Jan 3, 2009 11:25 pm US/Eastern
Baltimore County Looks To Increase Tourism
BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) ―
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As more and more tourists are looking for hometown destinations, Baltimore County is creating a new plan to boost its visitors.
As more and more tourists are looking for hometown destinations, Baltimore County is creating a new plan to boost its visitors.
As
Gigi Barnett explains, the county wants to put a spotlight on some of its hidden attractions.
Baltimore City has the Inner Harbor, Ocean City has the beach and Annapolis has the city docks. All are strong tourist destinations. Baltimore County plans to highlight its attractions and boost tourism dollars with the creation of a new tourism unit.
"There are literally dozens and dozens and scores and scores of things to do," said Fronda Cohen.
Cohen is the county's director of marketing for its economic development department. She says the first step is targeting home-grown tourists: county residents.
"We are starting to reach out in areas that perhaps had not been thought of as traditional tourist destinations. Sometimes being a tourist in your own town is the most fun and people today are looking for things that are close to home," she said.
The county has asked several restaurants, hotels and stores to join the board. The recent economic downturn has impacted the tourism visitors. Cohen says visitors are looking for inexpensive options and that's causing the county to take a look at how other cities do it.
"People are looking for things to do with friends and family and we think the timing is right for the kind of things people are looking for--not only when the economy is slowed down, but in good times also," Cohen said.
Just how much the county spends on tourism isn't known because that was handled by a non-profit agency before, but now with the creation of the new county-run tourism unit, the county says it can better track the dollars it spends and the people who visit.
The county says Chesapeake Bay waterfronts, local main streets and African-American heritage sites will all become featured destinations for tourists.
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