DDTT - Downtown Development

Since its establishment in 1782, Dover as the capital of the first state never had a significant influx of tourists because there is little to attract serious tourism except for the legislative buildings that give evidence of Dover’s political status. While the city does have some historical buildings, the typical visitor can tour them in a day and thus has little reason to stay in Dover more than one night. Indeed, boredom can quickly settle in unless visitors are gamblers or automobile or horse racing fanatics, for these activities are available at Dover Downs.
According to Beirman, D. (2003:xiiii) “No tourism destination is immune from crisis. Consequently, the global tourism industry requires strategies and a set of directions, which enable and prepare destination tourism authorities to manage crisis event from its onset and rapidly implement a recovery strategy.
The tourism crisis in Dover is real, but the management of this crisis is non-existent. Indeed, the entire tourism sector is in its infancy.

During times of industrial development opportunity, communities promote and recruit for prospects that come neatly prepackaged, as compared to times of development opportunity for tourism products, which are primarily commercial opportunities. Industrial prospects generally challenge a community with a standardized set of criteria that place it in a competitive position against other communities. Commercial prospects generally challenge a community to produce evidence of market potential. In essence, a community competes with itself in commercial development. If entrepreneurs seek assistance from economic developers, it is generally because they want help in putting their packages together so that they can become a whole prospect. When they call upon economic developers, they often want assistance in finding sources of capital (investors) and people who can make a concept work (developers). Extracts from Robert E. Glover, in Tourism as Economic Development.
www.economicdevelopment.net/tourism/glover_tpd_98_htm

Other leisure activities such as the gaming industry, which covers casinos, gaming machines, the national lottery, bingo clubs, golf clubs, and betting (race course, spread, football pools) have been growing in recent years as a compliment to tourism, noted Grant, S. J. (2003:213).

The threat of terrorism is understandably a major issue in destination choice. The popularity and desirability of specific destinations are influenced by many factors. These include economic factors such as affordability, special events such as Olympic Games, or others, noted Beirman, D. (2003:5).

Furthermore, the level of crime is a determining factor in the decision to visit certain areas. Such is the case in Dover, Delaware. Delaware was the first state whose representatives signed the Declaration of Independence. For historical value, Dover is an important city for this reason alone. But the tourist influx died throughout the years and was replaced by gamblers and car race enthusiasts, who are not real tourists.
Jerold Kappel, Director of the American Association of Museums (AAM), has declared, “What makes cultural tourism unique is that people go to absorb and experience the culture of a place.” He earlier defined “place” as a “destination with a story to tell to a visitor.”
www.economicdevelopment.net/tourism/glover_tpd_98_htm

Alvin Rosenbaum of the National Centre for Heritage Development (formerly the National Coalition for Heritage Areas), speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association of Museums in 1997, said: “Tourism product supported by public agencies is a blend of conservation, community and economic development.”
www.economicdevelopment.net/tourism/glover_tpd_98_htm

According to Grant, S. J; (2003: 212), tourism involves people traveling from where they live to another place, where they make use of facilities and undertake activities. It takes place at both home and abroad. Tourism is the world’s fastest-growing industry. The number of people traveling abroad increased from 25 million in 1950 to 670 million in 1999. The World Tourism Organization estimates that by 2020, 1.6 billion people will travel abroad. In 2001 tourism accounted for 11% of world output and employed directly and indirectly more than 200 million people. The tourism market is volatile. There can be large changes in demand as a result of weather conditions, income, terrorism and war.

Visitors to Dover, according to Dover Census & Demographics 2000, are 3,011,312 people annually, for the following activities:

The last figure represents the true tourist segment as that group visits historical places, such as Dover’s colonial Green, its colonial state capitol building, and its Victorian neighborhoods. In contrast, gamblers basically stay at the same place where they gamble and hardly ever venture from the Dover Downs compound, a luxury hotel and casino. The true tourists come to visit for the weekend, but they hardly visit the city centre because most of the restaurants are closed and most of the shops close early on the weekend, so there is little to see or buy. Thus, they spend their money at the Dover Mall or the discount stores such as Wal-Mart. They also tend to eat at the chain restaurants such as TGI Fridays and fast food establishments scattered along Route 13, the famous DuPont Highway. The average visitor does not stay more than one night in Dover, especially in the summer, because most tend to stop on their way to Rehoboth Beach, on the Atlantic Ocean, 50 miles south of Dover, where water sport and outlet shopping centers are major attractions.

The NASCAR visitors, who more than quadruple the city’s population of 65,000 during the weeks prior to the two annual automobile races held at Dover in early summer and fall, are cumbersome to Dover’s residents, who especially try to escape the crowded city on the day of the events. These occasional visitors, mostly with their caravans and mobile homes, park everywhere—in front of restaurants, in the streets, in shopping centers, indeed, in any space available for parking. In spite of their numbers, they are not big spenders, and they cook their own food.

Tourism developers are marketers. The elements of their marketing activities include recruiting, as well as the creation of products that entice visitors to linger and seek leisure activities that will part them from their money. For all practical purposes, tourism development and tourism promotion are the same things. Promotion is an element of marketing.
www.economicdevelopment.net/tourism/glover_tpd_98_htm

Recently the city has seen an increase in the number of hotels built in Dover and a concurrent increase in room capacity, but for much of the year, these rooms are primarily vacant. There has not been a serious training effort to improve quality and to support this expansion locally with increased activities that would attract additional tourists to the city. The city, for example, could respond to the urgent need to attract serious culinary art in the form of an international academy that offers cookery classes in the gourmet line such as French, Italian, Creole, and Spanish cuisines. The art of cooking has become a fashionable trend among Americans (evidenced by the more than 30 food channels broadcast on American television). A development of a cookery academy would serve as an incentive to reduce unemployment, create prestige and specialty in the culinary arts, and bring people to Dover. Interest in such an academy is already present in the city, for a television food program, complete with celebrities, broadcasts regularly from Dover Downs Hotel, the biggest hotel in the city. The hotel, with its famous car race track, is currently engaged in an expansion project, adding 268 rooms to bring its total capacity to 500, according to the Dover Post, October 5, 2005.

The building of these hotels places pressure on the city to create reasons for tourists to come to Dover to spend more than one day or two, and local residents have offered suggestions for the creation of such attractions. According to survey interviewees, Dover could attract new visitors to the city if it were to:

Improve the stretch of land east of the city to the shore of the Delaware Bay, build a marina for pleasure boats to compete with Rehoboth Beach 50 miles to the south, and thus encourage and organize fishing sports.
Improve waterways in Dover and connect them for small boat traffic to ferry tourists around historic Dover, the city’s museums, and future attractions, taking its model from St. Antonio, Texas.
Promote friendly and environmental tourism.
Build a themed amusement park, village style, based on local history and American history.
Create new parks and beautify old ones.
Establish a zoological park or an aquarium featuring Delaware fish and wildlife.
Accelerate downtown beautification and improve the environment for new visitors.
Create a niche market in downtown Dover for new visitors such as specialty and antique shops.
Increase eco-tourism and agro-tourism (bird watching) to protect and preserve wild life, forests, and farmlands.
Build pedestrian-friendly pavements and construct road crossings.
Create bicycle-friendly corridors and bicycle historic tours in the city and bicycling trails from the city to the country.

Thriving leisure industries also help the national and local economy by generating tax revenue and employment opportunities. Such opportunities are created directly and indirectly. For instance, tourism generates jobs not just in hotels and theme parks but also in transport and other firms supplying food, insurance, and souvenirs for tourists, according to Grant, S. J. (2003: 215).