by JEN BIUNDO

As the newly appointed tourism director to the city of Buda, Alisha Burrow is trying to entice out-of-towners to visit a community that’s more readily described as quaint rather than urbane. (Photo by Jen Biundo)

As the newly appointed tourism director to the city of Buda, Alisha Burrow is trying to entice out-of-towners to visit a community that’s more readily described as quaint rather than urbane. She’s pushing small-town tourism, but Burrow practices what she preaches.

“I’ve been to all the nooks and crannies of the state of Texas,” Burrow said. “I like to take the back roads when I travel. It really is interesting when you go to the smaller communities – they have that unique Texas flavor.”

Burrow comes to the city with a background in tourism and special events. A native of Brownsville, Burrow, 25, earned degrees in English and Business with a minor in Art from Hendrix College in Conway, AK, followed by a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

Most recently, Burrow worked in Dallas for the American Red Cross, promoting the organization and doing event planning.

In the 2009-10 fiscal year budget, the city of Buda made the somewhat controversial move to bring its tourism services in-house, pulling the contract that had been held for years by the Chamber of Commerce and creating the new position of tourism director. Funded through the hotel-motel tax collected from overnight stays by area visitors, Burrow’s new job is to promote Buda to locals and visitors alike.

“My position is primarily, first and foremost, working with the downtown area, not only addressing their needs and concerns, but making sure we’re preserving it and revitalizing it,” Burrow said. “The downtown area is the heart of Buda.”

With the boundaries of a small advertising budget, Burrow will also manage a new tourism website and work on advertising to promote the city as a leisure destination and a good place to do business.

Buda might not have the big draws of cities like Austin or San Antonio, the outlet malls of San Marcos, or even the large and well-preserved historic downtowns of Fredericksburg or Gruene. But Burrow said the city can still attract visitors on its own merit.

“There’s that misconception that you have to have museums and a fun park to be a destination,” Burrow said.

Buda has plenty to pull in visitors, Burrow said, such as a unique downtown area. Festivals such as the wiener dog races routinely fill the area hotels, while weddings are a frequent draw at events venues such as the San Michele.

But Buda could also be better promoted as a venue for events like family reunions, Burrow said. With three new hotels promoting plenty of meeting space, small business conferences could be recruited to the area. And with the new Buda Sportsplex Park, the city could better market itself for sports tournaments.

All those events would put more “heads in beds,” the industry term for drawing visitors to the area, and hopefully increase foot traffic for local shop-owners and establish Buda as a destination in its own right.

“When you think about tourism, you think, are you a destination or are you opportunity?” Burrow said, noting that Buda has the potential to do both.

Unlike destination tourism, in which your city is the target location, opportunity tourism is mostly pass-through, Burrow said. Located on IH-35 between Austin and San Antonio, Buda is well poised to capture tourism revenue from motorists en route to other cities.

But it’s not just out-of-towners that need to be enticed to the shops and restaurants of downtown Buda. Many residents of the burgeoning commuter subdivisions on the edge of town spend little time or money in the old downtown.

Increasing foot traffic could help encourage new business and restaurants to set up shop in Buda, and also create a financial incentive for shop-owners to keep longer hours, Burrow said.

Burrow is working with the Buda Downtown Merchants group to help promote Buda’s First Thursdays, similar to the monthly event by the same name on South Congress Ave. in Austin, in which shops and restaurants keep their doors open well into the evening to draw out a bustling crowd.

In the long-term, the city hopes to undertake a branding campaign to coalesce the city’s image.

“Branding is a pretty complex thing,” Burrow said. “It’s not so much a cohesive look, it’s not a slogan, it’s not a tagline. At the end of the day, it’s a promise. What are we promising them that they will find in Buda?”