A Welcome Center for Mason County
Guest article by Rachel Hansen of Northwest Event Organizers
The Mason County Board of Commissioners recently approved funding for further development of plans to create a tourism Welcome Center on Hwy 101 near Taylor Town.
The project had originally been proposed after the County’s Lodging Tax Advisory Committee examined long term strategies to meet changing needs of visitors and tourism providers. At that time, the county contracted with a local Shelton corporation, Northwest Event Organizers to examine the feasibility of a full-service Welcome Center in Mason County. The goal was to determine if a comprehensive facility—regionally oriented and partnering with community stakeholders—could reach visitors more effectively, operate more economically, and provide enhanced services that would improve tourism sustainability.
The purpose of this “gateway” center is to welcome travelers into the area and serve as a conduit for information about activities, events, and amenities available locally. The facility is intended to be a destination in its own right, offering interesting activities and a welcoming experience that embodies, protects, and showcasing our rich timber and aquaculture heritage, while providing inspiration and guidance for tourism asset operators, event coordinators and explorers to create memorable adventures and stories.
Additionally, a Welcome Center, incorporating multiple tourism partners, would result in substantial regional spin-off benefits in terms of additional visitor spending in the area. According to a recent tourism analyst report (Dean Runyan 2020), on average, visitors that stop at welcome centers spend 68% more on their trip than other types of visitors. These centers serve as an opportunity to connect with visitors who like, expect, and need personal concierge services.
The restroom is the #1 (literally) reason visitors stop at a Welcome Center. By creating a highly visible center with convenient ingress and egress as well as plenty of parking, the facility could serve travelers basic as well as inspirational needs.
The proposed Welcome Center will be home to a diverse array of uses including rotating heritage exhibits, educational facilities, small and larger gathering areas, and will be an ideal location for community partners to share these amenities. The surrounding grounds will accommodate walking trails and overflow parking. Ultimately the surrounding acreage could accommodate the needs of area agricultural events and traditional Mason County festivals.
Proposed for one of several possible locations on Hwy 101 between Taylor Town and Shelton’s exit to Hwy 3, this section of highway is the busiest on the entire Olympic Peninsula with over 30,000 vehicles passing daily. After this point traffic is diverted to routes around the county and upper peninsula. This location’s concentration of traffic makes it ideal for a WSDOT partnered rest stop on the southern I-5 connecting gateway stopover to serve tourism partners throughout the region.
In 2018, total direct travel spending in the county was reported at $128.6 million/annum. An increase in visitation in recent years is acutely reflected in Washington State Park usage. In 2019, Mason County parks reported 1,210,080 users with 83,749 overnight users. In 2020, this number increased to 1,380,703 users with an overnight count of 89,127. The increase in visitation in the last year can be attributed to Washington’s “Stay Home” orders and travel bans. Proximity to urban hubs, including Tacoma, Seattle, and Portland, naturally led to an increase of visitors to our county.
Despite the anomaly caused by the pandemic, it should be noted that there has been an upward trend since 2017. It is projected that the trend will continue as demand increases. Planning for responsible management of this influx should begin now. To sustain growth and meet the displaced demand (those seeking accommodations outside Mason County) there is an urgent need for additional infrastructure. This includes dining, focus service lodging, meeting and event facilities and place-based attractions. This shortage is a hurdle to future tourism growth in Mason County. Emphasis will need to be placed on these shortcomings over the next few years to ensure the area can fully capitalize on the opportunities presented with the growing demand. The Welcome Center will allow Mason County to position itself as a key access point to the Olympic Peninsula.
Shelton’s Hwy 101 access (northbound) is a logical location for a Welcome Center catering to tourist market service for the entire Olympic Peninsula. Primary tourism draws for the region include trails, wilderness, and water-based activity (waterfall viewing, boating, swimming, paddling, and fishing) as well as hiking, and camping. Agricultural tourism (including shellfish), golf, biking, racing, skydiving, and sport tourism offer opportunities as well.
Situating the Welcome Center considers visibility, access, attractions, services, as well as the future of festivals and events. Events create compelling, time sensitive motivation for visitors to travel to Mason County and they result in attention to the unique assets of the area.
A location on Hwy 101 that enables multiple uses and enhances opportunities for private as well as public partnerships beneficial to increase and ensure relevancy the Center, as well as generate revenue to offset operational costs. The Welcome Center’s goal in design and implementation is to meet the changing needs of the tourism industry and be financially sustainable as well as an economic generator for the region.
Over the next few months Mason County will be working with consultants, stakeholders, and government entities to further develop the Welcome Center concept. With tourism dollars committed through 2022 to the project and strong support indicated from local legislation and state officials, the project has the potential to be of benefit to local businesses, nonprofits, community members and visitors.
For more information, contact Rachel Hansen of Northwest Event Organizers at rachel@nwevent.org.
