You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and for the huge numbers of travelers entering Brunswick County and North Carolina from the south on U.S. 17, that first impression is made by Terri Madison Gurganus at the newly re-opened North Carolina Welcome Center in Shallotte. And she has been making those first impressions great ones for more than 30 years.
The Welcome Center opened in mid January of 1992 and Terri was one of the first employees. “Sabrina Hodges was the first director here. In 1995 her husband got transferred so I went from full time to director. You know, you don’t grow up thinking this is the job you want to do, but it’s perfect for me,” she said. “That’s just my personality, I love to connect with people. I think everybody’s important.”
The Welcome Center in Shallotte was the second built by a committee formed by the North Carolina’s nine coastal counties. Terri explained that each county chipped in $10,000 for construction, but that soon the state began providing all the funding to run the Welcome Centers via contracts with the committee.
Drawing visitors is big business in the state of State North Carolina. “We started in 1992, and in 1994 tourism surpassed agriculture to become the number one industry in North Carolina,” Terri said. “We’ve got over 300 miles of coastline and we’ve got over 6,000 foot elevation in the mountains, so within a day’s drive it goes from sea level to over 6000 feet. It’s just neat that we’ve go that much in 600 miles of width and 300 miles of height, roughly.”
Terri said the last count of visitors, which was done before the Welcome Center closed for refurbishment in late 2023, showed more than 1 million people per year coming through.
That many visitors makes for some interesting people watching, and also a lot of opportunities to make that first impression. “I never know what’s going to happen each day. Every day is different,” Terri said. “With the tint on the windows, they don’t know we’re here.
“The thing is I get to meet people from all over the world. And I learn as much from them as they do from me because I like to know things like what’s the main meat that your family eats, or anything about another country. Because I like to learn new things,” she said. “People of different religions will come out, you now when they have to pray to the east or to the west, and get their little straw mats and put them down.”
But it’s not only travelers from far flung places making use of the Welcome Center. “We have people locally that’ll take their little chaise lounge and sit in the sun,” Terri said.
As busy as a million a year sounds, Terri said the Welcome Center has felt the impact of technology like GPS and smart phones. But the Welcome Centers three inside employees still help a lot of people find their way.
“A lot of families will come in to find ideas for younger children,” Terri said. “And we do a lot reservations and directions and golf tee times. We make the most ferry reservations in the state. We’re on the path to Kitty Hawk, so people heading that way will stop in and make a reservation for the Ocracoke ferry. We make reservations all over the state.”
As a child in a traveling family growing up, Terri said one of her favorite things was brochures from welcome centers, and this one is well stocked.
“We have over 500 different brochures, and they’re from cities and counties depending on the populations of each,” Terri said. “We get them from from Chambers of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureaus. We get some from the state of North Carolina. We have some places that can’t afford the postage, so if someone’s coming by, they’ll just drop them off. And I’ll pick them up from some towns.”
Terri said that the state publishes three state visitors guides and the winery guide. “The state owns the largest printing press in the state of North Carolina, and they have the prison system, they’re the ones that man it. So we have Department of Corrections on each box we get in. So I didn’t learn that until I started working here. It’s not just license plates.”
The brochures are arranged to represent different areas of the state, including some that feature local attractions.
“We have guidelines that are set by the state and I have to run it by that and see if they meet the criteria,” Terri explained. “We went through a lot of that the first 10 years, but people know now, our community locally, we just don’t have room to put everyone in. We do have a local interest table though, for people that don’t meet the criteria. They’re still important in the community.”
The Welcome Center staff is ready to answer questions too, like long it will take to get to the battleship or into Wilmington, but Terri shared one of particular local interest. “How do you pronounce ‘Shallotte’?” That’s a huge question. And I’m like ‘Long “O.”
While visiting the Welcome Center to talk to Terri, I ran into a couple of travelers, one of whom considers himself an expert on welcome centers and rest stops. “I’d stop at all of them if I could,” said Phil De Michel, who was visiting Myrtle Beach with his wife. The two were set up under a tree in folding rocking chairs just enjoying the shade a a break on their way to Airlie Gardens in Wilmington. I had to ask what they thought of this particular welcome center.
“I love rest stops on the interstates, and I rate them. This one is a Number One,” Phil said.
Phil told me that what made a welcome center great was the staff. He wasn’t a fan of those that were unmanned. He was impressed that this welcome center’s staff seemed to love their jobs, and Terri, a real people person, truly does.
“I love it,” she said. “It’s enough paperwork and stuff to keep me on my toes, but in the morning I come in and I work the front desk first. I used to come in and knock out paperwork, but that’s not how I need to start the day. I have to get my fix, and then I can do the paperwork. That’s what I missed for 16 months. I liked not having a schedule, but I missed the interaction. And my poor husband, he needed me to have the schedule.
“I used to wonder if I should retire at 62 or 65, but after this I know I’m not ready to retire soon, Terri said. “It’s just that I feel it’s the perfect job for me. You know how you’ll see a teacher or be at the hospital and you know they’re doing what they were meant to do? That’s how I feel this is for me, where my strengths work.”
