By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
aframpton@scbiznews.com
Published March 16, 2009

When Patriots Point hired a tourism director last summer, it was the first time in the naval and maritime museum’s 34-year history that it had an employee focused specifically on marketing.

The time had come for a strategy and a new image.

Like many historic attractions in Charleston, the number of visitors to Patriots Point has been falling annually for nearly 10 years. Local tourism officials say the trend is driven by visitors who return to the area but not to historic sites they have already experienced.

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“It’s sort of the ‘been there, done that’ mentality,” said Dick Trammell, tourism and business development director for Patriots Point.

That mentality presents a challenge for a tourist attraction such as Patriots Point that depends primarily on earned revenue for its operation. But Patriots Point plans to reverse the trend. The effort includes a new brand and a new vision for its 445 acres.

Officials have set a goal of drawing 400,000 visitors a year within the next five years. That would be a 74% increase over last year, when about 230,000 people visited.

Getting started
The state-created Patriots Point Development Authority hired retired Brig. Gen. Hugh Tant as executive director in June. Shortly after, Tant created a marketing department and hired Trammell to lead it.

Trammell led the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau in the 1980s. He later served as state travel director for North Carolina. Most recently, he ran a travel industry consulting company based in Charleston.

To get started at Patriots Point, Trammell wanted to know why tourists visit the museum. He asked John Crotts, a professor in the Hospitality and Tourism Management department at the College of Charleston, to find out through surveys.

The stories of sacrifice and heroism and the history told aboard the four ships at Patriots Point are what draw people there, those surveys have found. Based on that information, Trammell is creating a new brand for Patriots Point.

He is nixing a previous ad campaign that featured cartoon depictions of military figures. A new campaign, still being finalized, will incorporate historic photos and highlight the stories of patriotism and honor featured throughout the ships and other memorials at the site.

“We are about the stories told here,” Trammell said. “That is their interest: the stories of sacrifice and the stories of heroism. These ships just happen to protect those stories.”

The new brand for Patriots Point also will include a reference to Mount Pleasant, a change from ads of the past that say only that the attraction is located on Charleston Harbor.

Trammell said the Charleston Harbor descriptor can confuse tourists about the attraction’s location. Another reason for the shift is to increase community support and pride in Patriots Point.

The change fits into a partnership between the town of Mount Pleasant and Patriots Point. Both entities, looking to stretch their tourism advertising dollars, plan to mention each other in forthcoming ads, officials said.

Town administrator Mac Burdette said the partnership makes sense because Patriots Point is one of the town’s main attractions.

“It’s in our best interest to make them successful,” Burdette said.

Master plan
Crotts, the C of C professor, also recently completed an annual economic impact study for Patriots Point. He estimates that the naval and maritime museum adds $26.9 million annually to the local economy.

Add in the golf course, hotel and athletic complex, plus harbor tours departing from the site, and the impact grows to $76 million, which Crotts calls a conservative figure.

But Tant thinks the attraction can have a much larger economic impact. The key is better utilizing the undeveloped portions of the 455 acres within the authority’s control. A new master plan for Patriots Point that seeks to maximize that potential is under consideration now by the board of directors.

The plan will consider better uses for a piece for waterfront property that now serves as a parking lot, for example. Tant said that and other undeveloped parcels could be leased for additional hotels, waterfront dining or other attractions, all of which would bring new operating revenue to Patriots Point.

Another likely addition is a building that would house new and traveling exhibits, giving visitors who might have seen Patriots Point before a reason to return.

Trammell points to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville as an example of an attraction that has successfully kept tourists coming back by expanding its offerings inside and on adjacent property.

Initially, George Vanderbilt’s mansion was the only thing to see at the Biltmore Estate, Trammell said. Now, the estate has restaurants, shops, new rooms and floors opening in the mansion, gardens, outdoor programs, a winery, an inn and more.

Trammell said Crotts’ research on why people visit Patriots Point in the first place will inform new additions meant to bring them back.

Repairs needed
While looking ahead to possibilities for the site, officials also are focused on repairs needed soon to keep its historic ships in tact. The USS Laffey, a destroyer, and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown face rust-related problems and need repairs that are expected to cost about $50 million.

The Laffey is now closed to the public after five holes rusted through the ship’s bottom in recent months. During two of those incidents, the ship took on between 2,000 and 3,000 gallons of water an hour, Tant said.

The Yorktown, still open, faces rust problems in its splash zone, the area between the high tide and low tide water levels. Instead of moving the enormous ship to a dry dock for repairs, Patriots Point officials prefer to build a dry facility around the ship.

In addition to the $50 million for ship repairs, officials are seeking about $14.6 million more to address erosion problems, repair the pier and move the parking lot to free up the waterfront land.

The authority’s $8 million annual operating budget does not cover capital expenses, Tant said. Increasing the number of visitors won’t soon raise the $64.6 million, either.

To help find the money, Tant has created a development department. Director Doug Bostick said he is working with state and federal lawmakers to identify grants and other funds. Bostick is also planning a national capital campaign for the repairs.

Not a zero-sum game
While Patriots Point seeks ways to persuade past visitors to come again, Trammell is also working to recruit more first-time visitors.

He is connecting with student and adult tour group associations and reaching out to more scout troops and school groups. Prior to his arrival, educators who taught student courses at Patriots Point were responsible for marketing the programs, he said.

Trammell also plans to market the site as a banquet and reception venue.

Crotts said he is cautiously optimistic that the work Patriots Point and Mount Pleasant are doing to boost visitor numbers could eventually create two major nodes of tourism in the Charleston area — one downtown and one in Mount Pleasant.

Instead of competing for the same tourists, the two nodes could lure even more people to the region.

“It’s not a zero-sum game,” Crotts said.

Reach Ashley Fletcher Frampton at 843-849-3129.