By JESSICA FARRISH
The Register-Herald
BECKLEY, W.Va. — The Visitor Welcome Center of the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau has moved from its longtime location at the front entrance of Tamarack to a mobile center.
Bureau Director Doug Maddy verified Monday say they are currently “in discussion” with Boy Scouts of America officials to permanently move the center to the Scouts new welcome facility, set to open at the border of Raleigh and Fayette counties on July 25.
Funded by county hotel and motel taxes, the aim of the visitors bureau, also known as Visit Southern West Virginia, is to market area attractions and to encourage local hotel business.
Maddy said that the staff is currently operating the welcome center from a new van, which provides good advertising for Theatre West Virginia and other attractions.
The group purchased the van in June, prior to the BSA proposal, Maddy said.
Maddy says the preferred future location is at the new J.W. and Hazel Ruby West Virginia Welcome Center, which will serve visitors to the Summit Bechtel Reserve near Glen Jean in Fayette County.
The BSA facility is located just off U.S. 19, making it, Maddy said, an ideal permanent location for the bureau’s center, which welcomes guests, provides brochures and markets local attractions to visitors.
“They have asked us if we would help them operate that visitor’s center for them, and that’s the ultimate goal,” he explained. “It’s a fabulous facility.
“We’ve talked to the manager of the Summit and a member of our board of representatives, and they’ve suggested it would make a great partnership for us, right there as you enter southern West Virginia, to help tourists gain information.
“That’s the long-range plan,” he said. “Short-term, for the summer, we’ve got fairs and festivals to go on, literally, every day of the week, so we’ve been trying to be visible.
“We want to be highly visible, we want to be in high-traffic areas, and we want to serve the most people we can,” Maddy said. “That’s why we got the mobile unit about a month ago.
“It covers some of the most exceptional scenery that we have here in southern West Virginia.”
Bureau staff members have taken the mobile unit to Lake Stephens, Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine and other areas this month, he added.
“It’s been a good summer,” said Maddy.
Staffing needs are expected to be the main consideration for a BSA-BRCCVB partnership, according to bureau officials. That consideration is expected to determine the next location of the permanent welcome center.
“Everything begins with what the Boy Scouts’ needs are, in terms of what staffing they require,” Maddy explained.
Maddy said that, in a bid to meet any BSA staffing requirements, his office is looking into partnership developments with Concord University and WVU Tech that would allow BRCCVB to offer internship opportunities to college students.
He said his agency has also inquired about office space located near the Beckley Intermodal Gateway (BIG) and at another site in Beckley.
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The Summit hosts the Jamboree for 10 days in the summer every four years. The 2013 Jamboree drew 37,037 Scouts and family members to southern West Virginia, according to Boy Scouts’ data, but the numbers were the second lowest in Jamboree history in 2013.
It expected to draw more than 200,000 Scouts and their families to southern West Virginia between 2015 and 2021. The World Jamboree will be held at the Summit in 2019.
The visitors bureau had been located at Tamarack since 1996, when Tamarack opened. Officials said Monday that, in exchange for using the front entrance, BRCCVB supplied Tamarack with $75,000 annually in staffing and helped daily to open and close the facility.
The reason for the split was unclear. Parkways Authority officials did not immediately provide a statement when asked late Monday afternoon.
The welcome center location will have no impact on the BRCCVB headquarters on Harper Road, said Maddy.
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