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PLYMOUTH - Local tourism executives see getting around without cars as the next best way to promote travel and tourism in Southeastern Massachusetts, particularly among a growing base of international travelers.
Quincy community organizer P.J. Foley told a Massachusetts Cultural Coast gathering at Plimoth Plantation on Monday that the 50-acre Squantum Point waterfront park could become a hub for water travel up and down the Massachusetts coast.
‘‘We’ve got this massive waterfront facility that’s just sitting there idle,’’ said Foley, who is working with U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Quincy, to develop a plan for a National Parks Gateway Visitor’s Center at the site of the former Squantum naval air station.
Foley envisions the site hosting a visitor’s center, ferry connections and shuttles to mass transit.
Travelers interested in presidential history, for example, could visit the birthplaces of John Adams and John Quincy Adams and the John F. Kennedy presidential library in a single day without driving, Foley said.
Paul Cripps, executive director of the Plymouth Convention and Visitors Bureau, said regular shuttle service and a water link between Boston and Plymouth would be a huge boon to America’s Hometown.
‘‘We’ve marketed to people with cars for year, and the domestic drive market is the majority of our business,’’ he said. ‘‘For the international component, if you can give them easy transportation from their hotel in Boston down to Plymouth and back, it just brings that many more people down here.’’
Chip Bishop, a communications consultant in Dennis, said Cape Cod businesses have had success marketing to travelers who rely on planes, ferries, buses and bicycles.
‘‘It really refutes the old saw that you can get to the Cape on a plane or a ferry, but you need a car once you get here,’’ he said.
Barnstable County Commissioner Bill Doherty said commercial carriers can be more user-friendly to bicyclists and other users of alternative transportation.
Delahunt, whose office coordinates meetings with the Cultural Coast tourism partnership, said he’ll work with mass transit agencies to promote tourism destination spots in Southeastern Massachusetts.
‘‘We have the goods. It’s just a question of promoting them and making sure there’s easy access to them,’’ Delahunt said.
Marianne Peak, superintendent of the Adams National Historical Park, said T riders arrive at Quincy Center with no information posted on how to get to the home of President John Adams. Many continue on to the Quincy Adams T stop, which is farther away, she said.
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