Opinion

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Good tourism season depends on all

By Bill Moss, Published: May 28, 2012

The tourism season that kicks off this weekend ought to be the best since 2007, the year of the real estate dive followed by the next year's crash.

Hendersonville shopkeepers, innkeepers and restaurateurs are cautiously optimistic that this summer will bring in traffic and visitors willing to stay a while and spend.
John Sheiry, the owner of the Waverly Inn, said he was projecting a 3 to 5 percent gain in bookings. On Main Street, shop owners are feeling a "mild security," according to Historic Downtown Hendersonville director Lew Holloway. While that hardly sounds happy days are here again it is better than the gloom and doom uttered in some precincts, in some cases for good reason, two to three years ago.
The city of Hendersonville, downtown merchants and Travel & Tourism have all been working together to make this season as good as it can be. The city completed the downtown renovation work in the 300-400 blocks. Downtown merchants, working with Holloway in the restructured program officially under the authority of the City Council, have been working on strategies for this year and beyond to make Main Street even more robust.
The Flat Rock Playhouse is rolling out its first full year of heavy booking at its downtown space and Hendersonville Little Theatre will begin staging its shows on Washington Street this summer. It all adds up, Holloway said, to Hendersonville's own theater districts.
Not everything has been fixed, or improved to the degree that it could be.
Restaurants would better serve the post-theater audience if they stayed open until midnight, at least on weekends. We have heard and appreciate the arguments against such late hours; cooks and owners who start prep at 9 in the morning aren't enthusiastic about working on cleanup and close until 1 a.m., now matter how much is at stake.
Our prediction is that because of the growing nightlife downtown, we will see over the next two to five years a new breed of late night dining, perhaps with limited menus and an attractive dessert selection.
Going back to the re-opening of the Historic Courthouse in 2005, our local government leaders have done a lot to make downtown Hendersonville an even better place to visit and better environment for businesses to generate income. But as Sheiry pointed out, it's not all about government, or even mostly about government.
As we kick off the summer season, we ought to make a smile our business card and a friendly and helpful demeanor our hallmark. That will make visitors glad to be here, and it will inspire them to tell others to visit.