Kirkbrae Country Club, Lincoln, Rhode Island The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council 20th Anniversary Annual Dinner September 29, 2005

We are a Destination (Intro Letter) | We've Always Fought the Uphill Battle (History)
Chris and Lisa Van Allsburg (2005 Lifetime Achievement Award) | Who Are We (Staff, volunteers)
20 Years of Imagination (Accomplishment Timeline) | Thanks to Our Sponsors

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We've Always Fought the Uphill Battle

It’s been 20 years since Bob Billington left a full-time position in New Bedford to return home to begin marketing the crazy idea of tourism in the Blackstone Valley. This month, looking ahead to the 20th
annual meeting of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, he shared some highlights of the early years and his hopes for the future.

Spreading the word

It all started, of course, in 1985. Says Billington, “I spoke to no less then 150 groups that first year. Every Rotary, Kiwanis, church group.” He says, “You didn’t speak without getting laughed at as soon as you linked the Blackstone Valley and tourism. Every host would introduce you and there would always be a chuckle in the back of the room.”

He remembers approaching the North Smithfield Town Council. He explained he had a Rhode Island Division of Tourism matching grant to get the tourism council started but needed individual community support as a demonstration of local support. He recalls the big concern that night for North Smithfield was finding $750 for cheerleading uniforms. “They told me, ‘There’s no tourism here,’ and they threw me out. They threw me out.”

The next day, then Town Council member Ken Bianchi, who worked for the Department of Economic
Development, called him and apologized. He had checked out Bob’s story. As crazy as this tourism plan had sounded to council members, it was legitimate. “Come back to the next meeting, we’ll give you your money,’” Billington recalls him saying. “And they did.”

Surviving

The council began in April 1985. In 1986, the General Assembly implemented the first room tax on hotels to share with tourism groups. Billington, a four-year Coast Guard veteran and trained in the family business as a cabinet maker, was working in New Bedford where the business community was urging him to start up a tourism office in that city.

“No. I can’t. I want to go home,” he told them. Back in the Blackstone Valley, the new board of directors hired him to the fulltime slot in September 1986. “It was up to me to figure out how to get paid and run the place,” says Billington. His son, Ryan, was 9 years old and daughter Sarah was 6. “My wife supported the endeavor. I had to figure out early on how to raise money, put enough aside for labor and staff, and do the projects. “And we started from there. The state didn’t give us money. It was thin and thin.”

The hotel tax had sounded like a treasure trove but in fact, says Billington, “The tax scared up just a few hundred dollars the first year and it wasn’t for 10 years before it became a significant contributor.” One source was $10,000 in job-training funds available through the Rhode Island Department of Employment and Training for Vietnam-era veterans, which, as a Coast Guardsman, he was. A sense of place From day one, Billington says his focus has been defining the Blackstone Valley.

Says Billington, “The idea was to improve quality of life and develop pride of place. Building on what we know – the heritage and history that was all locked up in great historical societies – we needed to share with one another.”

Always someone eager for partnerships, Billington remembers that early on he approached the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce in Pawtucket with the thought of working together on the development of tourism. The 1,000 members were contacted and asked their opinion “and not a single one responded with any interest in tourism,” says Billington. The council went forward with seven communities and Billington went on to add Burrillville and Glocester “and the package was complete.”

He remembers getting a phone call one day from Chamber members asking exactly what communities
were part of the Blackstone Valley. “And I knew we had some work to do,” he says. Billington was laughed at, too, the day he reported to Gov. J. Joseph Garrahy’s office to serve on the Governor’s
Advisory Council on Tourism. Jack Gaines of Narragansett demanded, “What the hell are you doing here? There’s no tourism in the Blackstone Valley.”

Ten years later, Billington took Gaines around the valley and won over the man’s respect (and discovered Gaines was a Woonsocket native). “We’ve always fought the uphill battle,” says Billington.
“Most of the support we’ve had here in developing tourism in the Blackstone Valley has not come from what people call the rank and file in the tourism industry. Here we’ve relied on the entire community. Hope Global, Brooks, Credit Union Central Falls, Ocean State Power, Amica Insurance, Fidelity Investments, the Northern Rhode Island Chamber, The Valley Breeze, Residential Properties - our strength has been in our Valley corporations and our cities and towns. They always help with financially supporting new projects.

“These people were convinced that tourism is good for the community first - the primary beneficiary is the local community. Look at the bike path. The primary benefit is to local people who can go there everyday.”

Billington notes that the BVTC is a 501C3 non-profit educational corporation making it grant eligible.  In 1992, this glass bottomed boat was plying the Blackstone River, giving visitors a new perspective on their environment. “(Former Cumberland Mayor) Rick Alger in 1987 helped us get that designation and that created a sea of change. We’re now able to take contributions and use them for the valley. No other tourism council in the state has that. But if we didn’t have it, we wouldn’t have a tourism council in the Blackstone Valley.”

River adventures

“Early on, 1986 or ‘87, we talked about the river. How can we promote the river valley without the river? We got people here by talking about the Blackstone River Valley, but then we’re not going to show the river.”

The first boat was a 16-foot inflatable raft from Navy surplus used for scouting. Recalls Billington, “We had to discover where could we go and not get stuck in the mud. So we went out and discovered the river.”

Billington credits Warren boat builder Luther Blount and his affection for the Blackstone Valley for lending a hand. “He loaned glass-bottom boats used in Belize. Then we had to figure out how to get on the river. “We started on School Street in Pawtucket and people liked it.”

The river may have been key to Bob’s vision, but it was polluted. “So we have been working to clean it up and we’re not doing it alone. We’re working with 100 different partners, 100 different organizations a year.”

Nothing like small boats

From the start, says Billington, “The riverboat was never a moneymaker, it’s a placemaker - an image-maker for the Valley.

“In 1993, after experimenting with the glass bottom boat, we raised enough money to build the Explorer and that really made our reputation. “I always called the Explorer ‘the convincer.’ We’ve taken everybody on that boat. All the members of the congressional delegation, the U.S. secretary of the interior, all of our mayors and town administrators. Everyone. It convinces them the river has something to offer. I’d present a slide show of the Blackstone River and people would say ‘God, I want to go there.’ It’s what helps people, for example, find the Museum of Work and Culture. They may come for the boat ride but get interested in seeing more.

“We’ve introduced well over 300,000 passengers to the Blackstone River since 1993. That’s an accomplishment. It’s in operation seven months a year, often seven days a week.”  Billington says the council celebrated America’s millennium by raising funds to build an English canal boat, the Samuel Slater. “That boat is working four out of seven days a week. Providing either tea tours, corporate charters, birthday cruises or overnighting visitors to the Valley.

“Imagine,” says Billington, “people are staying overnight on the Blackstone River.” And then came the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. Those who know Billington know he’s never been short on ideas. But the money to implement them has been a struggle. The arrival of the federal government and Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor brought both money and bodies.

Billington dusted off strategy plans and began to see them implemented. “So much of what we started is valley wide, from Worcester to Providence. Most tourism initiatives for the Valley are developed in the Tourism Council “War Room.” Sharing ideas is what we are about and it is very good for the corridor.

“We used to work alone in developing tourism in the Valley. Now we have the Corridor Commission and the Blackstone Valley Chamber in Massachusetts as our partners in the Blackstone Valley Tourism
Collaborative. This group along with the state Division of Tourism and our sister tourism agencies state-wide in Rhode Island, make our work to develop tourism in the Valley easier.”

The struggling years

“It took a few years and we brought Donna Houle in to manage special projects. Both of her children grew up in the Tourism Council office. “The Corridor Commission wanted to introduce people to the Valley so the Tourism Council was asked to write the plan to introduce them by canoe, by bus, by train.

“We hired trains, buses, and canoes and outfitted people ‘cause we were going to show them the Valley.” Says Billington, “I remember one time we sold pieces of the Valley. Insight, the center for mentally challenged, was hired to put limestone in plastic bags and we sold it as a ‘Landmark in a Bag.’ “But the limestone was powdered and the board said it looked like we were selling cocaine. So we went from powdered limestone to chunks. It came from Conklin in Lincoln, the oldest continuously operating mining operation in the country.

“The bags sold for 50 cents. “Later we started selling coffee syrup, soda, water, T-shirts and even underwear with the Blackstone Valley’s name on it. And we still do.”

Misadventures

Billington says there was a time that bus tours of the Valley were popular, too. “In November of 1992, things changed. Foxwoods opened. Our group tour business changed immediately. Most groups will travel about once a month. The question became do they hear about the history of textiles and labor or do they go to the casinos? The competition is tough trying to overcome that motivation to go to the casino. “So we had to be smarter. The riverboat helped a little bit but our product is our product. We’re not about building a Disney World or Six Flags. You work with what you have to work with. Focusing on development of the American Industrial Revolution theme and enhancing our landscape.”

Group tours weren’t the only disappointment. Ferry boats between Pawtucket and Providence may have been ahead of their time, and were later sold. And a doubledecker bus was a hit, but the insurance too costly.

The Blackstone Valley Trolley was, however, a success, running profitably with the help of Conway Tours for nearly 10 years. It was sold for nearly the same amount the council paid for it.

A presidential tip of the hat In the mid 1990s, with the assistance of U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Billington was invited to the White House to meet with President Clinton to talk about tourism. Clinton also was invited to the Blackstone Valley because of Kennedy, as was First Lady and now Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Each time, Billington was invited to be a part of the welcoming committee for the Clintons. Says Billington, “Those are days I will never forget and loom large in the Valley’s life.”

Looking ahead

Billington, who earned his doctorate degree this year from Johnson & Wales University in tourism development, says the second 20 years of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council will be about “using what we learned for the betterment of others. “By creating the Tourism Planning Laboratory the BVTC will use what we learned over 20 years and share with other communities across the country.

“We know how to work from the bottom up, with nothing, and how to move people around the Valley using different modes of transportation. This is something we can do.”

The bottom line

Says Billington, “Money is not the bottom line. The bottom line is ‘did we move the Blackstone Valley forward?’ That’s the bottom line for the Tourism Council. “Our goal was never to move the economic
needle on its own. Tourism is more about landscape and community than making money. It’s a balance of things coming together. You need hotels, need places to eat. You need a way to present your history. “The Tourism Council works to redevelop the Blackstone Valley as a great place to work, visit and live. “And I think we’re achieving that goal,” says Billington. “Our first 20 years has been a great challenge. We look forward to our next 20 years with that same level of excitement.”

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