A private welcome | Companies operate visitors centers at a profit

Grand Strand tourists stopping by the Myrtle Beach Official Welcome Center off U.S. 501 will get more than the usual coupon, brochures and map - they'll also get a sales pitch.

The center offers free or discount tickets to attractions such as Carolina Opry or Dixie Stampede to tourists who are willing to tour a timeshare or travel club property affiliated with Myrtle Beach-based Monster Resorts Group.

The Myrtle Beach Official Welcome Center is one of at least 10 privately-run visitors centers in or along the way to the Grand Strand.

Most centers are just off U.S. 501, U.S. 17 or Ocean Boulevard and are run by timeshare companies.

Starwood Vacation Ownership runs the most centers, operating at least seven. Under the name Visitor's Connection, Starwood's centers aim to sell timeshares, getting visitors to tour Sheraton Broadway Plantation by offering discounted tickets and lower rates at outside hotels.

Starwood and Visitor's Connection declined to comment for this report.

Westgate Resorts operates at least two centers that direct traffic to its timeshares: one on Ninth Avenue North and another near the junction of S.C. 38 and U.S. 501 near Marion.

Westgate representatives could not be reached for comment last week.

Although some visitors may be turned off by the sales tactic at these privately run centers, the centers make money, and that's of interest to state and local tourism leaders looking for a new way to pay for the state's nine welcome centers, including one in Little River. S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism say finding private backers for most of the state centers is not an option because of federal law, but other tourism leaders say they'd like to see the centers opened up to private business.

"I could go find 10 businesses in the hospitality industry, maybe in the resort industry, rental agencies, hoteliers, that probably would be more than happy to go into [the Little River] center and split it up in 10 ways," said Marc Jordan, president and chief executive of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Operating visitors centers is common practice among timeshare developers at most U.S. vacation destinations, and centers are everywhere from Hawaii to Gatlinburg, Tenn., said Howard Nusbaum, president and CEO of American Resort Development Association, a trade group for timeshare owners and developers. Although some people may recall underhanded timeshare sales tactics from decades ago, the industry has largely turned itself around, Nusbaum said.

The centers are a legitimate sales strategy, as long as they're used correctly, he said.

"Transparency is king," Nusbaum said. "I don't think people mind you trying to sell you something as long as you are clear on what you're doing."

An honest welcome

The Myrtle Beach Official Visitors Center, 1800 U.S. 501 in Aynor, toes the line when it comes to clarity. The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce ran the center from 2003 to 2007 before selling the property to Mark Spaugy, owner of Monster Resorts Group. Spaugy continues to use the "official" name despite the center operating for profit.

Monster Resorts is a travel club that is a slight variation on the timeshare model, and Monster and the welcome center are independent companies, Spaugy said.

The chamber has gotten comments from visitors who have been confused as to who runs the center, said Brad Dean, chamber president and chief executive. But Dean, echoing Nusbaum, said he doesn't see anything wrong with the centers as long as it is clear to visitors what they are doing.

"So long as the consumer knows what is being sold or offered, they can make an informed decision whether or not to use that location," Dean said.

Spaugy said that his visitors center goes beyond selling timeshares or travel club memberships to promote the entire Grand Strand. For example, the center will help people get hotel reservations or find restaurants even if they don't want to go on a tour, he said.

The center also sells tickets to attractions such as Medieval Times or Legends In Concert without a tour, albeit at full price, said welcome center manager Sean Burke.

The centers do make money, Spaugy said, and that's a major difference from state- or chamber of commerce-run centers.

"There's commissions that are involved. We are a for-profit business," he said.

And here's the pitch

Visitors are generally interested in the discount tickets, Burke said, but that doesn't always translate to attendance at a Monster Resorts or timeshare presentation.

Burke described an interaction with a customer:

"'A pair of Dixie Stampede tickets for $20?'

'Oh, really?'

'You've just got to sit down for a 60-minute presentation.'

'Aw, we don't want to do that,'" he said.

During peak summer season, U.S. 501 is crammed with tourists trying to get to the Grand Strand, and that translates to a lot of visitors at the center, Burke said.

More than 2,500 people will visit the center on a busy Saturday, he said, with that figure falling to a mid-week low of about 500 or 600.

Burke used to work at a similar welcome center near Marion that guided travelers to Westgate Resorts timeshares.

That center's location, near the junction of S.C. 38 and U.S. 501, nets even more visitors than the Official Welcome Center because they catch travelers who are exiting off Interstate 95, he said.

It can be tough pitching to tourists who have been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Some are mean and some aren't, just like in any service industry job, Burke said.

The center only hires workers who are good with people, he said, himself included. More than 20 years experience as a bartender helps him talk to tourists, he said.

"I used to talk to the drunk public, now I talk to the sober public," Burke said.

Workers at the private centers are called OPCs, or off-premises contacts, and are paid on commission for each couple they get to attend a timeshare or travel club presentation, Burke said. Those companies pay a set amount per attendee, with about half going to the OPC. Out of the worker's portion also comes the price of any discounted or free tickets.

Burke said he couldn't comment on how much money companies pay for each referral, saying he didn't want to offend any of the center's business partners.

Paying for the centers

PRT is looking to tighten its belt after the S.C. legislature cut more than $5.6 million out of this year's PRT budget. One PRT program seeks not-for-profits - such as chambers of commerce, convention and visitors bureaus or regional tourism groups - to pay for nine of its welcome centers around the state, including one in Little River.

Not-for-profits have expressed interest in funding four of the locations, not including Little River. No Grand Strand organizations applied to fund a center by the July 30 deadline.

There would ideally be an option from PRT to open up the centers to for-profit businesses in addition to not-for-profits, Jordan and Dean said.

The timeshare-run centers are doing something right if they're staying open, Jordan said.

"I don't know that you could say they provide a valuable service to visitors in general, [but] they must be profitable," he said. "Otherwise these groups wouldn't run them."

The North Myrtle Beach, Little River and Georgetown chambers jointly considered funding the state-run Little River center but decided that without a clear return on their investment, they could not justify the cost, Jordan said. That welcome center costs more than $210,000 annually to operate and attracted about 128,000 visitors in 2009

Jordan said he doesn't want to see a single company moving into a center, but multiple businesses working together could set up kiosks in the center and split the costs, perhaps under the oversight of a not-for-profit, an idea also suggested by Dean.

Federal law prohibits for-profit businesses from operating in the right of way of an interstate highway, so for-profit businesses largely haven't been considered by the agency, PRT spokesman Marion Edmonds said. Little River may not fall under those laws because unlike all the other centers, it is not on an interstate, Edmonds said.

"Little River has more potential for flexibility than centers that are solely in federal right of way," he said.

If an organization were to step forward and propose such an arrangement, PRT would sit down with lawyers and regulators to try to work out the legality, Edmonds said.