Published: March 28, 2008 10:14 pm            

Fuel keeping vacations closer to home

BECKLEY, W.Va. — A real trend for Americans in recent years has been to take vacations closer to home, Southern West Virginia Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO Doug Maddy says.

The reasons are varied — ever-escalating fuel costs, an ailing economy and an urge to get away from it all in a destination where you won’t be jostled by multitudes also seeking to get away from it all. With such a trend, Maddy asks, what better place to call home — and thus vacation in close proximity — than the Mountain State?

From mountains, lakes and rivers to caves and all-terrain vehicle trails, West Virginia offers something for nearly everyone — except perhaps Jimmy Buffett. “We’ve got everything except an ocean,” Maddy quipped.

“Our whole marketing campaign this year is ‘Closer than you think.’ It’s a fact of life — people are making shorter vacations. I hate to see the (tourism) industry get hurt by fuel costs, but in the long run, it can help West Virginia. People will always take vacations. They will just modify them.”

Instead of packing up the kids and going to Walt Disney World on four or five tanks of gasoline, Maddy proposed, why not stay in West Virginia on a single fill-up?

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Maddy pointed to two new features southern West Virginia will offer to the 2008 summer vacationer that were not available last year — the newly renovated Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine and the new Burning Rock Off-Road Park ATV trail.

“That’s (the exhibition mine) one of the biggest attractions we have here in Beckley. It’s very popular, especially with groups. We knew that, but when we found out it would be shut down last year, groups were really scrambling to fill in that (vacation) void. There’s a museum with it along with a multimillion-dollar expansion.”

Maddy described the new ATV trail, set to open in June, as “fantastic” and noted the appeal of the entire Hatfield-McCoy Trail “phenomenon” to all sorts of travelers — from out-of-staters to native Mountaineers and those who want the rustic experience to others with more upscale standards.

“It (the trail system) has just grown and expanded like nobody’s business,” he declared.

“It’s right off the interstate. There are folks who want the ATV experience but don’t really want to ‘rough it.’ These people bring families and want to take them out to dinner at night, stay at upscale accommodations and eat at upscale restaurants. I think it will be huge, huge, huge.”

West Virginia’s ATV trails stretch virtually from Kentucky to Virginia, Maddy explained. More are expected to open soon in Mercer, Nicholas and Summers counties.

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According to Maddy, hardly a weekend goes by during the summer travel season that southern West Virginia is not offering some sort of “really cool” festival. “It’s incredible when you stop to think about what all we do have around here. We’re working really hard to be a family destination. We have that kind of product,” he asserted.

Vacation options are numerous, Maddy said, for both the wealthy and the budget-conscious. Glade Springs Resort and The Greenbrier are two examples of the former. “You’re hard-pressed to find nicer places. We’ve got world-class facilities.”

On the other end of the economic spectrum, a plethora of campgrounds abounds and beckons the weary traveler to pitch his or her tent and return to respite. Even there, Maddy said, a diversity of spending choices is available. In fact, he added, West Virginia is well known beyond its borders for its cabins.

“The No. 1 hit (for search results) on the Washington Post’s Web site for West Virginia is ‘cabins.’ You can go back to the great outdoors and yet have all the amenities. The cabins can range from simply a place to sleep to those with plasma TVs and hot tubs,” he explained.

“If you’re living in Washington, D.C., and just put in a dog-eat-dog week, is there anything better than going and propping your feet up in a cabin on Wolf Creek? We have fantastic cabins. They are absolutely gorgeous. Some of them are totally booked up already.”

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The Summers County native recalls a time in his life when the so-called miners vacation would roll around in the summer and the area would suddenly experience an influx of coal-mining families who simply wanted to pitch a tent and spend a week on the river — “by the hundreds of thousands.”

With its rich coal-mining and railroading history, West Virginia also offers much to culture and history buffs. With two “fabulous” lakes, three national park entities and a host of state parks, Maddy said, what’s not to like about West Virginia as a vacation destination?

“We get more visitors in a year here than Yellowstone National Park. Summersville Lake gets a million visitors a year. Bluestone and Pipestem both get a lot. That’s happening in spite of gas prices and the poor economy,” he observed.

“If you want extreme sports, we have bike trails, ATV trails and rock climbing. It’s also the 40th year of whitewater rafting (on the New River). We have some of the best caves on the East Coast. We’re probably the most affordable place to come and vacation. It’s all here — it’s just our job to help them find it.”





Matthew Hill writes for The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va.

        

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