Salem is doing many things right when it come to marketing its No. 1 industry, but it could do some things better, according to those directly and indirectly involved in the tourist trade.
Destination Salem's adoption of the tag "America's Bewitching Seaport," which adorns the cover of its 2008 travel guide, reminds potential visitors of the city's link with both the witchcraft hysteria of 1692 and its maritime history. The organization has been revived under the leadership of new Executive Director Kate Fox, and Monday it provided an update to some 100 stakeholders at a conference held at the Hawthorne Hotel.
One speaker after another extolled the city's effort to bring the various businesses and institutions that depend on tourism — lodging places, restaurants, downtown merchants, trolley companies, museums and other attractions — together to forge a coordinated strategy for convincing the 22 million people who visit Massachusetts annually to include Salem in their itineraries.
Fox is striving to make it as easy as possible to learn about Salem. Her organization offers an easy to reach Web site (www.salem.org) and easy-to-remember, toll-free telephone line (1-877-SALEM MA). She recently began writing a blog on things to do in the city, and is looking into establishing a presence for Destination Salem on booming social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
Mayor Kim Driscoll, who moved recently to have 25 percent of the revenue the city receives from the hotel/motel tax dedicated to tourism promotion, spoke of the difficulty she faces balancing the effort to keep the industry healthy against the burden visitors sometimes place on the city's services and neighborhoods — especially during October. Those concerns, she added, are heightened by the fact that the next three Halloween nights are on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively.
As Salem's Halloween festival has grown in popularity, so have the problems. Driscoll cited efforts — which this year could include the hiring of an events planner — to keep the month-long celebration both fun and orderly. One of the big concerns: After people are here, especially on Halloween night, how do you tell them the party's over and it's time to go home?
Other problems:
City Planner Lynn Duncan said Monday that while in her view there are plenty of places to park in downtown Salem, it's hard for those unfamiliar with the city to find them. Toward that end, her office will soon be installing new signs throughout the area, directing people to the off-street facilities.
Someone suggested better signage at the commuter rail station, so those visiting the city by rail know exactly where to go when they arrive at the platform, which is separated by a huge wall and busy street from the historic downtown.
Likewise for those arriving at the cruise and ferry terminal on Blaney Street which is next door to the House of the Seven Gables, but several blocks away from the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, and the shops and restaurants at Pickering Wharf. The tall masts of the Friendship make it easy to spot the wharves, but the city plans to install a map at the foot of the ferry landing and hopes someday to build a walkway along the shoreline.
And of course, there's the perennial one: Lack of rest-room facilities. Those who find their way to the Salem Willows should find new facilities by the end of the summer; and the administration is hoping to find a permanent tenant for Old Town Hall who, as part of the deal, will agree to renovate and maintain the lavatories in that centrally located building.
