Walking the carefully restored streets of one of Virginia’s top tourist draws may soon come with an admission fee, if the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is granted permission to build a fence around part of the historic area.
In a memo to city officials, the foundation said it loses between $1.3 million to $2.4 million annually in revenues because visitors have unrestricted access to most parts of the historic district, according to a report in The Daily Press.
Currently, the public is free to stroll the streets of the historic district, which are owned by the city. Visitors pay to take tours of the Governor’s Palace or enter historically restored trade shops, homes and museums.
“The memo we provided to the city is a more detailed update regarding the challenges Colonial Williamsburg faces as a result of our open campus,” Mitchell Reiss, president and chief executive officer of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, told The Daily Press. “We feel it’s important to be open and transparent about the significant revenue impact attributable to unticketed guests.”
City officials have not received a formal proposal from the Foundation, city spokeswoman Lee Ann Hartmann said.
This is not the first time Colonial Williamsburg has considered fencing off a portion of its campus — in 2013, it blocked off a part of its property for 60 days as part of the Revolutionary City program, which aimed to gauge the effects of restricting public access.
After the 60-day-stint, the City Council denied the foundation’s request to extend the program.
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