Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com August 31, 2015 • Worcester Business Journal 41 This region has plenty of tourism assets — Old Sturbridge Village and the Worcester Art Museum, to name two destinations — and they and others deserve the support of the Central Massachusetts business community, which stands to benefit from increased tourism spending. That's why the recent decision to form and fund a new tourism promotion agency as part of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce holds promise and should be given an opportunity to work. The new agency, the Worcester Regional Visitors and Tourism Corp., will speak with one voice for Central Massachusetts and focus well beyond Worcester and its surrounding towns. That's the way it should be, since tourism destinations that generate significant levels of outside visitors stand to benefit the city as well. When it comes to Bay State tourism, Central Massachusetts is merely a supporting player compared with Boston, Cape Cod and the Berkshires. But if effectively marketed, attractions here can grab a good number of out-of-state and international visitors to see many of the highlights Central Massachusetts has to offer. Yet, while playing second fiddle to the larger tourism areas, there are a few major local events that help put us on the map. Next year, Lake Quinsigamond will host USRowing's Masters National Championships for a third time, which could draw more than 6,000 visitors. And, as it has several times before, the DCU Center will host one of the four regional sectionals of the NCAA Division 1 men's hockey tournament in March. In addition, sites such as Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston and the Worcester Art Museum all reported gains in attendance from 2013 to 2014. "It's not Worcester taking it over. It's a collaboration of all the areas here working in concert," Jeannie Hebert, president of the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce, told us in our story on Page One of this issue. She pointed out that Worcester has certain resources such as urban destinations that will appeal to visitors. "We are going to utilize Worcester for what benefits they have," she said. Growth in tourism needs more than just the "one voice" leading the marketing effort. It needs support through further economic development, especially in the form of more hotels in Greater Worcester. Fortunately, that's happening, with plans in the works for three hotels in the city's downtown area. It also needs better transportation infrastructure. Some of that is underway, with renewed efforts to increase train traffic between Boston and Worcester that can make it easier to attract more visitors from the east. And, when the rowing championships take place next year, fans who watch from the Burns Bridge will be standing on a new, six-lane span that will facilitate traffic flow between Worcester and Shrewsbury and offer more spectator space. Any effort that stands to benefit the broader Central Massachusetts economy needs to be supported by a wide number of constituencies, and it looks like the teamwork necessary to pull this effort off is largely in place. The approach to centralize these efforts at the chamber looks like the right call. We hope it bears fruit. n New approach to tourism is a step in right direction E D I T O R I A L The Worcester Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Please send submissions to Rick Saia, editor, at rsaia@wbjournal.com. Letters can also be faxed to 508-755-8860. M assachusetts has always been a leader in education. We're honored to live in a state that has the first and oldest existing public school in the U.S. (Boston Latin), and the first and oldest university (Harvard). One reason these institutions were established was because people were asking: How can we make lives better for our children? The answer was, and still is, investing in education. In 1999, the U.S. Department of Labor released a report highlighting a diversified and dynamic global economy with an increasingly competitive and challenging workforce and education landscape. Sixteen years later, our best schools and jobs are attracting people from all over the world because Massachusetts school systems are regarded as the best in the nation. For example, we ranked first in a 2014 study from Kids Count that measured economic well-being, insurance coverage, test scores and other data. And, according to the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and a 2011 Harvard Kennedy School report, our fourth- and eighth-graders consistently rank at the top internationally in math, reading and science. On July 17, Gov. Charlie Baker signed the 2016 budget and vetoed $162 million in spending, nearly $35 million of that coming from education. That included a staggering $17.59 million cut from kindergarten expansion grants, $5.2 million from the University of Massachusetts, $217,000 from Quinsigamond Community College and many other funds critical to our education system. Two years ago, the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute released a report, "A Well-Educated Workforce is Key to State Prosperity," which highlighted the following: 1) States can build a strong foundation for economic success and shared prosperity by investing in education; 2) Overwhelmingly, high-wage states are those with well-educated workforces; and 3) States can increase the strength of their economies and their ability to grow and attract high-wage employers by investing in education. Finally, and ironically, the report found that investing in education is also good for state budgets in the long run, since higher-income workers contribute more taxes. I was proud to be joined by my colleagues last month in overriding the governor's vetoes on education and helping secure the funds our local programs require. We should expand and increase our investment in education from pre-kindergarten to college. A declining investment in education only hurts our students and their future. Expanding access to high-quality education will strengthen the state's economy and is one of the most important functions of state government. That's why I will always be an advocate for our schools and facilities in Worcester, and that's how we can make lives better for our children and have Massachusetts continue to be an economic powerhouse. n John Mahoney is the state representative from the 13th Worcester District, which covers parts of Worcester. Investing in Mass. schools pays off for students, employers, state BY JOHN MAHONEY Special to the Worcester Business Journal V I E W P O I N T John Mahoney To the editor: I read with interest your recent story on hydropower (Aug. 3, "Critics: Baker hydropower bill could harm energy market"). Contrary to what was said in your story about hydropower and clean energy's impact on the marketplace, the use of hydropower and wind energy will help our region's power users and will help meet climate change goals. Even more important, the combination of new onshore wind energy, backed up with hydropower for when the wind doesn't blow, is a clean energy "two-fer" that would be a boost to our region. We commend the Baker administration for moving the clean energy discussion along and we look forward to competing in the new requests for clean power in a way that will be cost-effective for the region's electricity users while reducing the greenhouse gases our power produces. Ed Krapels Green Line Infrastructure Alliance (Editor's Note: The Green Line Infrastructure Alliance is a joint organization of National Grid and Anbaric Transmission, of Wakefield. Krapels is CEO of Anbaric.) Baker push for hydropower a boost for N.E. L E T T E R I f you were to come up with words or phrases to describe Central Massachusetts, "tourist mecca" would likely not make it into a "top 10" list. We're not Orlando or Las Vegas, but we're also not the Kansas and Nebraska plains.

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