Tourism Office

The woman in charge of marketing Baltimore as a tourist destination is taking the reins of the Maryland Office of Tourism, the state said yesterday. Margot Amelia, who will step into the executive director role Monday, spent three years at the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association. Before that, while at a local advertising agency, she coordinated the marketing for a hotel chain.

In a sign of healthy growth for Maryland's tourism industry, the number of U.S. tourists visiting the state rose about 13 percent last year, to more than 21 million, a state report says.These visitors, who traveled at least 50 miles or paid for overnight accommodations, accounted for about $5.8 billion in direct spending in 1995, according to the state tourism office's annual report.Domestic travelers visiting Maryland -- the report excludes visitors from other countries -- generated $722 million in state and local tax revenues and about 80,000 jobs, the report said.

The launch of a new program designed to boost international travel to the United States could increase visits to Maryland by a couple of hundred thousand people each of the next few years.That kind of increase in international visitors would bring as much as $100 million to $150 million more in spending to the state annually, according to George Williams, state director of tourism."Ultimately, if the U.S. is seen more favorably, that strengthens our ability to tie into it," Williams said.

Warning that Maryland is losing untold numbers of potential visitors to other states spending far more to attract them, a statewide tourism group yesterday proposed doubling funding for marketing.The Maryland Tourism Council -- a coalition of local tourism agencies, hotels, attractions and restaurants -- wants the state to raise annual marketing spending from $3 million to $6 million beginning in July of next year.That would bring the budget for the state Office of Tourism Development to about $11.6 million, with the entire increase going toward luring visitors.

Harford County officials are looking for ways to make the county an overnight tourist stop for families seeking weekend retreats and bus groups traveling to Washington or Baltimore, touting Harford as a scenic and convenient area destination.A task force appointed by County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann this month recommended a $25,000 study to decide how many tourists could be enticed to visit and whether that number justifies enacting a 1 percent hotel room tax. In April, the General Assembly authorized the county to impose a tax of up to 3 percent.

House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. has asked a group of legislators to evaluate whether Maryland's tourism industry is receiving enough emphasis within the state - a study that could conclude that the state tourism office should report directly to the governor. "My greatest hope is to maximize the success of the tourism industry in Maryland," Taylor said. "One way to create a stronger focus is to give tourism Cabinet-level status. But, I have not yet reached a conclusion, and I don't want the legislators to do so either."

Editor: I am Dave Glenn and I am really excited for the opportunity to run for the Havre de Grace City Council in the city I am so proud to call my home. Let me first introduce you to the candidate. I have been a resident of Havre de Grace since 1967. I have been happily married to the former Terri Culley for the last 29 years. I have two children: Kellie, a trauma nurse at Christiana Hospital and Shawn, who is serving his country in the U.S. Air Force. I am a proud graduate of Havre de Grace High School (class of 1975)

Hannah L. Byron, deputy assistant secretary of the Maryland Division of Tourism, Film and the Arts, has been named to replace retiring Director of Tourism George Williams. Byron, 44, a Maryland native, will assume her duties in March. "We're very lucky to have found someone locally who already knows the state well, the industry well and has broad-based support within the industry and the government," said Richard C. "Mike" Lewin, secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development, who oversees the tourism office and made the appointment.

In the region Pentagon is silent after key meeting over F-22's fate Top Pentagon officials wouldn't say whether they decided yesterday to approve initial production of the Lockheed Martin Corp. F-22 fighter jet. The Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board met for two hours yesterday to decide whether the Air Force should be allowed to spend $2.1 billion for the first 10 of the 333 aircraft scheduled, a major milestone in the program. But a Pentagon spokesman said he had "no feedback from the decisions that may have been reached."

Blessed with more than a billion dollars worth of new and coming attractions and record spending to lure visitors, Maryland's tourism industry enters 1998 with optimism aplenty.But while the number of visitors has risen the past few years, to about 20 million annually, the state struggles to shed its historical place as a day-tripper or weekender destination.It badly lags behind national averages measuring by two key, directly related barometers: length of stay (2.1 days here, 3.3 nationally)