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OPINIONS
Diane Mufson: Area visitor’s bureau about to get help it desperately needs
About a year ago, there was a local outcry regarding our area’s convention and visitor’s bureau (CVB). Huntington’s City Council was so displeased with its performance and leadership that it hesitated to enact the newly permitted additional hotel/motel tax that would benefit the Cabell-Huntington CVB.
I hadn’t given an iota of recent thought to the CVB until our trip on the Delta Queen last month. That wonderful old paddlewheel steamer called at numerous Ohio River communities (not Huntington), permitting us to acquire a variety of visitors’ literature and see what other river communities are doing to attract tourists.
Other river cities, some much smaller than Huntington, are succeeding at marketing and publicity in ways that our CVB has not. So, I was delighted to learn that there is an active plan in place to make Cabell-Huntington’s CVB an effective advocate for this area.
According to CVB board member Audy Perry, the CVB board has contracted with Randall Travel Marketing to redefine the CVB. He noted the board’s goal is to have a “five-year strategic plan and a new director selected for the CVB by the end of this year.” This is welcome news.
To increase tourism, we need a professional with proven experience who understands marketing of our area. Visitors help the economy. One of the merchants in Madison, Ind., estimated that he did 60 percent of his business from local folks, but the rest came from visitors.
Our current CVB has much room for improvement. Some of its printed material is embarrassing. The traditional “visitor’s guide” available at our CVB has quite a bit of information about our area, but seems strange. For example, it has a section on “area churches.” Exactly three are listed.
In between the listing for parks and area churches is a section for services. Seven services are included; five are printing or media enterprises, one is for a motorcycle store and one is a Realtor. That’s pathetic.
This year, I did find an excellent walking tour map of Huntington at the CVB. However, it is produced by The Herald-Dispatch, which also printed a comprehensive Visitor’s Guide for spring/summer 2008.
People we met on the Delta Queen (originally from Weirton, W.Va.) continued their journey upriver and wrote that Point Pleasant “was exceptional” and noted that the new tourism director there has made major improvements. Point Pleasant has managed to arrange for the both the Delta Queen and the River Explorer barge to stop there more than a half dozen times this year. That takes work and brings visitors.
Multitudes of interesting and exciting events occur in our region. We need to share this information with potential tourists from around the country. Having seen how much more active and professional other river city CVBs are, it is encouraging to know that Cabell-Huntington CVB board has become proactive and within the year plans to have a newly organized agency in place. Our area needs and deserves a vigorous and professionally organized convention and visitors bureau.
Diane W. Mufson is a licensed psychologist in practice in Huntington. She is a citizen member of The Herald-Dispatch editorial board and a regular contributor to The Herald-dispatch editorial page. Her e-mail is dwmufson@
comcast.net.
