Commission, the Texas Department of Agriculture, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Texas Department of Transportation. We hope this report will be a useful extension to the ideas which were generated throughout the visit and will contribute to the growth of tourism in your area in the future. Please extend our appreciation to the residents who gave their time, knowledge and resources to host the assessment activities. Palestine has many exciting resources available for further tourism development and has great potential to grow as a travel destination in the future. Tourism staff will continue to be available for any clarifications you may need. For questions or assistance please contact me at 512/936-1834 or [email protected]. Sincerely, Cole Hubbard Tourism Research Coordinator Office of the Governor, Economic Development & Tourism P.O. BOX 12428 | AUSTIN, TX 78711 | 512- 936-0100 | WWW. TRAVELTEXAS . COM PALESTINE, TX COMMUNITY TOURISM ASSESSMENT MAY 22 - 23, 2018 Importance of Tourism • Estimated direct travel spending in Texas totaled more than $74.7 billion in 2017, which directly supported 677,600 jobs and generated $7 billion in state and local taxes. • Travel supports jobs across many industry sectors: Leisure and hospitality Transportation Retail trade Services Finance Real estate Construction Insurance Government and others Importance of Tourism in Palestine • In 2017, it was estimated there was more than $38 million in total direct visitor spending within Palestine. As a result of this visitor spending, an estimated 499 jobs were supported within the city. • Additionally, tourism generated an estimated $1 million in local taxes and $2 million in state taxes in Palestine in 2017. • For more information, please visit https://travel.texas.gov/travel-research/. This economic data is updated annually each summer. Background A Community Tourism Assessment: Organizes local attractions into an easily referenced report. Provides recommendations for improving community resources based on observations from tourism staff conducting the assessment. Uncovers untapped or underutilized attractions in a community. Encourages regional collaboration and the creation of tourism partnerships. Educates communities on how to develop and promote local tourism attractions. Establishes a foundation for future tourism planning or development efforts. Background Representatives from the Office of the Governor, Economic Development & Tourism division (EDT), Texas Historical Commission (THC), the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), and the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) visited Palestine, TX over May 22- 23 and completed an itinerary featuring local tourism attractions and meetings with involved community members. This report includes many of the ideas generated throughout the assessment and is primarily meant to be an inventory of attractions experienced during the assessment and other aspects of the travel product. Please note that the assessment report may not include all attractions or potential attractions in the region. Strategic Planning Before conducting the assessment, members of the assessment team reviewed the tourism promotional materials for Palestine, TX. The findings in this Community Tourism Assessment address many of the strengths and opportunities for continued growth in the Palestine tourism program. Strategic planning reports are best used as a “living document” designed to be continually revisited and revised based on evolving opportunities rather than a checklist that must be followed. Report Format The format of this report will provide an attractions, events and accommodations inventory based upon the assessment itinerary, in addition to an analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT), while discussing other associated elements of the tourism system: Culinary/Dining Experiences Nature Tourism Historical and Heritage Tourism Lodging Assessment Shopping Opportunities Report Format The inventory of Attractions, Events and Accommodations is the primary deliverable of this Community Tourism Assessment. Unless noted, images used were taken in Palestine, TX. Index • SWOT Analysis – Culinary/Dining Experience – Nature Tourism – Historic and Cultural Tourism – Lodging – Shopping • Texas Historical Commission (Teresa Caldwell) Notes • Texas Department of Transportation (Lois Rodriguez) Notes • Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (Shelly Plante) Notes • Texas Commission on the Arts (Anina Moore) Notes • Texas Department of Agriculture (Manuel Martinez) Notes SWOT ANALYSIS M L LEDDY’S HANDMADE BOOTS, FORT WORTH PALESTINE TOURISM MATERIALS It is clear from the materials which were sent prior to the assessment dates that Palestine has an active tourism program. There were several brochures and pamphlets which detailed the various attractions and events around town and were nicely designed and implemented. The creation of visitor guides and attraction catalogues is quite advanced for the usual applicant to the Tourism Assessment Program. You can interpret that to mean that Palestine is doing several things right, putting yourself ahead of the competition. The website is attractive and pretty easy to navigate. The images selected are on brand and invite visitors to explore beyond the homepage. One thing to note – when searching for “Visit Palestine”, the first result is the visitor’s page for the country, not the city. This can be mitigated by rebranding to something more specific, such as incorporating “TX” more into the branding to differentiate. One note on the Events portion of the website is a bit odd. It appears to be a list of five events without any description of why they were selected and when they occur. The Calendar feature is more informative, but visitors might be deterred by this first page, thinking these five events are the only events happening within Palestine. PALESTINE VISITOR CENTER Strengths: Appealing aesthetic on the exterior Opportunities: There is an opportunity for with ample parking available to travelers. The additional wayfinding signage which would set-up inside provides a nice, open layout with a guide visitors to the Palestine Visitor Center. large number of brochures, pamphlets, and While some signage exists currently, there is an other tourism-related information. The staff opportunity to increase the Visitor Center’s members are knowledgeable about Palestine visibility throughout the community. On this amenities and attractions, while also delivering note, there is also an opportunity to foster a high level of customer service to visitors. deeper cross-promotion of attractions. Should a There is also an opportunity to buy Palestine- visitor stop at one of the many attractions related merchandise, all of which appears to be within Palestine, it is ideal that all attraction of high quality. Overall, the design and staff members be well-versed on what is execution of the visitor center is well done. represented in the Visitor Center in order to educate visitors of other attractions in the area. Additionally, these staff should be able to provide concise directions to any attraction’s Weaknesses: A glaring weakness for the location. This is achieved through ensuring Palestine Visitor Center is not apparent. proper training of hospitality personnel. Threats: Lack of visitation due to low signage. NASA COLUMBIA SCIENTIFIC BALLOON FACILITY Strengths: Quite an interesting and unique Opportunities: There is an opportunity to attraction for Palestine. An obvious strength is update written materials detailing the there is nothing like this throughout the area. experiences available through the NASA Facility. The visitor center’s introduction video is The local visitor’s guide does describe the informative and thorough, allowing tourists to facility; however, there are brochures which understand the features which make this facility appear to need some updating. There is an unique. The workers at this site are very friendly additional opportunity to utilize the balloon and willing to speak with visitors at length launches to more effectively market the events about he facility operations and ongoing and attractions within Palestine. For example, projects. While our assessment team did not during balloon launches, there is an opportunity experience a balloon launch, the experience for NASA to partner with local vendors to come sounds like it draws a wide variety of visitors to out and sell their goods. Another option would the Palestine area. be for Visitor Center staff to come out with informational materials to hand out to those Weaknesses: While the facility is an attractive visiting for the balloon launch. This could amenity to Palestine, it is unclear how tourists encourage a longer stay within the region with would know this exists or how they would more economic significance for local vendors. understand what exactly why this facility merits their visitation. Threats: Tourists’ lack of understanding of the facility’s purpose. CULINARY/DINING EXPERIENCE SMITTY’S MARKET, LOCKHART EILENBERGER BAKERY Strengths: This historic bakery serves to add Opportunities: