Feb. 7, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Matt Turner
304-558-2288, ext. 341
mturner@callwva.com
www.callwvanews.com

All-new West Virginia Travel Guide Available Free to Callers and Web site visitors

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.VA. - By the end of December, officials at the West Virginia Division of Tourism hope to say they've given away 400,000 of them. They also anticipate the brand new "Wild and Wonderful" state travel guide will make its way to every state and a dozen or more countries.

But for now, the Tourism warehouse here is freshly loaded with dozens of skids of the full-color, 250-page guidebook to West Virginia's travel opportunities, awaiting callers and web site visitors who want a copy. The 2005 book is entirely new and features an expanded calendar of events, more feature stories and photographs than last year's edition.

"I'm really pleased with the content and design of the new guides," said Gov. Joe Manchin III, who, along with his family, offers a personal welcome to potential visitors in the first pages. "It's an impressive introduction to hundreds of vacation ideas.

"There's a lot of information and photographs that showcase West Virginia's people and places and even a few surprises I didn't realize we had."

For the first time, the book includes a pullout travel map, said Steven Keith, advertising manager for the Division of Tourism.

"This is the state's primary vacation planning guide," he said. "We send them free to thousands of callers and web site visitors and hand them out at our Welcome Centers and at travel shows across the country and even overseas."

Also new this year, the guide introduces a travel region called the "Hatfield-McCoy Mountains," which features attractions in Logan, Wayne, Boone, Lincoln and Mingo counties. That area previously was part of the "Metro Valley," which now includes only Kanawha, Putnam, Cabell and Mason counties. The tourism office announced the region change in June to highlight the southern coalfields' growing tourism offerings.

To request a free copy of theQ new guide, contact the Division of Tourism at 1-800-CALL WVA or visit the tourism web site at www.callwva.com.

The guide is paid for by advertising and published at no cost to taxpayers by Miles Media Group Inc., a company that specializes in producing similar guides for other states, including Florida and Tennessee. A Division of Tourism study of travel guide recipients last year found that 92 percent of survey respondents said the book was "good" or "excellent," and 68 percent said the book is what most influenced their decision to visit West Virginia, Keith said.

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Editor's note: Images of the travel guide are available for download at the Division of Tourism's online newsroom, www.callwvanews.com. The site also features searchable archives of past news releases, photographs, story ideas, press kits and press contact information.