| projo.com | The Providence Journal

7.31.2001 00:07
The numbers are in: City's big draw is history
BY D. MORGAN McVICAR
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Matthias Hilty and Anika Minder left their native Switzerland last Tuesday with three months to play, money to burn and, evidently, a lousy travel agent.

Hilty, 21, and Minder, 20, flew into Newark. Rather than getting a bus out of town, as older and wiser visitors might have done, the young friends hopped a bus into town. They were looking for a car, and found a used Nissan for $4,500. But they also discovered that Newark isn't exactly Paris.

"Seeing downtown Newark, that was kind of a shock," Hilty said.

At any rate, they survived, found Route 95 and began their trek up the coast to Maine to visit the family that hosted Hilty when he was an exchange student in Michigan. A few hours later, some funky architecture caught their fancy.

"We saw the skyline and it looked really pretty," Hilty said. "So we decided to stop."

They found a parking space, wandered around a bit and stopped by a bookstore.

"Just walking along, we were saying, 'Finally, a nice city,' " Hilty said.

Finally, a nice city, indeed. The resurrection of Providence has been years in the making and it continues to evolve. But there could be no stronger confirmation of the city's rebirth than the arrival, in numbers that increase with each summer, of the camera-toting, shorts-wearing, wallets-bulging creatures known as tourists.

Some, such as the two young Swiss, are accidental visitors enchanted with their discovery. Others have come to see whether the images surrounding Sydney Hansen and friends are as golden as they seem on the NBC series Providence. And others have come across the glowing pieces in newspaper travel sections and travel magazines.

Tourism is the second-largest industry in Rhode Island, generating more than $2.5 billion for the state's economy in each of the past three years. Having only recently emerged as a tourist destination, Providence arguably has the greatest potential for growth.

Particularly when the fastest-growing area of the industry is "cultural tourism." If the mantra in real estate is location, location, location, in tourism it is fast becoming history, history, history -- something Providence has in spades.

"Our focus is on our history, our historical architecture," says George Donnelly, director of the Providence Tourism Council.

"Providence has for decades, among people aware of its architecture, been a drawing card," says David DePetrillo, the tourism director for the state Economic Development Corporation. "Now, more people are realizing we have this beautiful historic architecture. Providence is coming into its own."

The state does not keep separate data on tourism's impact by region or city. But the growth of tourism here is reflected in hotel-room tax receipts. For July alone, receipts doubled between 1999 and 2000, and for August, they rose by more than 50 percent.

Attendance on SummerWalks, guided tours of the river walks, Benefit Street and other venues offered by the Rhode Island Historical Society, increased by 200 percent last year over the previous year. So far this year, more than 400 people have partaken of the walks, and with two-thirds of the season left, last year's total of 794 will be left in the dust.

If there is a rub, it is the city's dearth of hotel rooms. Providence has 1,400 hotel rooms in the downtown area, more than 80 percent of which have been booked in each of the past few years, the second-highest occupancy rate in the nation, trailing only Hawaii, according to the Providence Warwick Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Although there are several proposed hotel projects, no shovels have gone into the ground. Patricia McLaughlin, Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.'s director of administration, says would-be hoteliers covet Providence, and the occupancy rate suggests there is a market.

"But hotel projects take a very long time," she says, "because the debt-to-equity ratio has been so high before people will finance these projects. A few years ago, financial institutions became more conservative and required more equity. It's slowed the industry down."

And with no room at the inn in or around downtown, visitors such as Katunari Nozue and Rumi Makino have to bunk elsewhere. The couple, from Tsukuba, Japan, found the Radisson Hotel in Fox Point. They said it was quite nice, but the real silver lining were the discoveries they made on their walks from the hotel to downtown, where Nozue was attending a five-day conference at the Convention Center.

During their stay, the couple, who were on their honeymoon, drove to Cape Cod, took a bus to Newport and the ferry back to Providence. Wednesday night, they debated how to spend their last day in New England.

"We liked Providence better than Newport," Makino said. "Newport is a more touristy place. Providence is very small, convenient. When I lived in New York, I passed a few times, but I didn't have so much an impression. But when I came here, actually it is pretty. Everything is walkable, and it's very clean, too."

State and local tourism officials are working to expand both domestic and international tourism through a variety of avenues. The Providence Tourism Council sponsors events designed to bring people to the city, such as last winter's Ice Fire and, next month, a Celebration of Women. The council also advertises regionally and nationally.

"We Looked To The Past and Found Our Future," is the headline of an ad in the May/June Preservation, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "Discover Providence Rhode Island and discover the feeling of an old world city," reads the ad, which features photos of Roger Williams Park, La Gondola, the skyline, an outdoor cafe, a couple sitting on the fountain at DePasquale Square and a relaxed-looking Cianci.

The Economic Development Corporation's DePetrillo oversees promotion of Rhode Island out of state and abroad, which includes hosting travel writers and tour operators, trying to get the state in print and in tour operator brochures.

"Now, in the [United Kingdom] and Germany, we're represented in most of the catelogs that carry U.S. vacations," DePetrillo says. "Providence is becoming much more represented. Every foreign travel writer who has come says, 'This is an amazing place.' "

In a section on Rhode Island in Britain's Osprey Holidays brochure, Providence is described as "culturally varied a city as you'll find anywhere in New England. This cosmopolitan diversity, coupled with the fact that various local colleges run culinary courses, means that you're spoilt rotten for places to eat."

In an article in the British magazine Business Weekly, Rhode Island "relies on more than Providence to light the flame of a renaissance," the writer says. Providence "boasted some of the most beautiful architecture in America. We knew the city was being virtually rebuilt in the biggest single construction project in the whole of the U.S."

The writer attended WaterFire and visited Federal Hill, Waterplace Park and Providence Place mall.

"We were able to appreciate the sheer scale of a multimillion dollar facelift, which is a revitalization of Lazarus proportions . . . Everywhere there was swelling pride about the achievement."

Frank and Sheila Allaire, of Columbus, Ohio, and their friends Frank and Beverly Lentine, of Danvers, Mass., might not go that far. But during a walk along the rivers last week, the couples said they'd had a grand four days here.

The women attended high school together. They opted for a reunion in Providence because Beverly had read about WaterFire "and it sounded pretty good."

At the customer-service counter in Providence Place, someone recommended a trolley ride, so the couples later hopped aboard. They rode from the Providence Westin hotel to Fox Point and on to Federal Hill, taking in the sights and getting themselves oriented.

"We love your trolley system," Sheila said. "It's so nice not to have to find your way around."

"We heard about the good food on Federal Hill," Beverly said. "So we asked the trolley driver. He said, 'I'm only telling you what people tell me, but they say this Angelo's is pretty good.' "

And, so, they discovered, it was. They all had veal, and later told the same trolley driver all about it.

"We're talking about coming back next summer," Frank Allaire said. "This is the first time I've been in the center of Providence -- and I was raised in Taunton. We've been just amazed."

"We will tell our friends about Providence," Frank Lentine said. "Because it is a place to visit."

Harold Fiske says he goes home every night from his shift driving a trolley on the Green Line and tells his wife, "You can't believe the people who come here."

"I'm amazed there are so many tourists in the city," Fiske says.

He often plays tour guide, telling people where to eat, pointing sites out along his route.

"You want to make it as pleasant as you can for them," he says. "You want them to come back."

On cue, a couple from Boise, Idaho, climbed in near the Rhode Island School of Design.

"I was here two or three years ago for a day, liked it and wanted to come back," said Larry Streeter. "I think Money magazine had you rated one of the best cities in the East.

"I'm kinda impressed with the city."

About Providence

newspaper ads

shop & subscribe