BECKLEY W.Va. (WVDN) – Visit Southern West Virginia has released its new 2024 Official Visitors Guide. The non-profit tourism organization worked with West Virginia firm, Digital Relativity, to design the guidebook that is both visually appealing and will assist travelers to easily find points of interest, such as food, lodging, and activities, within nine counties of southern West Virginia.
Visit Southern West Virginia distributes the organization’s own fulfillment pieces, including the 100,000 copies of the Official Visitors Guide, and those of our members. In 2023 Visit Southern West Virginia distributed more than 400,000 brochures to welcome and travel plazas, brochure racks, and individual requests as part of the tourism organization’s marketing strategy which focuses on digital marketing, print advertising, group tours, and international showcases.
The West Virginia Department of Tourism’s Economic Impact report, prepared by Tourism Economics, reported that in 2022 West Virginia saw a $7.3 billion economic impact, which supported more than 54,000 jobs. Visitors spent $5.3 billion with $1.4 billion of those funds on food and beverages and more than $800 million on lodging. The nine-county footprint which Visit Southern West Virginia serves as the regional destination marketing organization, Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas, Summers, Monroe, Greenbrier, Wyoming, Mercer, and McDowell counties, saw an inflow of visitor spending of over $1.157 billion.
“Every spring when we receive the newest visitors guide, it feels like Christmas,” says Lisa Strader, Executive Director of VSWV. “The amount of work that goes into our annual piece is only surpassed by the amount of pride we get when sharing it both potential visitors and those looking for more things to see and do while in our coverage area.”
The updated Visit Southern West Virginia guide exposes members featured within the book to new audiences. To order a travel guide, go to Visitwv.com/brochure-request. To learn more about membership, or to become a member, contact Chief Operating Officer Maura Johnson at 1-800-847-4898 or Maura@visitwv.com.
