Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com August 31, 2015 • Worcester Business Journal 9 Worcester was formed in 2007, when the city decided to stop funding the tourism bureau and undertake its own marketing efforts. The money for Destination Worcester, $500,000 in 2015, will continue to be set aside spe- cifically for marketing Worcester as part of the new tourism bureau, according to City Manager Edward Augustus, who is bullish on the new organization. "It'll allow us to leverage more state dollars and more resources to market the region, because people will have a renewed confidence in the effectiveness of (the) combined marketing efforts," he said. "It's long overdue and it's moving us in the right direction … we were doing the other way for a while and it wasn't giving us the results we wanted, so it makes sense that we try something else." Optimism for this shift is coming from all directions, including tourist destinations and regional economic development organizations. There is optimistic talk of collaboration from all sectors of the region's tourism industry. For Jeannie Hebert, president and CEO of the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce, who had been second in command of the previous tourism bureau, the change represents a poten- tial for collaboration that was lacking with the old organization. That will help Central Massachusetts push its strengths and expand current tourism activity at sites well beyond Worcester, such as Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, she said. And Hebert said she's looking forward to working with Andreoli, who had been in touch with her months before the new organization was created. "It's not Worcester taking it over. It's a collaboration of all the areas here work- ing in concert," said Hebert, who point- ed out that Worcester has certain resources such as hotels and urban des- tinations that will appeal to visitors. "We are going to utilize Worcester for what benefits they have." That approach will also help Worcester, said Troy Siebels, president of the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts and chairman of Destination Worcester. While the Hanover and other Worcester locations are destinations in their own right, the strength of the region lies in its diversity. >> Continued from Page 1 One for all, all for tourism C hristina Andreoli gravitates to projects. She enjoys taking something from the beginning to its full fruition. "I'm constantly looking at the finish line. I need to get to the finish line no matter what the project is," said the vice president of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. Andreoli is out of the blocks and running at her new job heading up the Worcester Regional Visitors and Tourism Corp., with meetings and plans for an organization that hasn't even been assigned a budget or funding amount. But just like a good athlete, she's aiming for a goal she has been working toward for years. Her background is built on experience in municipal government, along with more recent experience marketing Worcester as executive director of Destination Worcester, which will remain funded by the city as a subset of the new organization. But her proudest achievement is her role in helping establish three branch libraries in the Worcester Public Schools by raising $1.5 million in private donations in nine months. While that represents a short period of time between her stint at City Hall (2006 to 2012) and her current role, Andreoli said it was rewarding to bring that project to completion. "It was just amazing to see the kids' faces and the teachers and the principals," she said. "Thanks to corporate partners, we were able to do that because they saw the need for libraries in the schools." Her new role will be served not only by all that professional experience, but her personal life. Married with two children, Andreoli recently moved to Holden, where she's learning about the community and exploring the Greater Worcester area that she will be in charge of marketing. "I feel like I engross myself in the community in which I live," she said. "I have two kids … I want them to learn about fun things to do in the region." So often, even locals don't know everything the area has to offer, she said. Part of her work will extend to informing residents like herself about all there is to do, sometimes in their own back yard. n Andreoli aims for the next 'finish line' BY SAM BONACCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer "Our attraction isn't to say we are bet- ter than Boston. It is to say we have a really unique mix of urban, suburban, and rural," said Siebels, who explained that the area primarily pulls people most- ly from within a 100-mile radius who are doing day trips for specific events. The key will be getting those people interested in other activities in the area so that they spend a night or a weekend, he said. The region's diversity is something Andreoli plans to play up in her new role. "We know that there is a lot of energy around tourism in areas around Worcester. There are people in those areas and stakeholders in those area that are doing things around tourism and commerce," she said. "So why aren't we looking at ways we can increase the num- ber of visitors to Central Massachusetts as a group?" The chamber as conduit This change also brings regional tour- ism efforts back under the direction of the chamber. In a way, it's a return from the decentralized approach that took place in the 1990s, when there was a lack of coordination between economic development organizations, said cham- ber president Timothy Murray. "One of the things that was lost during that was synergy, coordination and to some extent economic efficiencies," he said. Around 2011, both Murray, then lieu- tenant governor, and Michael Angelini, chairman of the law firm Bowditch and Dewey, had called for various organiza- tions, such as the Worcester Redevelopment Authority, the Central Massachusetts Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Worcester Business Development Corp. and the chamber to be united into one organization. The reasoning was that a merged organiza- tion would address the issues that arose after the decentralization in the 1990s and improve efficiencies such as staffing and office space. While that mass merger didn't happen, the organizations decided to communicate more, helped by the Economic Development Coordinating Council, an organization made up of local economic development groups that meets regularly to coordinate efforts. "We had a number of siloed organiza- tions doing work that was overlapping and sometimes duplicative and other times contradictory," Angelini said. "What's been accomplished … is a lot more coordination and fewer silos than what we had before." With the increased communication through the economic council, there's less of a need to consolidate, although Murray said efficiencies such as joint tenancy in a building are always up for discussion. These new efficiencies will carry through to the new tourism organi- zation, he said, which will lead to more money from the state if the organization can show how the private and public sec- tors are working together to boost tour- ism. Angling for state dollars Andreoli plans to leverage this part- nership and improved coordination with area organizations when she makes her presentation to the state tourism bureau for Central Massachusetts' portion of $6.5 million in funding that's divided among 16 regional tourism organiza- tions. This funding will form the base for the group's operations. "The theme has been Berkshires, beaches and Boston; that has been where the money has traditionally been going," Andreoli said. Despite the foreseen collaborations and benefits that a diverse region carries, there is hard work ahead. With confer- ence calls and regional meetings under- way, the effort to sell Central Massachusetts as a region has already begun. "If you're not telling your story, you don't exist. So, by working together and telling our story, we can all benefit," Hebert, of the Blackstone Valley cham- ber, said. "We're not Boston, the Berkshires or beaches and we need to work harder. Without funding, it's diffi- cult and without collaboration it's impossible." n DCU Center Worcester 505,917 Southwick's Zoo Mendon 500,000 Wachusett Mountain Ski Area Princeton 424,000 * Old Sturbridge Village Sturbridge 262,117 Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts Worcester 208,898 Ranked by annual attendance in 2014 Top 5 tourist attractions in Central Mass. Sources: Individual sites * - Data from Nov. 2013 Attraction Location Attendance A potter brings a product closer to completion at Old Sturbridge Village. Christina Andreoli P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y

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