Tourism is huge in North Carolina. Prime beaches, mountains, world reknowned barbecue, colleges galore, waterfalls and hush puppies: we got ‘em all. But how does a mid-sized city like Leland fit in?

This is not a misprint – The Town of Leland sent out a survey that included the statement that they want in on tourism. The first thing I did was do a double take and the second was to scream YOU ALREADY BLEW IT when they dashed the stadium/entertainment plan. This had the potential to be the magnet, a Brunswick County thing that would have created many jobs and wholesome family entertainment.   Note, the commissioned study on the project endorsed the plan

But would this have been Leland’s “magic bullet”? Probably not, but it would have been a starting point – a recognizable monument with huge potential. Either way, that idea is toast…the night the TOL talking head stated that the town of Leland has decided not to move forward on the stadium project at this time.

In the meantime, Route 17 continues to be clear cut by the hectares and gets more and more dangerously congested. Kudos to the road planners for the foresight to engineer all the U-turns that allow traffic flow. Next up, a civilian walkway to get to one side of the highway to the other.

Right now, dozens of housing projects are either built or being built. Take your pick townhouses, homes, or luxury rentals. The only thing I haven’t seen is Tiny Homes communities, igloos, yurts or tepees. Kudos to Habitat to Humanity who are soon to be building homes for the less fortunate. Either way the influx of people will swell the tax rolls and swell the pool of retail customers.

Back to the positive column, TOL is doing a fine job of adding to the town hall area and revitalizing the park. It’ll be good to see concerts in the park. Hopefully, they will have the Holiday lights extravaganza back and running this year. It’s a must for families and even us oldsters. There are plans to make the town more walkable – a big problem currently.

The old expression is you’re either a part of the problem or part of the solution. Despite the hypocrisy of the idea of Leland as tourist worthy, I’ll attempt play along. We need a niche, something different and don’t even propose a Leland open at the frisbee golf course. That would be lame.

It’s also time to benchmark ideas (aka beg, borrow and steal) from any of the hundreds of towns in North Carolina that attract day visitors.  You’ll notice, without exception,  that they have crucial tourist worthy stuff that we do not.

A good example would be New Bern in Craven County. They have a nicely clustered shopping area with diverse fine dining and deep history. And they have LOCATION via some serious waterfront. Most importantly the town has a story that’ll happen when you’ve been around about 250 years. Over in Carteret County in Beaufort, N.C revealed an similar formula as a tourist friendly, history enriched place and genteel place. Either town could write a book about how to get visitors.

By any measure, Leland, incorporated in 1980, is a relative newbie. The scorecard reads – no stadium, no waterpark or any epic restaurants. NO WOW FACTOR. But we do have a new Lowes Home Improvement Center and car washes, and breweries!! We also don’t have “the view” that tends to attract visitors.

That leaves me to an old solution, have a yearly Festival. The town I hailed from in Guilford, Connecticut has had the Guilford Fair every September since 1859. It’s an agricultural fair with a parade, rides, mountains of food, carnival games and lots of animals and competitions. At any rate the state of North Carolina has that covered. And now that I think about it, are there farm animals in Leland? No judgement, just curious.

There are1 00 counties in North Carolina and supposedly 101 festivals (cannot find an official list). Some are cornier than others, but all attract tourists and embrace community. Here are a few possible maybes from “my lanes”

• BATTLE of the BANDS – we have several spots, all you need is lots of food, a raffle, arts and crafts vendors. Leland breweries would sign on in a New York minute (very fast)
• SPORTS EXPO- there are thousands of kids in Leland, lets give them a day with some fun skills competitions. Punt, pass and kick and Home Run Derby come to mind. We’ll need vendors to sell t shirts and sporting goods
• PIZZA COOKOFF- skip the cue, everyone does that. Add live music, cannoli stand. Heck. I’ll could even mix up a 55-gallon drum of Limoncello! That’s a lot of Vodka

Of course, a way smarter idea would be to forget about tourism, pause the building of housing forthwith and concentrate on these pressing “issues”.

• JOBS Get some big employers that offer decent pay- do that and you won’t necessarily gain tourists but could result in higher occupancy rates
• STALE LEADERSHIP Infuse some fresh blood on the town council that care about the environment and are willing to play hardball with the good ole boy system that progressive towns are prone to do
• POOR PAY Schools are getting fuller and meanwhile the teachers are amongst the worst paid in the U.S.A. We need to pay them much better right now.

In closing, Leland is behind the curve in some areas and getting up to speed in others (Publix and Marshalls coming soon. But if your real hellbent on putting Leland on the tourism map let’s start with a colossal one-day event that can get the town some buzz. In the meantime, give your spouse or kids a hug, or better yet, a tree, unless it’s in your yard- it could be gone tomorrow.

#festivalinLeland102