ELKINS –The Elkins Depot Welcome Center is celebrating 15 years of providing information and encouraging visitors to spend time in the area.
“Even though this is my seventh year as the executive director of the Elkins-Randolph County Tourism CVB and Welcome Center, I can honestly say each year has been more fun and challenging than the one before,” Anne Beardslee, the center’s executive director, said. “I am really looking forward to seeing where the next five years will take us.”
The center opened its doors on April 28, 2006, and its location seemed perfect to provide services, with the prospect of the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad bringing their excursion trains into the railyard.
Ed Griesel was the driving force behind the vision of the facility, a Welcome Center press release stated. The center took over the sponsorship and organization of the Annual Ramps and Rail Festival in 2009 to allow local businesses to sell their wares and to help finance the center.
During the past 10 years, with the exception of 2020, more than 40,000 guests walked through the Welcome Center doors each year. In 2019 the center distributed more than 78,000 brochures to visitors from 46 states and 26 countries.
“Realizing that we were already working not just for Elkins, but all of Randolph County, in 2018 the natural progression was to create a county-wide convention and visitor’s bureau to concentrate on increasing community economies for the entire county through tourism,” said Welcome Center Board President Sue Sheets. “Thus began the Elkins-Randolph County Tourism CVB and the hiring of a director of marketing.”
Tourist services are still a major part of the CVB’s mission, but today more than half of the center’s professional staff time marketing Randolph County, building relationships and collaborating with local, regional and state organizations.
“The pandemic has altered the way people plan their travel and what type of destination they prefer,” said Taira Gainer, director of marketing for the Welcome Center. “It is essential that we closely monitor these changes and modify our marketing to ensure the tourism economy returns to the 2019 level as soon as possible.”
To ensure that community and tourism economy continue to grow, the CVB works closely with Elkins Main Street, the Chamber of Commerce, Randolph County Development Authority, Mountain Arts District, the Mon Towns Initiative, WV Development Hub Elkins HubCAP program, Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area, Beverly Heritage Center and CVB, Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad, the City of Elkins and Randolph County Commission, regional CVBs, the WV Tourism Office, and many other organizations.
The addition of the Rotary Amphitheater, Our Town Thursday night concerts and car shows, the excursion trains returning in July and several festivals in the Town Square each year have brought an energy and excitement to the area, and bodes well for the future of the Welcome Center and local tourism, the press release states.
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June 08, 2021 at 11:07AM
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Welcome Center celebrates 15 years | News, Sports, Jobs - The Inter-Mountain
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