Officials with Morehead-Rowan County Tourism are preparing for the spring and summer seasons when more and more people travel to eastern Kentucky for various nature and cultural attractions.
Executive Director Joy Brown shared officials are advertising the perks of Morehead across several states, including Indianapolis’ Boat Sport and Travel Show, a bike and trail expo in West Virginia, and at various fishing and travel conferences in Ohio.
Brown said the department aims to draw in more visitors through these expos and conferences, and they now have the technology to prove if these efforts are working.
“We’ve got a new system that we can actually look and see how well these shows are going. It’s a new software that we can see how many people are traveling from those locations, so I may be able to share that after all these locations,” said Brown. “You can see it’s not using personal cellphone data. It’s using just a GPS, and it’s looking to see if people are traveling from, say, Indianapolis.”
Brown said promoters are working especially hard in northern states to attract tourists interested in fishing, as the Muskie Bend fishing site on Cave Run Lake is a premiere spot, even early in the fishing season.
“All of their lakes are frozen over. Our lake is not frozen over, so they are promoting them to come this way because PMTT, the Professional Muskie Tournament Trail, will kick off in the end of April. We are still the first stop on that,” said Brown.
April is a busy month for tourism, as Brown said that’s when Maker’s Market events will start again in Morehead. Officials said this year’s markets will feature more live music and activities for kids.
The Tourism Department also shared the Triplett Creek Blue Water Trail project is still in the planning process, with the official start projected for this April. Brown said more information will be available to the public in March.