Montpelier’s Michael Quinn is tops in tourism

The top official at Montpelier — James and Dolley Madison’s estate in Orange County — was named the Charlottesville region’s tourism person of the year on Tuesday.

Michael Quinn, president and CEO of the Montpelier Foundation since 1999, is the 11th recipient of the award that is bestowed annually by the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitor’s Bureau.

“Very nice. Wow,” Quinn said, as he received the surprise award Tuesday evening at Keswick Hall. “This is an honor and a privilege. This is a tribute to a lot of very dedicated people at Montpelier.”Quinn was selected for the honor because of his leadership during the restoration and renovation of the home of Madison, America’s fourth

president, author of the Bill of Rights and chief architect of the Constitution.

Montpelier is wrapping up a multi-year, $24 million project to restore the home to its original condition in Madison’s era. Its restoration celebration will be held at 11 a.m. on Sept. 17, which is Constitution Day.

“He has led, on behalf of the Montpelier Foundation, the restoration of the Montpelier mansion — everything from the formation of the idea, to the fundraising to the implementation,” Bryan Elliott, chairman of the tourism bureau’s board of directors, said. “He’s been a strong advocate for history and for this project.”

This year’s Charlottesville-area tourism awards arrive at a time when the region’s hospitality and tourist-attraction industries are striving to stay profitable in an era of $4-a-gallon gas and overall economic unease.

“We’re slightly lower this year when compared to last year, but when compared to other localities around the state, we’re doing OK,” said Allie Baer, the tourism bureau’s interim executive director. “Everybody’s been down in the state. We’re in rather difficult economic times.”

During the first half of 2008, the number of out-of-town visitors to the Charlottesville region declined a bit, according to statistics compiled by the Virginia Tourism Corp.

There were 6.7 percent fewer Charlottesville-area hotel bookings during the first three months of the year when compared to same period in 2007. And in April, May and June, the local hotel occupancy rate dropped 4.6 percent from 2007.

Meanwhile, fewer tourists have lately stopped by the tourism bureau’s two visitor’s centers.

In June, 15.6 percent fewer tourists visited the welcome center on Route 20 compared to June 2007. The facility on the Downtown Mall saw a 4.5 percent drop in tourist traffic.

Tourism is among the top sectors of the Charlottesville region’s economy, employing nearly 11,000 workers in mid-2007, according to a jobs report by the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. A decade earlier, the industry employed 8,396 workers.

Baer said the summer months tend to be slow for tourism in the Charlottesville area, but she expects things to pick up a bit in the fall. October tends to be the area’s top tourism month, she said, as University of Virginia football local wineries and apple orchards draw thousands of visitors.

Quinn said he expects Montpelier’s renovation will lure more history-loving tourists to Central Virginia.

“We hope it’ll continue to put Piedmont, Virginia, on everyone’s map as a must-see place,” he said.

Montpelier is not the only Charlottesville-area presidential home site undergoing a makeover that is likely to boost tourist visitation.

Monticello, the mountaintop home of Thomas Jefferson in Albemarle County, is also undergoing a transformation. Crews are nearing completion of a $55 million effort to construct a 42,000-square-foot visitor’s center and education facility. Down the road, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation — which owns and operates Monticello — intends to remove all non-historic buildings from the mountaintop.

This article was edited to change the headline from Monticello to Montpelier.