Tourism is fun. It’s happy. Because I’m in the tourism business, I like to say I’m also in the friend-making business. My new friends become this region’s new ambassadors wherever they go from here. My name is Martha Burton, and I am Tourism Director for Petersburg Area Regional Tourism, or PART, a destination marketing organization for the cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg, and Chesterfield, Dinwiddie and Prince George Counties. PART’s mission is to encourage visitors to come, stay longer and spend money. The history of PART is, in a word, history. In anticipation of the celebration of Jamestown’s 400th anniversary back in 2007, these localities decided to come together, put our best foot forward, and market ourselves to the wider world. (Of course, while Jamestown is the oldest English settlement in the New World, our region has the second-oldest: Henricus Historical Park in Chesterfield.)
