The view from up here: Why attracting visitors makes Winchester better for everyone

Last week, I made the case that local gov­ern­ment, as well as oth­er pri­vate and qua­si-gov­ern­men­tal insti­tu­tions such as tourism com­mis­sions and cham­bers of com­merce, have a role to play in the suc­cess of local busi­ness­es.

But why should wage-earn­ing tax­pay­ers care or help foot the bill for pri­vate-sec­tor busi­ness­es? It’s a fair ques­tion, and one I will address today. 

I point­ed out last week that shop­pers tend not to vis­it a town because of its cook­ie-cut­ter chain stores and restau­rants, but they will make the inten­tion­al trip to expe­ri­ence some­thing unique to that town. There are some towns in the area—I’m think­ing specif­i­cal­ly of Wilmore and Berea as examples—that tend to “punch above their weight” when it comes to attract­ing out-of-town busi­ness. If you’ve ever vis­it­ed either, you know the rea­son. Each offers a unique set­ting with inter­est­ing options for shop­ping and dining.

But again, why should those of us who are not pro­pri­etors care? 

Let’s start with the direct ben­e­fits to res­i­dents. Who would­n’t want their town to be charm­ing, attrac­tive, clean, and invit­ing? A town with a var­ied selec­tion of places to find some­thing dis­tinc­tive for one’s home and a vari­ety of things to see, do, and eat. A town that boasts local­ly-owned shops where vis­i­tors receive a friend­ly greet­ing from peo­ple who also live, work, and shop there. A vibrant, bustling down­town or neigh­bor­hood can boost morale and give res­i­dents a stronger sense of pride and belonging.

Then there is the all-impor­tant eco­nom­ic impact. When we spend our mon­ey local­ly, espe­cial­ly at local­ly-owned busi­ness­es, we con­tribute to the econ­o­my of Winchester and Clark County. However, when vis­i­tors to our town spend mon­ey here, we receive a dou­ble ben­e­fit, as that mon­ey is com­ing into our com­mu­ni­ty from outside.

We should be espe­cial­ly grate­ful for those busi­ness­es that have estab­lished a region­al cus­tomer base. Every dol­lar spent here by out-of-town­ers not only sus­tains that busi­ness, it also pays the wages of its employ­ees, the tax­es that fund our schools, gov­ern­ment ser­vices, and infra­struc­ture. And it cre­ates new jobs.

Ultimately, hav­ing these unique shops in our town, espe­cial­ly in our his­toric down­town, helps define the char­ac­ter of our com­mu­ni­ty and turns it into a des­ti­na­tion. As they say, a ris­ing tide lifts all boats.

When busi­ness­es thrive, every­one benefits. 

I often hear peo­ple com­par­ing Winchester to Mt. Sterling in a neg­a­tive light. They ask why a town half the size of Winchester has more places to eat and shop than we do. Sometimes, there is a sug­ges­tion that local lead­ers have inten­tion­al­ly held back devel­op­ment for some unknown rea­son. I don’t buy that.

Although we’re just 20 min­utes down I‑64 from Mt. Sterling, the eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tions of the towns are vast­ly dif­fer­ent. Mt. Sterling has his­tor­i­cal­ly been the shop­ping cen­ter of sev­er­al small­er coun­ties: Powell, Bath, Menifee—even east­ern Clark County. 

Winchester, on the oth­er hand, has the mis­for­tune(?) of being basi­cal­ly a sub­urb of Lexington, with its 300K+ res­i­dents and its malls and oth­er attrac­tions. When you live 20 min­utes from Hamburg—that sprawl­ing and rapid­ly grow­ing shop­ping and din­ing des­ti­na­tion on Lexington’s east side—you have many options. And peo­ple mak­ing the trek from Eastern Kentucky to vis­it Lexington pass us by.

In sim­ple terms, Mt. Sterling may be small­er, but their mar­ket is bigger. 

But what if we turned our mis­for­tune at our prox­im­i­ty to the city into an advan­tage? What if we could draw shop­pers and din­ers from Lexington who have a strong urge to expe­ri­ence the vari­ety, charm, and beau­ty of a thriv­ing small town? And in their own backyard! 

I believe Winchester is on the verge of a break­through in this quest, if we don’t fum­ble the ball. Why do I believe this? I’ll talk about that next week. 

(You may want to check out a sto­ry by our tourism direc­tor, Jill Hamlin, to learn about her pas­sion for draw­ing vis­i­tors to Winchester and Clark County.)