City, chamber, developers seek to foster image of Cedar Park as tourist destination

City, chamber, developers seek to foster image of Cedar Park as tourist destination

By Robert Bell Friday, 23 January 2009

Many people would consider most of the communities of Williamson County to be centered around residential and retail development. That perception will likely change, however, as the cities create attractions that will draw visitors — and dollars — to the region.

Cedar Park is doing its share to bring in out-of-towners, with high-profile projects such as the  $55 million Cedar Park Center and the proposed $350 million water park development. The other side of the equation for enticing tourists is making sure they have plenty of lodging. To that end, developers are planning four more hotels for the area.

Visitor spending increased substantially in the county between 2000 and 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the Texas state tourism website. Tax receipts generated by travel spending increased 67 percent, from $4.4 million to $7.3 million.

The Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce is also working to attract visitors. The chamber and the city have teamed up to promote Cedar Park as a destination, with the chamber operating the city’s visitors center.

“We’re definitely a growing market,” said Melanie Carr, Cedar Park communications director and the city’s tourism liaison to the chamber. “As we continue to add venues, obviously we’ll be getting more tourists in. For a long time, the [Austin Steam Train Association] steam engine was our biggest tourist attraction. But now that we’ve added more restaurants and shopping opportunities and we’re getting the event center online, we’re going to be growing that market greatly.”

Tourist dollars can have a multiplying effect within a city’s economy.

“You could easily say that for every dollar spent by a tourist in town, it’s going to turn over four or five times in the community,” said Phil Brewer, economic development director.

Chamber champions

“Back in October, we signed a contract with the chamber of commerce to run our visitors center and to help us with enhancing and promoting tourism for the area,” Carr said.

The contract has a budget limit of $60,000 and will be reviewed annually by the city.

“Our visitors center is open six days a week, Monday through Saturday, and people can stop by at any time while they’re here to pick up this kind of information or to inquire about anything that’s going on in the area,” said Harold Dean, chamber of commerce president.

The chamber is organizing a group of volunteers to act as ambassadors to visitors.

“For instance, if there’s a soccer tournament going on, we’ll take a package of information to the people from out of town and give it to them so they know what’s in Cedar Park,” Dean said.

In addition, the chamber will help the city to identify opportunities for marketing and advertising nationally, to let the rest of the country know what is available in Cedar Park and what will be coming soon, Dean said.

Texas hospitality

A vital component to tourism is hotel space, and to deal with the number of visitors the new event center will bring, Cedar Park needs more lodging, Dean said. Fortunately, more hotel rooms are on the way. There are three hotels in the works in Cedar Park and one proposed in Leander. Those projects will add 321 rooms for a total 479 in the two cities.

“I think that as the area continues to grow, there will be the need for more hotel space,” Jerry Anderson said.

He and his wife, Sharon Eriksson, own the Cedar Park Comfort Inn and are planning to build a Holiday Inn Express in Leander.

Hotel space is not all the area needs. Occupancy rates in the region tend to be better on the weekends than during the week. More convention and conference space would certainly improve weekday occupancy, Anderson said.

“There is definitely a need for conference space and convention type space in the area,” Anderson said. “As far as hotels, right now what we’re experiencing is the low point, the seasonal kinds of fluctuations that happen in this industry, that are currently bringing us very low occupancy.”

While the Cedar Park Center, with 6,800 seats available for hockey and 8,700 for concerts and other events, will likely host some trade shows and expositions, there currently is not a space in the city that would be ideal for accommodating large conferences where attendees would be more likely to stay overnight.

Rick Redmond is one of the developers who might change that. He and his partners are working to bring a major water park to Cedar Park that could attract 3,000 to 4,000 visitors a day during the 100-day peak season, Redmond said.

The $350 million proposed project, which includes hotel, retail and conference space with a large room for group sessions as well as smaller rooms for workshops, is facing financing challenges because of the nation’s economic downturn.

“But we’re still optimistic that we can break ground this year,” Redmond said.

Heritage Tourism study

In 2008, Cedar Park commissioned a $45,000 study to examine its options for heritage tourism in the city. Massachusetts-based ConsultEcon, Inc. conducted the study and presented its findings to the city in October.

The company examined five historically significant sites. Two of the sites are privately owned and were not available for sale. One of the sites, the King Log Cabin, is owned by the city, but is not accessible enough to serve as a central destination for heritage tourism.

“[ConsultEcon] did look at the town center site, which is where we’re building our recreation center, and we do have additional land there,” said Melanie Carr, Cedar Park communications director. “They liked the site because it’s the most visible and accessible, but it also does have the least amount of historic resources. That might be something they consider better suited for a visitors center or something of that nature.”

The company recommended that the city continue to develop its information-based approach to heritage tourism, by providing visitors with brochures, maps and other materials to guide them to historic sites such as the King Log Cabin and the Emmett Cluck and George W. Cluck homes.