History failing to make the grade with tourists

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — Budding 8-year-old history buff Maura Taylor, wearing a Colonial-style dress and bonnet sewed by her mother, stands and stares as Thomas Jefferson discourses eloquently in front of a crowd.

That kind of scene happens often at Colonial Williamsburg, the restored 18th-century capital of Virginia, where costumed workers take visitors back to America's formative days. It's just not happening quite as much as it used to.

With declining attendance and a $35 million budget deficit, the nation's largest living history museum is laying off nearly 400 of its 3,500 employees and cutting programs.

Officials at the private, nonprofit foundation that operates Colonial Williamsburg blame the weak economy, lingering fears of terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks, less focus on Colonial history in schools and rainy weather this year. And they note that other such "heritage" sites also have falling or flat attendance.

Tourism industry observers say Colonial Williamsburg also may be battling the perception that it's, well, boring, thus losing thrill-seeking potential visitors to livelier sorts of entertainment, such as amusement parks.

"All of this is not a picnic," acknowledged Colin G. Campbell, president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, which receives no regular state or federal funding. But "the process we're in is not a process in which we're trying to make sure that this survives. It's a process to make sure it thrives and is all it can be."

Attendance had been declining since about 1995, when there were 150,000 more visitors than today, but has fallen more sharply since the Sept. 11 attacks, Campbell said. Ticket sales last year fell to the lowest level in four decades, dropping to 840,000 from 931,000 in 2001, and Campbell said attendance this year may end up below 800,000.

"I'm surprised that, given the fact that there is sort of a re-examination going on in this country at large about what we're all about and our role in the world, the messages of places like Colonial Williamsburg and the other historic sites aren't messages that people are craving to hear," he said.

The foundation, which also runs hotels, restaurants, golf courses and merchandising businesses, began cutting costs earlier this year with management layoffs and the closing of its Carter's Grove plantation for assessment and repairs. Budget expenses have been reduced $10.5 million for 2003, and the foundation's goal is to balance its budget by 2006.