2008 oregon impact - business tourism

business.tourism.{And everywhere they meet.}

Adding it All up | Bringing it All homeplus

A s u p p l e m e n t t o o r e g o n B u s i n e s s m A g A z i n e

2008 impact oregon 3

It’s ImpossIble to talk about tourism in oregon without talking about busi-ness at the same time. visitors to oregon help support the economy in a big way, and the financial impacts of travel are easy to track: direct travel spend-ing in 2007 totaled $8.3 billion and supported more than 91,000 jobs.

but the numbers tell only part of the story –– and it’s a great story. tourism and business intersect in all kinds of interesting and strategically important ways. visitors help build our state’s reputation for environmental stewardship and outstanding natural recreation. often, people who first come as tourists return for good, bringing their businesses with them.

the tourism industry is shaping what we teach in college, and making new family-wage jobs available to our children. It’s helping business recruitment ac-tivities and providing a needed income source for rural communities. visitors create demand for amenities and activities that residents can then enjoy.

In this issue of Impact oregon, you will find details on all of these topics. the main section of the publication is devoted to a roundtable discussion held recently in portland. For that event, business and travel and hospitality leaders gathered to share their ideas on how the industries intersect. we think you will find their discussion enlightening — we certainly did.

elsewhere in this publication, you can read about how the main themes discussed at the roundtable event are echoed throughout the state in small stories of individual successes.

It’s clear that the symbiotic relationship between tourism and business in oregon is a satisfying and productive one. we hope you enjoy the pages that follow.

A supplement to Oregon Business, produced and published by medIAmerica.

presIdent And ceo

Andrew A. Insinga

sUpplement edItor

megan monson

Art dIrector Jon Ferland

contrIbUtIng photogrAphers michael g. halle, edmund Keene

AssocIAte pUblIsher megan Kirkpatrick

AdvertIsIng dIrector Jason garey

AdvertIsIng AccoUnt mAnAger Kerwin Jacobsen

AdvertIsIng AccoUnt mAnAger Jeff helm

event & mArKetIng mAnAger Katie goldrick

cIrcUlAtIon mAnAger Jan edwards-pullin

prodUctIon dIrector sherondra thedford

Ad prodUctIon coordInAtor bjorn van der voo

presIdent And ceo Andrew A. Insingacontroller bill lee

Board of directorschAIrmAn André w. Iseli presIdent Andrew A. InsingasecretAry william l. mainwaring treAsUrer win mccormack

Telling the Oregon story

5 A conversation with industry leaders 7 worKForce IssUes 8 sUstAInAbIlIty eFFort 11 bUsIness connectIons 11 commUnIcAtIon FActor

13 Driving economic growth

14 Regional breakdown 14 portlAnd metro 15 wIllAmette vAlley 16 soUthern oregon 17 eAstern oregon 18 mt. hood / colUmbIA rIver gorge 19 centrAl oregon 20 oregon coAst 21 ImpAct oregon: storIes oF sUccess

WeLcome >>

contents >>

mike ishida, director of sales for day wireless systems, believes in spending quality business time with a fly rod in hand. “every year we bring executives from around the nation to oregon,” he says. “we have found there is no better place to develop business relationships than on a river.”

cover photo by mIchAel g. hAlle

Wally Van Valkenburg chair, oregon economic & community

development commission

Kari Westlund chair, oregon tourism commission

WaLLy Van VaLkenBurg oregon economic & community development commission


Travel Oregon and Oregon Business Magazine’s Publisher recently invited a

group of leaders from across the state and across industries to talk about the

relationship between tourism and business. Wally Van Valkenburg, chairman

of the Oregon Economic & Community Development Commission, moderated

the event. The frank and open discussion that resulted was all that we hoped

for. Workforce issues, transportation challenges, the upside and downside of

growth, sustainability as a lifestyle and as a marketing tool–– it’s all here. You

can join the conversation by reading the pages that follow.

>> Photos by EdMUNd KEENE

tourism means Business >>

A conversation with industry leaders


aLison sokoL BLosser sokol blosser winery

todd daVidson travel oregon

daVid Bragdon metro council


WaLLy Van VaLkenBurg: How important is tourism to the economy in a place like Oregon?

BiLL mackenZie: I work for Intel, and I don’t think there is any question that the quality of life, the natural beauty of oregon, is an incentive for employees who want to come here. some of our employees are people who came here as tourists or on a business trip, and then decided they wanted to relocate to oregon. maintaining that perception helps us when we’re trying to recruit people. In fact, our biggest problem at Intel is not recruiting people to oregon, it’s getting them to leave when we want to move them someplace else. aLana audette: In the early ’90s, a bend-area study was done to find out the conversion rate of visitors to new business. seventy percent of the new base in 1993 reported that they first visited the region on vacation. tourism had a phenomenal impact on the change and dynamic develop-ment of central oregon, as it did throughout the state as well.adam daVis: take the hatfield school over at portland state University: 6,000 academics have visited portland for stays averaging at least three days each. they want to come to portland because of the quality of life and the natural beauty, and they all become ambassadors. when we think of business, we’ve got to think of it as wider than just the private sector. Another thing––I am still struck by how schizophrenic the general public is about the value of travel and tourism––it’s almost like a love/hate kind of thing. tourism is proxy for population growth and more people and more pressure on the things that I care about. I’m not hearing it with the intensity that I heard, say, 10, 15 years ago.

Workforce issues >>

Van VaLkenBurg: About this perception that tourism is a low-wage industry––to what extent does that create challenges for those of you who are actually in business?

daVis: I still hear that tourism is not as important as other sectors be-cause of those low-wage jobs and no benefits. And I know a lot of you live with that perception all the time, but it’s still out there among the general public. Jeff miLLer: I believe that the perception is certainly out there, but I think businesses really see the benefits of these jobs. so many people in this room started in hospitality jobs–-you needed that first part-time job as a kid, you needed to work your way through college. And this industry provides those jobs, and it also provides management-level jobs and executive-level jobs.gregg mindt: some research that the oregon tourism commission did in the early to mid- ’90s indicated that roughly 10% of the jobs in oregon’s tourism industry were actually minimum-wage jobs with no tip income. And yet it also pointed out that 70% to 75% of the businesses in oregon’s tourism industry are sole proprietorships. so there is that low-wage perception, but there should also be a greater awareness of the management-level opportunities, as well as the chance to take an avoca-

tion and make it into a vocation. Folks that perhaps fancy wine suddenly start wine businesses like you’ve seen in oregon, and really stimulate our economy that way.

Van VaLkenBurg: Other comments from people in the industry on this issue?

steVe mccoid: well, I think the perception is definitely there, and to a degree we say shame on us, oregon restaurant Association, for not doing a better job of educating the public on what the opportunities really are. the majority of the jobs in the industry are family-wage jobs. It’s really incumbent on us to get that word out and educate the public on those opportunities. kari WestLund: our industry sector really provides a lot of varied oppor-tunities for people who are at different places in their lives and looking for different kinds of experiences. there are an awful lot of people working in the industry who are there by choice for a very long period of time, and I suspect it’s not because they’re feeling trapped in a minimum-wage job. they’re great at what they do.

Van VaLkenBurg: How do you all feel about the quality of the employees you’re getting? Are there things we’re doing well? Things we’re not doing so well as a state?

miLLer: we need more hospitality programs in higher education. As an industry, we are helping fund those things, but we need to be more orga-nized at that educational level.WestLund: we’ve got a great program in the eugene area at lane com-munity college, with both an accredited culinary arts program and a hos-pitality management program. one of the biggest challenges they have is that the industry is picking those kids out before they’re done with the program because there is such a hunger for trained talent.mindt: there are very few other industries with as quick a growth or ad-vancement track as the hospitality industry, particularly the hotel industry. If you’re smart, you’re ambitious, and you want to succeed, it’s there. steVe fauLstick: I had an employee who came to us from the Ukraine and worked as a housekeeper at above minimum wage. within six months, she grew into a job cleaning public areas, and then found her way into a job in our executive meeting center, which grew into a $40,000-a-year

moderator >>WaLLy Van VaLkenBurgchair, oregon economic & community development commission

“Our biggest problem at Intel is not recruiting people to Oregon, it’s getting them to leave when we want to move them someplace else.” >> BiLL mackenZie, inteL


job within two years. I myself started as a bus boy 22 years ago in medford. I like to get in front of western culinary and new Avenues for youth and mt. hood community college to tell that story, because it is a career with wonderful opportunities. mackenZie: what I hear a lot of you saying is that the industry as a whole doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job of raising the public consciousness about the people in the industry at all levels––people for whom that job represents dignity and income and an opportunity to grow and participate in the oregon economy.

Van VaLkenBurg: I’m curious as to what the prevailing political winds are on immigration, and what kind of impact that has on companies and industries.

mccoid: well, it’s a huge issue for the hospitality industry. the restaurants are co-chairing a coalition concerned about this, because 22 percent of the workforce in oregon is immigrant and about half could be illegal. the coalition is working to prevent some of the things you’ve seen in Arizona and oklahoma, where government rules caused chaos in the industry, and also to support some commonsense reform that takes into account what these folks do for our economy and to treat them with the respect they deserve as hard-working members of our society.anne root: one of the problems that we’re seeing is that there’s a real inclination to not support our high school students into jobs in hospitality and travel. I think we’ve supplemented that through our immigrant popu-lation. I think also that we’ve too narrowly defined hospitality as travel and tourism. It’s really hospitality in the retirement centers, it’s all your food service, in your hospitals––it’s across many, many industries that give a good customer service hospitality experience. If we could more broadly define it, we can better support it through our universities and our training programs.

the sustainaBiLity effort >>

Van VaLkenBurg: Another issue is how tourism and hospitality fit into Oregon’s strategy of being the world capital of sustainabil-ity. How do people feel about that?

audette: I think tourism is going to be the leading industry in the sustain-ability effort. we have a million acres of national forest lands to hike on, and every single person who visits or resides in central oregon wants to be a steward of that.fauLstick: we are sitting on a gold mine of opportunity around sustain-ability, and as the green dust settles around the nation, we in oregon are poised to stand as the true sustainability leaders. we have something now in oregon that we own. las vegas owns the glitz and glamour, and california and Florida own the beaches. oregon owns sustainability, and it just so happens that sustainability is one of the top demand generators

in our country right now with individual travelers, groups and conven-tions.todd daVidson: It’s not unusual for us to hear international visitors refer to oregon as being that clean, green and friendly destination, or to hear domestically about the uncrowded, unspoiled natural beauty of oregon. there’s no other industry that has as much to lose or as much to con-tribute to this whole sustainability discussion as the travel and tourism industry does, so it‘s exciting to see the businesses that are stepping up to embrace a sustainability ethic. daVid Bragdon: I think the people in marketing will say the first prereq-uisite of any brand is that it be genuine. It has to be something that really is reflective of what’s being branded, and I think this is a huge opportunity for us. the things that tourists like to do are the things that people who already live here like to do––they want to go to powell books, they want to eat in the restaurants, they want to go hiking. their support for those types of activities actually creates more capacity for those of us who live here. christopher sehring: I think you’re absolutely right with the green-

ness, the sustainability, the recycling. the wave is there, you’ve got a great niche, and there’s a lot of opportunity here.

Van VaLkenBurg: How does tourism and development around the state affect transportation plans for the next 20 years?

patrick cooney: odot’s plans are affected by every piece of the tour-ism and growth areas, and we’re excited about the possibilities. we’ve got nine scenic byways now. the transportation commission just christened a wine tour route through the upper valley, and there’s more coming. we’ve got trip check, our award-winning web site. we’re also working on several areas with regard to the rest areas––to provide wi-Fi and things like that.Bragdon: I think we shouldn’t overlook the incredible growth of nonmo-

aLison sokoL BLosser co-president, sokol blosser winerydundee

anne root co-owner, eden vale winery Medford

patrick cooney communications director, oregon department of transportationsalem

participants >>

“Las Vegas owns the glitz and glamour, and California and Florida own the beaches. Oregon owns sustainability, and it just so happens that sustainability is one of the top demand generators in our country right now.”>> steVe fauLstick, douBLetree hoteL portLand–LLoyd center


adam daVisdavis, hibbitts &

midghall, Inc.

Jeff miLLertravel portland

anne root eden vale winery


torized transportation tourism. Just in the last two weeks I’ve talked to two friends, one of whom is spending 10 days bicycling around Italy. the other one’s going to spend a week bicycling around denmark. what would it take to have people coming in here having a similar experience? In fact, it wouldn’t take a whole lot. It would take packaging and commu-nication, and the connection between nature and urbanity in one place. Van VaLkenBurg: I think we’ve accomplished a lot in terms of making portland a bike-friendly city, but if you go to Amsterdam, you realize that we have a long ways to go. miLLer: make no mistake––this business, whether it’s tourism or con-ventions and meetings, is as competitive as any other industry out there. there’s a lot of money at stake. components and infrastructures like the bike path all come together to help us sell this product––portland and oregon––because our goal is to get them here and then push them throughout the state. so these things all connect.WestLund: It’s amazing in oregon how people really come together to collaborate. there’s a lot of opportunity for people not to come together and play well in the sandbox, but it seems like we really do a great job of

figuring out how to protect the resource but also allow access to it. the sustainability theory doesn’t work if people can’t reach out and touch it in a way that we feel comfortable with, and I feel we’re really doing a great job of accomplishing that.Bragdon: one thing we haven’t touched on is public safety in the down-town, and I think that needs more attention than it’s gotten. there’s a little bit of an air of disarray in downtown portland. I think that is something that we need to do a better job of, not just for our visitors but for our-selves as well.

Van VaLkenBurg: On the subject of land use, is that an issue we need to worry about? Is it a nonissue?

aLison sokoL BLosser: It is certainly a hot topic in our area. we need good lodging in yamhill county to support the wine industry, and our position has been that we support it within the urban growth boundary. we do want to preserve what little vineyard land we have on the hillsides for vineyard land. so there is a conflict there.

steVe fauLstickgeneral manager, doubletree hotel portland-lloyd center Portland

kari WestLundpresident & ceo, convention and visitors Association of lane countyEugene

participants >>

kari WestLund convention and visitors Association of lane county

steVe mccoidoregon restaurant

Association

christopher sehringKoIn-tv

steVe mccoidpresident, oregon restaurant Association Wilsonville


root: In southern oregon, we’re seeing problems around the acres connected to wineries. we want more wineries without the noose of tying acreage to that production level. we want the public to come into our little tiny communities, stay in those facilities and drive around, and we really don’t have the critical mass that we need in terms of actual wineries.

the Business connections >>

Van VaLkenBurg: How does tourism position Oregon from an economic development standpoint?

WestLund: there is an intersection with other industries––there’s a rea-son Jeld-wen is such a great industry partner, for example. hotels use a lot of windows and doors. then you start to think about the symbiotic relationship between hospitality investment and plumbers and electri-cians and all of the construction trades––I don’t think we spend enough time focusing on those intersections. we tend to look at each of these industries as a silo, when in fact we’re a lot more like a fabric.

daVidson: I think there are a number of folks in the tourism industry who recognize those intersections. Anne root was the one who really intro-duced me to this idea when she told me a long time ago that her fast-est growing source of out-of-state wine sales was from visitors. people experienced her customer service and these amazing wines, traveled back home, and wanted to continue to relive that experience. so these visitors were not only that immediate direct economic impact, they also became an expanded market base for Anne and for other wineries.daVis: Forestry is an industry that interacts with tourism, and that’s a great story, especially for those in the rural areas, to tell folks. we have one of the best state forest protection acts around, and it was driven, not just by environmental quality, but also by travel and tourism and hospitality.

the communication factor >>

Van VaLkenBurg: How effective do you think you are within the industry in terms of communicating with each other?

WestLund: I think it’s really challenging because we do have a lot of working proprietors. we have a lot of business owners who find it dif-ficult to get away from their business for face-to-face meetings with oth-ers, even though they may very much want to. All that being said, I think there’s a pretty strong sense of collaboration and camaraderie amongst the individual sectors. my restaurateurs get along great with my hote-liers and my rivers guys, and, you know, we pull them together as much as we can. so from my perspective, there is always room to do an even better job, but I think we do a really fair job.mindt: I think we in the industry are sort of in a love fest. we love to pat ourselves on the back, look at how great we are. the sustainability angle, for example, is a catalyst for businesses to maybe come and relocate here or expand and grow here. so what’s missing? what do we need to do as an industry to hone it to get to the next level? Is there something we’re not doing right? fauLstick: I wish I had the answer to that, because I see the work be-ing done, but it doesn’t seem like it’s moving at the pace that it should, and there’s not the conversation that there could be, seeing what that opportunity is.sokoL BLosser: one thing I see in the wine industry, and I would imag-ine is probably true in the lodging and restaurant and other industries, is that the bigger businesses are able to explore and research a lot of the sustainability things. And the trouble is that there are a lot of small wineries, just like there are a lot of small restaurants, that probably have the same desire to be sustainable but maybe do not know how to. so if there’s a way to foster collaboration and communication, that might really help us walk the talk throughout the entire hospitality industry.cooney: I think we need to continue to find ways to break down the silos and move barriers, find nontraditional partners. I know my department struggles with that from time to time, such as closing down I-5 to one lane

Jeff miLLerceo, travel portlandPortland

christopher sehringgeneral manager, KoIn-tvPortland

todd daVidsonceo, travel oregonsalem

aLana audettepresident and ceo, central oregon visitors Associationbend

BiLL mackenZie Intel


on a weekend when the beavers and ducks both have home games. Van VaLkenBurg: oh, you heard about that?cooney: we have to think that any action any of us take has ripples that go all the way downstream and affect other businesses, other communities, other jobs, other projects. this is the great kind of dia-logue that I think we should have more often so we can find ways to bring different resources to the table for a common objective.miLLer: I think it’s also important that we include those business part-ners where we can––business that can help tell the oregon story. we’ve got to tell it at a lot of different levels, and including those busi-ness partners is a real key for us as we expand our reach and to look for more of those people to come here.

Van VaLkenBurg: How much help do you get recruiting folks to come visit here––are we all ambassadors of the state?

fauLstick: there’s certainly room for more, but I think the important part is how powerful it is to have advocacy on the local level. It’s one thing to hear it from the visitors bureau or from the industry when we’re back in d.c. talking to an organization, but it brings a lot more clout when we’ve got government officials or local business people who can really help sell portland.miLLer: It’s very powerful as you recruit business for them to see a strong cohesive group of not only hoteliers, but also restaurateurs, board members and government officials who believe their business is important to our city and our region, and it does make a difference.daVis: to what extent is the industry cooperating across state lines? I think of our friends on the other side of the river in clark county. I think of the gorge and what’s going on both sides of the gorge, in eastern oregon with the snake river area, and various southeastern parts of washington and Idaho. Are opportunities being explored to leverage

dollars and look at it more as regional initiatives?daVidson: At the international level, we do a lot of multiple-state col-laboration. we’ve found ourselves to be much more effective if we can leverage limited resources and go into europe, for example, as the U.s. pacific northwest, and we’ve found great success going in that way. Van VaLkenBurg: I’m going to end the meeting by telling you a story. every summer, my law firm brings in a group of law students for internships from all over the country. they have the opportunity to work in lots of different places, and so we try to show them why this is a good place to work, even though they might be able to make a lot more money in new york or chicago or los Angeles. when I was a summer intern, 13 or more years ago, the firm de-cided to take us mountain climbing, and we went to the top of little sister. I got altitude sickness about halfway up, but I made it to the top. now we take people on raft trips and on wine tasting tours. It’s a tremendously important part of our recruitment for these kids. thank you all for coming. nice meeting. >>

adam daVispartner, davis, hibbitts & midghall, Inc. research firmPortland

BiLL mackenZiecommunications manager, Intelhillsboro

daVid Bragdonpresident, metro council Portland

participants >>

“This (roundtable) is the great kind of dialogue that I think we should have more often so we can find ways to bring different resources to the table for a common objective.”>> patrick cooney, odot

steVe fauLstick doubletree hotel portland-lloyd center

aLana audettecentral oregon

visitors Association

patrick cooney oregon department of transportation

{THE OREGON EXPERIENCE}

CULTURE & HERITAGE

AGRICULTURE

MARKETING & PR

MEETINGS & EVENTS

RETAIL

16JAN

TRANSPORTATION

CULINARY

OUTDOOR RECREATION

ACCOMMODATIONS

PARKS & PUBLIC LANDS

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TOURISM WORKS FOR OREGON

Oregonians overwhelmingly support the tourism and hospitality industry: 95% believe it is important to the economy; 82% say it helps improve quality of life; and 77% believe the industry is environmentally friendly.

Tourism helps reflect the values that we hold dear. It’s a sustainable industry that allows us to showcase our state’s natural beauty, our rugged and creative spirit and our respect for the environment and one another.


{OVERNIGHT VISITORS}

Visitors who stay in hotels, bed and breakfasts and motels account for more than ½ of all visitor spending in Oregon. 21.2 million visitors stayed overnight in 2006.

{INVESTING IN OREGON’S FUTURE HAS PAID OFF}

The landmark Oregon Tourism Investment Proposal was signed into law by Gov. Ted Kulongoski in 2003, when Oregon was facing one of the highest unemployment rates in history. The innovative legislation established a dedicated, stable funding source for statewide tourism marketing.

>> $1 spent on state marketing = $159 in visitor spending including $6 in state and local tax revenue.

{BENEFITS ALL OREGONIANS}

Just a few numbers offer a dramatic snapshot of the positive economic impact of Oregon’s tourism and hospitality industry.>> Tourism + Hospitality contribute $8.3 billion to the Oregon economy.

>> Tourism + Hospitality account for 132,000 direct + indirect jobs in Oregon, providing $3.3 billion in employee earnings.

The tourism and hospitality industry is Oregon’s largest traded-sector employer and a leading contributor to our gross state product. Tourism is vital to our state’s economy today, and a key component of our economic health for tomorrow.

Statistics from Oregon Tourism Public Perception Survey, 2007; Oregon Travel Impacts report, 2008; and Visitor Profile Study, 2006.

tourism & hospitaLity >>

Driving economic growthVisitors to Oregon prize the diversity that our state offers: from endless open beaches to high-desert vistas; from lushly forested mountains to fertile green valleys. It is a natural wealth that nurtures a rich diversity of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the travel and hospitality industries.

{ }

Visitors to Portland are welcome to bring their hiking shoes, their discerning taste buds, and their sense of adventure. The one thing they don’t need is their car.

Portland’s international reputation as a green and sustainable city is a multi-faceted one. This is a city with the most LEED-certified buildings per capita in the nation; a city home to the nation’s largest urban wilderness, 5,000-acre Forest Park. It’s the city where the nation’s first bottle bill was born, and where, today, residents recycle more of their waste than any other place in the country.

It’s also a city where car-less transportation is king. With easy access to MAX Light Rail, the Portland Streetcar, the Portland Aerial Tram and 226 miles of bike lanes, the last thing visitors need is a car.

That reputation got a boost recently, when Portland became the first major city to earn a platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community award from the League of American Bicyclists. The small town of Davis, Calif., is the only other city to earn the highest level.

“We’ve developed a really comprehensive system of street paths, bike lanes, bike boulevards. It’s really easy to ride all over Portland, even for a moderately confident bicyclist,” says Roger Geller, bicycle coordinator for the city of Portland.

The city has increased bicycle ridership by 144% since the 2000 Census. Today, about 5,000 Portland residents commute to work on two wheels. The bikeway network includes 270 miles of on-street bike lanes, bike boulevards and paved trails. Another 40 miles of unpaved trails offer the rare opportunity of mountain biking in the

middle of an urban environment. “In some areas, if you squinch your eyes a little bit, you’d think you

were in a bike-friendly European town,” Geller says. “It’s just a lot of fun to ride in Portland.”

At least three hotels in Portland offer bikes to their guests—Ace Hotel Portland, Hotel Monaco, and Jupiter Hotel.

The Hotel Monaco’s “Carless Vacation package” launched just over a year ago. “We’ve had an amazing response so far,” says Lota LaMontagne, the hotel’s public relations spokesperson. The package includes a room for two, reimbursement for light rail tickets between the hotel and the airport, all-day bike rentals, and a picnic lunch of locally grown food from nearby Red Star.

LaMontagne, a bike commuter herself, says the package has been so successful that managers are ramping up the program, buying more bikes and developing maps for more Portland-area rides.

The development of the Springwater Corridor promises to further polish the city’s bike-friendly image. The former rail corridor was reborn as an alternative transportation and recreation trail, which winds east for 21 miles from Portland to the town of Boring, crossing wetlands, agricultural fields, and residential neighborhoods along the way. Ultimately, the Springwater Corridor will lead south to Estacada and into the Mount Hood National Forest.

“People really appreciate our green reputation,” Geller says. “They like the fact that Portland is bike-friendly, whether they ride a bicycle or not. It’s a pride-in-place thing.” >>

Pedaling Portland—it’s an easy thing to do

the euro-designed portLand streetcar is just one of the ways visitors can get around the transit-friendly town.

portLand metro

portlAnd metro From oregon travel Impacts report, 2008

category 1991 2007

direct travel spending (in millions of dollars) ....... 1,307 ...... 3,413direct employment (in thousands of jobs) ...............18.4 ........ 27.1tax receipts generated (in millions of dollars) ...........54 ......... 141

Worth noting:

“travel writers want to know not only about tourism, but about sustainable and green practices and about the oregon urban growth boundary––all the things that make this such a great place.”––Jeff Miller, CEo, travel Portland


For 10 days this summer, the eyes of sports fans around the world were trained on the athletes competing at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Track and Field. From a financial point of view, the event was a resounding success for Eugene, the hosting city. Organizers estimate that Eugene 08 generated about $28 million in spending, with economic impacts spreading to the Oregon Coast, up and down the Willamette Valley, into Portland and up the McKenzie River Valley.

“An investment of $8.3 million in upgrades to Hayward Field has positioned it as the best venue in the country for track and field events,” says Kari Westlund, president and CEO of the Convention & Visitors Association of Lane County, in a report to the Oregon City/County Management Association. “That investment has already secured returns of $75 million in future spending over five consecutive years of premier national track and field meets.”

One of the biggest success stories of the event has nothing at all to do with sports, and everything to do with Eugene’s reputation. It’s the story of sustainability, of green living, and it was told in a big way to the 167,000 event visitors who took part in the festivities.

“Sustainability programs set a new standard for how major events should be implemented everywhere,” Westlund says. “Tobacco-free status and organic food selection spoke volumes about Oregon’s focus on healthy lifestyles.”

One of the most ambitious initiatives was the zero waste program, which featured compostable utensils and recycling bins at each garbage point. “The waste management activities were very successful,” says

Sarah Grimm, co-chair of the sustainability committee. “The biggest thing was that some people didn’t know how to recycle, and our crews were kept busy explaining things to them. I would say that 90 percent of the interactions were positive.”

In the end, just three boxes of trash totaling 20 yards made it to the landfill. Ten boxes of recycling were sent off, and nine boxes of compostable materials were collected.

A food service brief encouraging the purchase of local foods to cut down transportation costs and support the local economy was “embraced heartily” by vendors, Grimm says. The final tally: 40% of the food served to athletes and fans was produced within 150 miles of the festival. Another 40% came from more than 150 miles away but within Oregon, Washington or Idaho, and just 20 percent was purchased outside the three-state area. “Very impressive, indeed,” Grimm notes.

Renewable energy was another focus, with event organizers purchasing green energy from the local utility company. A solar stage and a power station where people could hop on a bike and generate electricity also helped spread the message. University facilities staff went to great lengths to hook up temporary electrical service to avoid the use of diesel generators and the noise pollution and particulate emissions that go along with them.

“That went a long way toward making the event more pleasant and quieter,” Grimm says. “I went walking through the event and I only heard two generators the whole week, and one of them belonged to a television station.” >>

wIllAmette vAlley stAts From oregon travel Impacts report, 2008

category 1991 2007

direct travel spending (in millions of dollars) ......508.9 .....1,347.4direct employment (in thousands of jobs) ............10.7 .......... 16.6tax receipts generated (in millions of dollars) .........24 ............. 55

Worth noting:

“tourism is a very important industry to our area right now, especially when you consider the economy and how it is affecting other industries in the willamette valley.”--Jimmie Lucht, president, Willamette Valley Visitors Association

the WiLLamette VaLLey

Eugene 08: Setting a new standard for sustainability

the u.s. oLympic team triaLs in eugene featured innovative programs in recycling, renewable energy, food service and transportation.


In the fall of 1995, Allyson and Steve Holt took a leisurely drive up the Pacific Coast from San Francisco. “It was our engagement trip, actually,” explains Allyson Holt. Along the way, the couple decided to take the advice of Holt’s sister and head over to Ashland for a few days. It proved to be a life-changing experience.

“It was just mesmerizing, so beautiful,” Holt says. “You know what I remember? The homecoming parade from the high school going down the street.”

It took the couple exactly the length of their visit to fall in love with the town. “In those three days, we decided to sell our homes and our advertising businesses and come back to Ashland to start a completely new business we had no experience in,” Holt says with a laugh. “It took us five years to figure out how.”

In 1990, the couple made it all happen, moving to Ashland to open Allyson’s Kitchen, an upscale gourmet kitchen shop that also sells its wares online. The Ashland shop features two floors of supplies for the home chef, along with a deli full of local foods and wines and a full slate of cooking classes.

About four years ago, the couple faced “some serious crossroads,” Holt says. “We could grow, or we could sell the business and go back to

advertising.” After careful consideration, the Holts decided to grow. A business loan from Southern Oregon Regional Economic

Development, Inc., helped the couple open a second shop in Bend’s Old Mill District, where business has steadily picked up. Holt finds herself in the car a lot these days, as she supervises a combined staff of 30, and teaches the popular cooking classes offered at

both locations. “We’ve built the Bend business so we’re doing better there than in Ashland––and Ashland’s doing well,” Holt says.

And Allyson’s Kitchen isn’t stopping there. “We figure that after the third store, we can self-fund continued expansion up to 10 stores,” Holt says.

As they choose new locations, Holt says they will look for many of the same characteristics they found in Ashland, and

then Bend. “Coming from Riverside (Calif.), one of the biggest issues for us was finding a community that would help raise our children,” she says.

“Our goal for this expansion is to find those locations where we can impact the community very positively, and where the community can be a part of us as well,” she says. >>

Allyson’s Kitchen owners find a recipe for success––and for living

southern oregon

soUthern oregon stAts From oregon travel Impacts report, 2008

category 1991 ....... 2007

direct travel spending (in millions of dollars) .........356.8 ..... 828.9direct employment (in thousands of jobs) .................... 8 ....... 10.4tax receipts generated (in millions of dollars) ......... 15.4 .......... 33

Worth noting:

“the natural beauty of southern oregon is an easily marketed amenity, especially to international visitors.”–– Carolyn hill, CEo, southern oregon Visitors Association

A chance visit to Ashland led aLLyson hoLt and her husband, steve, to relocate and found a thriving business there.


eastern oregon

Pat Beard remembers building lariats in a third-floor room at Hamley & Co. in Pendleton just a few years back. “The building was in real rough shape, and I’d been thinking, man, someone ought to do something with this, it could be really special,” he says.

Then the new owners stopped by. Parley Pearce and Blair Woodfield, ranch-bred businessmen from the Walla Walla, Wash., area, wanted to talk to Beard about their plans for restoring the Western icon. “We talked about how important we thought Hamley’s was to Pendleton and to the entire West, really,” Beard recalls. Hamley saddles and cowboy gear have been staples in the rodeo and ranching worlds since the company’s founding in 1883.

Sadly, the Pendleton building, built in 1905 on an entire downtown city block, had fallen into a state of disrepair as the company’s star waned. Although Hamley & Co. continued to make saddles and other leather goods––Beard and a partner sold their rope company to the store in the 1980s before he went to work there––the business had struggled for years.

Until Parley Pearce and Blair Woodfield arrived on the scene. That was in spring of 2005, and after six short months of construction, Hamley & Co. reopened one week before the Pendleton Round up––just in time to celebrate its first 100 years in Pendleton.

Today, Beard is the saddle shop manager. The room where he used to

build lariats is now the Slickfork Saloon, new home to an old 30-foot-long mahogany bar that used to serve frontier patrons in Butte, Mont. On Mondays and Tuesdays, Beard helps ride herd on 150 or so guests off the Columbia River sternwheeler Queen of the West, who lunch at the saloon and shop at the Western store, populated now by leather craftsmen and life-sized statues of cowboys in bronze.

With the new Hamley Coffee and Wine Shop and Hamley Steakhouse, the historic building now features 55,000 feet of Hamley-related businesses, an endeavor the owners hope will spark a Old West-style revitalization of Pendleton’s downtown.

“Parley and Blair have made a lot of things happen, and it’s really exciting to be here,” Beard says. Retaining and

enhancing Pendleton’s Old West heritage has been a priority with the owners, Beard says. The magnificently decorated Hamley Steakhouse, for example, features a wall-high back bar, old-fashioned stamped-tin ceiling and an enormous Tiffany chandelier.

“The building just represents something very substantial. The architecture has a rich heritage and feel about it,” Beard says. “But it also brings a lot of people off I-84. They come here for the saddles, the Western wear, a good steak… It just brings more people to Pendleton.

“Now, you can look up and down Main Street and you can see new life. Things are starting to grow.” >>

Hamley & Co.: Giving new life to a Western icon

eAstern oregon stAts From oregon travel Impacts report, 2008

category 1991 2007

direct travel spending (in millions of dollars) ...................... 142.4 ..... 357.9direct employment (in thousands of jobs) .............................. 3.3 .............5tax receipts generated (in millions of dollars) ........................ 6.9 ....... 14.8

Worth noting:

“eastern oregon has really found a market niche with tourism. our challenge is developing that niche while honoring our heritage.”-- Alice trindle, Eastern oregon Visitors Association


A multi-million dollar makeover has transformed the historic

hamLey BuiLding in downtown pendleton, where

craftsmen have been making the company’s trademark

saddles since 1905.

mt. hood / coLumBia riVer gorge

Hood River’s Fruit Loop boosts rural economyApples and alpacas, bottled pears and bottled wine––you can find

them all on the newly expanded Hood River County Fruit Loop. The leisurely loop winds through more than 35 miles of the verdant

Hood River Valley, long known for its prolific fruit production. Hood River orchards, in fact, account for nearly one-third of the fruit-tree acreage in the entire state, and the area is well known as the country’s biggest pear-growing area.

But visitors find more than fruit on the driving loop, which connects 36 agricultural businesses with an appreciative public. The loop has been in existence since 1992, when it was launched as a way to jump start the area’s sluggish economy. As interest in the local food movement and in agri-tourism has grown, so has the Hood River route.

Visitors today can do far more than buy fresh fruit, although farm stands and U-pick sites are still a staple of the route. Fruit Loop members offer handmade jams and jellies, lavender soap and alpaca wool clothing. Visitors can take orchard and farm tours, admire fields of majestic sunflowers, and visit a nut orchard and the ducks that live on the pond beside it.

“The Fruit Loop is a very powerful marketing tool for all of the businesses in the valley,” says Christie Reed, who, with her husband Dick, owns Wy’East Winery. “It’s widely known and very well supported.”

The Reeds’ business is one of the newer offerings on the loop, with

a tasting room for their six wines that has been open for just over a year. The Wy’East Winery, down Highway 35 from Timberline Lodge, is representative of one of the fastest growing agricultural businesses in Hood River County––wineries.

“Although there has been viticulture for a long time here, the wineries and tasting rooms didn’t start to develop in the gorge until about 10 years ago,” Reed says. “Now, wineries are proving to be an integral part of the whole story of agri-tourism in the mid-Columbia.”

The Reeds moved to Hood River from Chicago in 1991, but not with the idea of opening a winery. “If someone had told me I was going to move to Oregon and be a farmer, I wouldn’t have believed them,” Reed says. She and her husband, Dick, left their jobs as traders on the Chicago Board of Options

Exchange in 1991 to move their family to Hood River. Drawn to Hood River for the windsurfing––the couple practiced

the sport in the Midwest––they soon found themselves in the farming business, growing pears and wine grapes on their rural acreage. Two years ago, they launched their own winery and tasting room, one of six on the route.

“People in the region look to the Fruit Loop for special activities and for a reason to come to the gorge,” Reed says. “Getting them here and getting them on the tour is important. If they happen to be wine lovers, so much the better.” >>

mt. hood / colUmbIA gorge stAts From oregon travel Impacts report, 2008

category 1991 2007

direct travel spending (in millions of dollars) ...... 121.4 ....... 282.4direct employment (in thousands of jobs) ...............2.7 ........... 3.9tax receipts generated (in millions of dollars) .........3.6 ...............9

Worth noting:

“we have done a lot of education and sharing, and all of our towns understand that tourism is a component of the economic well-being of their communities.”-- Linda bell, executive director, Clackamas County tourism development Council

smiLey’s red Barn, one of 36 stops on the Fruit loop driving route, offers visitors homegrown fruit as

well as a chance to see farm relics and family pictures dating back five generations in the hood river valley.


centraL oregon

People come to Central Oregon from all over the world, lured by world-class golf, all-season recreational activities, and a plethora of upscale destination resorts from which to enjoy them all.

Five of the eight developments considered destination resorts by the state are in Central Oregon: Eagle Crest Resort; Pronghorn; Brasada Ranch; Sunriver Resort; and Black Butte Ranch. In 2005, those five resorts carried a combined payroll of $37 million.

But the resorts bring more than money to the table. “From a local perspective, we certainly see destination resorts as an economic engine unto themselves,” says Roger Lee, executive director of EDCO, Economic Development for Central Oregon. “But there’s also the spinoff of exposing high-net-worth individuals to the area as a place to do business.”

About 70% of the visitors who walk in the EDCO office came to the area first as visitors, Lee says, many of them guests at one of the area’s resorts. “Destination resorts provide a high-amenity place for tourists who fly or drive here. That’s one advantage we have that many other beautiful areas just don’t have.”

“The really interesting thing about destination resorts is that they are entirely master-planned––there is a very good idea of how they will unfold over time,” says Stuart Woolley, executive vice president of Jeld-Wen Development. “They can respond to the market with a coherent plan that gives people confidence that it will turn out.”

Destination resorts, Woolley points out, historically make little demand on public resources such as police, emergency services, schools and libraries, yet they contribute large amounts of dollars to taxing districts. The four resort developments in Deschutes County, for example, added more than $1.8 million to county coffers in 2005.

Environmental stewardship is a key feature of the new developments. Jeld-Wen’s flagship project, the 1,800-acre Brasada Ranch, uses 300,000 board feet of timber and siding salvaged from the dismantled

Ochoco Lumber Co. in Prineville. “In addition, all of our homes are required to be green homes,” says Alan VanVliet, Jeld-Wen’s vice president of construction and development, “and all of our irrigation systems are controlled by satellite, so we are a lot more efficient at using water.”

The economic effects of the destination resort market in Central Oregon are profound, and they are increasing. According to the Oregon Employment

Department, five new resorts are planned in the region, along with continued expansion at Brasada Ranch and Pronghorn.

“It is a validation of the strategy that was pursued here 25 to 30 years ago — using tourism not to replace the wood products industry, but to provide exposure to all types of business owners,” Lee says. “They visit, establish second homes, and some of them move here permanently. That was the whole strategy and it’s been really effective.

“It’s our 30-year overnight success,” he says. >>

Destination resorts: heavy hitters in Central Oregon’s economy

centrAl oregon stAts From oregon travel Impacts report, 2008

category 1991 2007

direct travel spending (in millions of dollars) .................237.7 .........579.3direct employment (in thousands of jobs) ..........................4.9 ................7tax receipts generated (in millions of dollars) ...................9.5 ...........21.5

Worth noting:

“we made a very early transition to other industries in central oregon. tourism quickly became the go-to industry from wood products, and then to a more diversified economy.”- Alana Audette, president and CEo, Central oregon Visitors Association

the upscale pronghorn deVeLopment, which features two championship golf courses, is one of the newest destination resorts in central oregon.


oregon coast

In 1967, Gov. Tom McCall made history when he signed Oregon’s epic Beach Bill, calling it “the most far-reaching measures of its kind enacted by any legislative body in the nation.”

The landmark law ensures that the public has free and uninterrupted use of all of the beaches along Oregon’s 362- mile-long coastline. “This bill guarantees that Oregon’s coastline will remain secure for generations to come,” the governor told a reporter the day the bill passed.

The Beach Bill, along with its younger sibling, the Bottle Bill, has done much to build Oregon’s international reputation as a “green” state that prizes its diverse natural resources.

Oregon residents love their beaches––and so do its visitors. One of the provisions of McCall’s Beach Bill directed that the ocean shore be administered as a state recreation area, and that has proved a boon to the

tourism economy of the state. The Oregon Coast is known worldwide as a favorite destination

point. From Brookings Harbor to Astoria, visitors come for charter fishing and whale watching. They come to beachcomb, bike, hike

and surf. They come to explore the native and pioneer history. And everywhere, they walk on the beaches.

Today, the tourist economy is the single largest market segment on the Oregon Coast. “Tourism is the main way most of our communities stay in business throughout the year,” says Rebecah Morris, president of the Oregon Coast Visitors Association.

Several years ago, Morris decided to drive that point home by printing a stamp for local

businesses that says: “This bill was paid with tourism dollars.”“I think it opens people’s eyes to how far-reaching tourism is,”

she says. >>

“No Trespassing” signs? Not on Oregon beaches

coAstAl oregon stAts From oregon travel Impacts report, 2008

category 1991 2007

direct travel spending (in millions of dollars) ..690.6 ..1,523.2direct employment (in thousands of jobs) ........16.2 .......21.2tax receipts generated (in millions of dollars) .....19 .......46.1

Worth noting:

“those of us on the oregon coast have the distinct honor of living in a place where others come on vacation. tourism is our lifeblood.”––Rebecah Morris, president, oregon Coast Visitors Association


oregon’s landmark Beach BiLL helped build the region’s worldwide reputation for accessibility and natural beauty.

cUlInAry cAreers scott Anselm has a problem in the department he chairs at Albany’s linn-benton community college. “well, it’s kind of a problem,” he says consideringly. Anselm and his colleagues in the culinary Arts program often have to convince students to come back and finish core requirements for their associate of applied science degree.

It’s not because they want to drop out. It’s because they often land a well-paying job before graduation. “the industry is hungry for trained people,” Anselm says.

schools are stepping up to provide that training, as food-related programs become more

popular with students discovering that certification can put them on a advancement track with oregon’s largest private-sector employer––foodservice.

“restaurants and culinary arts in general have grown tremendously in oregon in the last few years,” Anselm says.

lbcc’s culinary Arts program is a two-year course that prepares the student for a career as a professional chef. students get extensive (and literal) hands-on experience by running the school cafeteria, a sit-down restaurant, catering events and a snack bar. It’s a program that has been around for more than 20 years, but Anselm says it has never been more popular than it is today.

linn-benton also partners with oregon state University,

as students seeking a four-year restaurant management degree spend a year in the community college’s culinary arts program.

other programs have sprung up in response to industry changes. the growth of oregon’s wine industry, for example, is mirrored in the success of chemeketa community college’s winemaking program.

the school recently launched a wine-marketing degree program, designed to prepare students for jobs such as tasting room sales manager, wine steward and winery public relations manager.

“I don’t know of any student who wants to be working that isn’t,” Anselm says. “I’ve got way more jobs posted than I can fill.”

come vIsIt–then stAythere are many solid business reasons to move a company to oregon, but in the southern part of the state, tourism and development agencies know that the area’s livability is one of the best.

so when a coalition of economic development agencies launched a business-recruitment campaign recently, the first thing they mailed out was not a fact sheet on workers’ compensation rates. It wasn’t information on oregon’s standing in the tax climate index, or a reminder

that the state has no sales or inventory taxes.

Instead, the first thing businesses saw was the southern oregon vacation guide.

“what we offer in the way of recreation, amenities and cultural offerings reinforces what businesses are looking for,” says carolyn hill, ceo of the southern oregon visitors Association.

sovA and its member organizations are working closely with economic development agencies from four counties in a series of recruitment campaigns. “It’s a holistic campaign where we all pool our resources to link recruitment and tourism,” explains colleen padilla, business development manager of soredI, southern oregon regional economic development, Inc.

this year, the recruitment campaign targets about 800 natural products companies in california, a market that “fits with the region’s cultural values and builds on the amenities we have here,” padilla says.

the cooperative campaign showcases the symbiotic relationship between tourism and business initiatives in the region. “we are always looking for ways to build on one another,” hill explains. “In some ways, oregon has failed to make the connection between economic development and tourism. It frustrates me when we think of them as separate initiatives. they really aren’t.”

impact oregon: stories of success


the hospitality industry is snatching up students

in the cuLinary arts program at

linn-benton community college before they even

graduate.

southern oregon’s abundant recreational oportunities are an effective selling point for business recruitment.

impact oregon: stories of success

the lUre oF the wIde-open roAd

For some enthusiastic visitors to eastern oregon, it’s not what the area has that’s the big draw. It’s what it doesn’t have––traffic. the big sky and open roads in some of oregon’s largest, most sparsely populated counties are proving to be an irresistible draw for travelers on two wheels.

“the thing that we hear the most is that our roads aren’t busy, and they are in very good shape. that’s why cyclists and motorcyclists from all over the world like coming here,” says yolanda lennon, tourism promotions director for the tourism promotion Assessment commission of pendleton.

cycling events such as the annual century ride of the centuries, a three-day biking tour of century farms in the pendleton area, takes riders past rolling wheat fields and ranch lands. “our riders come from portland, seattle and boise,” says herb bitting, spokesman for the sponsoring bike club, pendleton on wheels, “and a good part of why they like croc is that there is no traffic out on the roads.”

croc has enjoyed growing popularity every year, and, after six years, is nearing its capacity of 250-300 riders. “pretty soon, we’ll be so big that only returning cyclists will be able to ride,” bitting predicts.

pendleton has also been a stop for the push America “Journey of hope” cycling team, and a starting point for the oregon h.o.g. rally, which last year sent motorcyclists from pendleton to mt. hood to seaside over the weekend of the pendleton round-up.

mAIl boAts rIde the rIFFles oF FAtebuilding a popular new market niche takes research, planning and careful consideration of economic conditions. then again, sometimes all it takes is a hefty dose of happenstance.

In 1948, the story goes, the mail boat was setting off on its regular mail run up the rugged rogue river when the pilot fell into conversation with a man and his daughter, visitors from california. pretty soon, the pair climbed on board for the 64-mile run up riffles, rapids and whitewater from gold beach to the remote town of Agness.

the wild ride captivated the

tourists, and soon, people all over the country knew about it. turns out that the passenger, bill lane, was the owner of sunset magazine, and he wasted no time in sending back a reporter and photographer to cover the story for his readers. the resulting four-page, nine-

photo spread in the magazine’s June 1949 issue gave the mail boats and their river route some huge exposure.

“that’s what really kicked the mail boats off as a tourist destination,” says greg walling, owner of rogue river mail boat trips. the year after the sunset article appeared, the mail boats reportedly ran 10,000 people to Agness and back.

today, jet boat rides up the wild and scenic rogue river are a favored activity for thousands of visitors to southern oregon. several companies now offer the rides, including hellgate Jetboat excursions in grants pass and Jerry’s rogue Jets in gold beach, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

but only the mail boats still carry sacks of U.s. mail, as they have since 1895, along with their main cargo––tourists. >>


doWntoWn pendLeton was the starting point for last year’s h.o.g. rally, which drew motorcycle enthusiasts from around the state.

A chance encounter led to a 1949 spread in sunset magazine that helped launch the rogue riVer maiL Boats as a popular tourist activity.

Face It. It’s The Most Beautiful Coast In The World.

Whether hiking Cascade Head or simply relaxing and watching the sun slip over the ocean’s edge from your own balcony or our penthouse restaurant and bar, there’s always a view along the central Oregon Coast that will take your breath away. Come stay at the Inn and face it. Each guest room and all five of our meeting rooms are oceanfront so you won’t miss a moment of the action.

Visit our web site for special rates, unique lodging packages and to view our exceptional oceanfront guest rooms, meeting facilities and Fathoms Restaurant and Bar.

Highway 101, Lincoln City, OR800-452-8127

SpanishHead.com

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Whoever said there’s nothing new under the sun hasn’t been to Central Oregon. With four-season family fun, including golfi ng, hiking, biking, fi shing, skiing, showshoeing, snowmobiling and oh so much more, the recreational possibilities are as endless as our true-blue skies.

Bask in the sun-drenched days, starry nights, spectacular natural beauty and limitless fun that defi ne our destination. With so much to do and see, one trip won’t be enough. Call 888-781-7071 for your free 96-page guide to Central Oregon.

www.TravelCentralOregon.com

central oregon

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2008 oregon impact - business tourism

Documents

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central oregon

halle21 impact oregon

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natural beauty of oregon

oregon coastcover photo

southern oregon systems

oregon storyits impossible