GENERAL INFORMATION!

General Information

Describe how this individual or organization made an outstanding contribution to the tourism industry in Loudoun County.

The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority owns and operates 7 parks in Loudoun county, covering over 2,000 acres. Each park’s content is as diverse and varied as Loudoun County itself, ranging from historic sites to golf courses to event venues. Driving people to these sites and, in the process Loudoun County, is a key part of NVRPA’s annual marketing budget and a priority for the organization.

NVRPA’s Loudoun County parks consist of Aldie Mill, Algonkian Regional Park, Brambleton Golf Course, Red Rock Regional Park, Ball’s Bluff Battlefield Regional Park, Temple Hall Farm Regional Park and a significant portion of the W&OD Trail. This group is a perfect cross section of the full scope of NVRPA’s offerings, namely a perfect mixture of revenue producing and passive use areas. The element all seven venues have in common, however, is that in one way or another, all are actively marketed to the residents of our other five jurisdictions – Fairfax and Arlington Counties and the Cities of Alexandria, Falls Church and Fairfax. That includes every nuance of said venues, from the golf courses at Algonkian and Brambleton to the quiet beauty of Red Rock Overlook.

Let’s start with NVRPA’s golf courses. In addition to the brochures (our overall Park offerings booklet as well as our golf brochure), both Brambleton and Algonkian Golf Courses have been advertised in print, on the radio and on television over the last two years. That includes prominent ads in Golf Styles, a national golf magazine, radio ads on SportsTalk 980 as well as WMAL 630, and an 8 week spot on Comcast Sports Network. The latter included a 15 minute golf segment, featuring sports reporter Chick Hernandez and our Algonkian Pro offering golf tips to viewers, which aired several times over the eight week period. Every one of these efforts could be felt not only in Northern Virginia, but in the entire Washington DC Metro region. As a result, our Loudoun County-based golf courses saw a spike in visitation from both inside and outside the region, causing a direct increase in the number of Loudoun County visitors. In all, NVRPA has committed more than $35,000 to marketing golf in Loudoun County, in the last year alone.

At Temple Hall Farm Regional Park, our annual Corn Maize and Fall Festival is certainly no stranger to attracting those from outside the County. In fact, the numbers more than support it: Last year alone, of the more than 12,000 visitors to the giant, 24-acre maize, a whopping 51 percent came from Fairfax County. Beyond that, the Maize also drew visitors from Prince William County, Fauquier County as well as Frederick, Md and beyond. It’s far from a coincidence: In addition to advertising the Maize and Fall Festival in every edition of the Washington Post Extra sections, the Maize is fervently advertised in Fairfax area newspapers, on Cox Cable in Fairfax and on Metro Region heavyweight WASH-FM. Factor in the fact that the Corn Maize and Fall Festival have been featured nearly ever year on Fox 5 DC’s Morning Show with Holly Morris, and the appeal to residents outside of Loudoun County only increases. With its location on Route 15 just north of Leesburg, the Maize and Fall Festival offer visitors an easy segue to area shopping, restaurants and more.

Even our historical sites at Aldie Mill, Red Rock, Ball’s Bluff and the aforementioned Temple Hall are thoroughly visible and marketed. Our brochures on the subjects can be found up and down Virginia’s rest stops and Visitor Centers thanks to a paid sponsorship with the Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association. In addition, the array of various events and the subsequent marketing and publicity they generate typically results in a number of residents outside of Loudoun County to visit events like Lafayette Day at Temple Hall Farm, or the Grand Illumination at Ball’s Bluff Battlefield. In the last year, we offered free admission to tour Aldie Mill, and the numbers spoke for themselves; attendance more than doubled, and Aldie Mill now hosts over 4300 visitors annually. The respective locales of these facilities again encourage visitors to stop for a meal, or discover a new place to shop, walk or explore.

But perhaps NVRPA’s greatest influence on Loudoun County comes in the form of our Meeting & Event Center at Algonkian Regional Park. A perfect venue for weddings, gatherings and major business conferences, the Meeting & Event Center is vigorously marketed on an annual basis. The resulting visitors typically stay in local hotels, populate local restaurants, and generally spend their free time discovering all that Loudoun County has to offer.

What will the legacy of this tourism contribute?

NVRPA sites continue to become more and more popular to residents in and, more importantly, outside of Loudoun County. And this has created its own legacy, that legacy will only serve to boost the tourism of Loudoun County. Already, Loudoun County is known to residents of Fairfax County and beyond as the home of the Maize and Fall Festival. It’s fast becoming a center for golf, a center for conferences and meetings, and the perfect venue to observe and explore Civil War history. These elements will only serve to continue to sustain tourism, as more and more area residents continue to explore what NVRPA and Loudoun County have to offer. NVRPA has distinguished itself as agency in the business of protecting land and providing recreation to area citizens. That distinction, paired with its Loudoun County offerings, will continue to elevate the profile of the county as a whole, making it synonymous with golf, history and recreation, an effect that will only serve as a continued boost to Loudoun’s tourism as a whole.

With the 150^th Anniversary of the Civil War coming up in 2011, NVRPA sites like the newly acquired site at Gilbert’s Corner, the location of one of Mosby’s battles, Aldie Mill which was central to several Civil War battles and skirmishes, Temple Hall and, of course, Ball’s Bluff Battlefield, Regional Parks are going to be the central features of historic tourism in Loudoun County next year. The possible acquisition of the White’s Ford Property this year would add just another site of great Civil War significance to the historic sites open to the public in Loudoun County.

How did this contribution affect the entire tourism industry and not just a segment of the industry?

Because NVRPA’s holding in Loudoun County are so varied, it clearly affects Loudoun’s tourism industry on every level. Out of town guests of our Meeting & Events Center at Algonkian, for example, typically populate area hotels, eat in area restaurants, shop at local malls and stores. Visitors to our historic sites, which are both immediately adjacent to the town of Leesburg, find their way to shopping, more local historic sites, restaurants and parks. The same can be said of visitors to our golf courses. No trip to Algonkian or Brambleton is complete without a visit to a favorite restaurant or a stop for refreshments. At Algonkian, guests of the deluxe vacation cottages are among the consumers of the finest services offered by segments of Loudoun’s tourism industry, namely restaurants and grocery stores for meals, but also shopping malls, concert venues, historic sites, swimming pools and movie theaters, as they fill their daily itineraries with local points of interest.

And NVRPA facilities affect far more than just one area as well. NVRPA’s Loudoun County parks are located in Aldie, Ashburn, Sterling and Leesburg, and contribute the aforementioned tourists dollars to all one of those towns as well as the areas in between.