Is there an issue with tourism in Berks County?

The takeaway from the first part of the Reading Eagle’s three-part project on tourism (known in the industry as a megaturd) is that Berks tourism Czarina Crystal Seitz could do her job better with more money.

Now, everybody who’s a boss would like to have more money and hire more people. That’s not news. The Eagle falls for this regularly – the DA needs more ADAs, the police chief needs more police officers, the codes office needs more enforcers … .

The problem is the Eagle reporters haven’t been trained to control interviews. They just show up, mention the topic and write down what the (short list) of officials tell them. News stories are boring unless they clearly identify an issue that's important to people. What's the issue with tourism in Berks?

If Crystal needs more money to put Berks on the map, why didn’t the reporter follow up and ask county and state politicians why they are not supplying more money to the tourism bureau?

Why not ask the tourism bureau how it measures its success, and check those data next year? Are numbers going up or down?

Funny that the GoggleWorks arts center in Reading wasn’t mentioned as a major attraction in the list across the top of the spread Sunday, which did include Maple Grove Raceway and Cabela’s.

And the arts center – the most remarkable attraction in Reading – isn’t mentioned at all in the Monday edition, (which gets even vaguer as to thesis, as many Eagle three-part series do in their second and third days.)

I have spoken to Reading residents who have never been to the GoggleWorks, never heard of the GoggleWorks, or thought you had to pay to get in. How about informing the locals about what’s in the city?

Has the place been abandoned? Look at what visitors – local or not – see when they enter the GoggleWorks from Third Street. Why hasn’t this major destination been cleaned up?

Back to attracting tourists -- "Some (who??) think the county would benefit from a large convention center,” the Eagle reports. But it doesn’t mention that the GreaterReading Expo Center has closed.

“The Greater Reading Expo Center is one of the largest suburban exhibition centers on the East Coast, with over 30 interior rooms, 250,000 square feet of exhibition space on one floor, and more than 3,000 free, on-site parking spaces available for the convenience of visitors and guests,” its website still says. And it's history.

And the story didn’t mention that a giant convention center is one idea behind the under-construction hotel on Penn Street.