Pocahontas County CVB Celebrates National Travel & Tourism Week with a Free Gift
Cara Rose, Executive Director of the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, in celebration of National Travel and Tourism Week, releases new information about the success of tourism in the county, and she offers a free giveaway.
“We are celebrating National Travel and Tourism Week, May first through the seventh,” said Rose. “And as our listeners should be familiar, tourism is a vital part of our economy in Pocahontas County. So, it is appropriate that we are talking about the value that tourism brings to our communities, our residents, and our county’s economy overall.”
“According to the West Virginia Tourism Office’s 2020 Economic Impact Study, travelers generated 121 million dollars for Pocahontas County’s economy. In the study, Pocahontas County was also noted as only one of two counties in West Virginia that measured growth in that time frame, which was from July of 2019 through June of 2020, and we measured a 1.8% growth. The only other county that measured growth was Wirt County, and they measured 0,2% growth. So, Pocahontas County demonstrated that during half of a COVID year, we really did stand out because of the large amount of outdoor recreation that our county offers to travelers. Pocahontas County is also the 9th largest tourism economy in the State of West Virginia, according to this research study, and only behind counties that have gaming in them or larger cities, such as Morgantown, Charleston and the Eastern Panhandle area,”
“So, hospitality is also a really a key part to our tourism economy. People visit Pocahontas County because of our beauty and the natural attractions that we have and outdoor recreation. But what we’ve learned from surveys is that people return because of the people return to Pocahontas County because of the people that they meet, and hospitality is an important piece to that. I am grateful that people in our county are very hospitable to visitors and friendly, The future is bright for Pocahontas County whenever you look at these research studies, and the value of the tourism economy for the county,”
“Not many people really think about this, but I share this a lot. The Monongahela National Forest is the largest tourism asset for the State of West Virginia. 920 thousand acres make up the Mon Forest. Over one third of the Monongahela National Forest is within the borders of Pocahontas County. We are also home to five state parks and two state forests. We have a number of unique attractions that no other place can claim: Pearl S. Buck Birthplace, Snowshoe Mountain Resort, the Green Bank Observatory, Cass Scenic Railroad, and of course, we are also home to the first International Mountain Bicycling Association’s Ride Center in the State of West Virginia, the Snowshoe-Highlands Ride Center, and, it just really positions Pocahontas County for a very bright future from a tourism perspective. Based on the trends that we are seeing in these research studies, the benefits of tourism is also very valuable when we think about 121 million dollars was generated in that time frame in 2020, so, that’s a lot of income, revenue, funds to our businesses and to employment in Pocahontas County, thanks to tourism.”
“In celebration of National Travel and Tourism Week, the CVB is giving away free T-shirts to residents of Pocahontas County. All you have to do is stop into our Visitor’s Center and office in Marlinton and ask for your free T-shirt, and we will be happy to give you one, so you van wear it around town.”
The Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau is a business supporter of Allegheny Mountain Radio.
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