William Short
October 12, 2010
Trial in Gulf oil spill cases postponed
October 14, 2010
Tourism and hospitality officials are banking on a new Welcome Center to lure tourists and passing motorists to visit St. Mary Parish.
The Cajun Coast Visitors & Convention Bureau, the parish’s tourism board, will begin construction on a $3.887 million Welcome Center. Styled after a Cajun cabin, the 16,000-plus-square-foot building will be built at Morgan City’s Martin Luther King Boulevard exit. The area is currently swampland.
Tourism director Carrie Stansbury said plans for the center have been in the works since 2004. Funding for the project is coming from a Department of Transportation and Development grant St. Mary Parish’s tourism commission received six years ago.
“I am excited and anxious at the same time,” Stansbury said of the project. “Our location is going to make us easily accessible and we’ll be right off U.S. Highway 90.”
The tourism director foresees foot traffic immediately increased given the high visibility of the new site. “We will have a greater number of folks stopping by than we currently see at our other two locations – in Patterson and Franklin,” she predicted.
“This will give us an opportunity to engage visitors and to share with them all there is to see and do throughout St. Mary Parish,” Stansbury said. “That should translate into more money and time being spent by visitors in our parish.”
The two-story structure will feature a welcome area and interpretive center on the first floor. Upstairs, visitors will find the tourist commission’s administrative offices, according to Kim Walden, chairman of the St. Mary Parish Tourism Commission.
Walden also serves as cultural director of the Chitimacha Indian tribe, whose members reside, in part, in St. Mary Parish. Walden’s role is to protect and preserve the tribe’s culture. Recently, the Chitimachas completed a Rosetta Stone audio language program for indigenous languages.
The tribe’s handiwork and culture is but one aspect the new Welcome Center will promote.
“Glass walls will allow visitors to get a picturesque view of the wetlands that will make it an idyllic location,” Walden said. “We have begun a new chapter for tourism in St. Mary Parish.”
According to a recent survey conducted by the parish’s tourism commission, Stansbury said day travelers spend an average of five hours in St. Mary.
“We need to keep those visitors three more hours to turn them into overnight travelers,” she said. “With the interpretive elements in the Welcome Center and the number of attractions there are to see and do within the parish, we feel confident that we can make that conversion among visitors.”
When asked just how many people travel through or stop in the parish annually, Stansbury said the number is elusive.
“That’s a hard one to answer because it’s estimated that less than 10 percent of travelers stop at a visitor center,” she explained.
Stansbury ventures 150 to 250 people visit the Patterson and Franklin sites monthly – or approximately 3,000 per year.
“I’d say the total [of visitors] is probably closer to 30,000 to 50,000 who are visiting St. Mary Parish,” she said.
U.S. Highway 90 serves as a pathway for travelers coming from across Louisiana or visiting from Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Florida en route to the Crescent City. Based on past numbers, Stansbury said St. Mary’s two biggest international draws are France and Canada.
Sharon Howell, the longtime general manager of the Morgan City Holiday Inn, was among those who provided input early on with the project. She was a member of the tourism commission at the time.
“I, along with Lucien Cutrera and Carrie [Stansbury], started this project years ago,” Howell said. “It’s nice to finally see it coming to fruition.
“The new tourist information center will certainly be a big hook to get travelers off the road as they enter St. Mary Parish,” she added. “Information provided about local attractions and hotels, along with infomercials about the area, and a knowledgeable staff will certainly benefit the area.”
St. Mary is home to 1,051 rooms in 11 hotels, 471 campground sites and 17 bed-and-breakfast facilities, Stansbury said.
Hotel occupancy has been high in recent months, she said. Tourists didn’t make up the bulk of that trade, however. It was due in large part to the number of workers transferred into the area to deal with the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent cleanup. Today, the hotel occupancy rate is closer to 75 or 78 percent, Stansbury noted.
Howell, who has managed the Morgan City Holiday Inn for 19 years, said the site has 221 rooms, plus a full-service restaurant and bar. The property boasts more than $7 million in sales annually, she said.
“This [Welcome Center] is going to be a great asset because tourism is not our strongest market segment,” Howell said. “In fact, it’s probably our weakest. Unfortunately, the majority of our business thrives on oil.”
Also hopeful the tourism center will be a positive for the parish is Donna Meyer, president of the St. Mary Parish Chamber of Commerce.
“It will be a real eye catcher as people pass and exit onto Martin Luther King Boulevard in Morgan City,” she said. “Overall, it will give visitors and potential businesses relocating to this area, a quick snapshot of the cultural benefits and the natural beauty of our parish.”
Meyer said the facility will also serve as a great tool when she’s pitching businesses to relocating to the parish.
An architect’s rendering shows off St. Mary Parish’s $3.887 million Welcome Center off the Martin Luther King Boulevard exit in Morgan City. COURTESY PHOTO
