Opinion: Tourism is key to Berea's economic success

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To the Editor:

As a small business owner, I am writing to point out the many positive effects that tourism, the arts, historical sights, parks, multi-use trails, and other outdoor activities have on Berea’s economy and quality of life.  For example, based on the report 2023 Economic Impact of Tourism in Kentucky, tourism had a $13.8 billion economic impact on Kentucky, and a $220.4 million economic impact on Madison County.

For perspective, compared to the surrounding counties, Madison’s tourism economic impact numbers range from 3 to 44 times greater per capita than any contiguous county except Fayette’s.  (Fayette has 347,000 people, a racetrack, gaming, numerous schools and colleges, and other various venues.)

These numbers were the seventh best in the state and represented an economic impact of approximately $2,200 per Berea citizen.  This was derived from activities supported by a tourism tax base of less than $80 per citizen (of which, a great deal of that came from people that live outside of city limits and from visitors), a phenomenal outcome for the people of Berea.

For 2022 and 2023, Berea tourism’s performance metrics such as the number of inquiries, social media interactions, group tours, visitors, participants, and tourist dollars spent steadily increased. Those numbers were announced to the public at every Tourism Commission meeting during that period.  

During that same period, Berea Tourism steadily increased the events that it organized and supported including concerts, fairs, events, educational presentations, Learn Shops, and tours. 

In addition to the Tourism Commission’s mission defined in the Kentucky Statutes, which is “promoting convention and tourist activities and facilities”, Berea Tourism help fund numerous related capital projects for the city such as recreational facilities and renovations, buildings and renovations, and multi-use trails; as well as maintenance items such as repairs, picnic tables, benches, and banners.

And tourism has contributed to general overhead items such as facility repairs and maintenance on buildings owned by the city, and general overhead items such as accounting.

In 2023, Berea received numerous recognitions. To highlight some of these (from the 2023 Tourism Director’s report to the City Council):

• Berea was nationally ranked in 12 separate national publications, including the Most Charming Appalachian Mountain Town in Kentucky, and the #1 Best Small Town Arts Scene
• Berea Tourism received a Historical Society Preservation Award, and a Berea business received a Historical Society Preservation Award for preserving a Historic Landmark
• Berea was written about by at least 5 different published writers
• Berea was highlighted “significantly” 15 different times on TV, and referenced numerous other times
• Berea had at least three restaurants get regional coverage as destinations 
• Berea’s Pinnacles Trail was recognized as the Best Hike in Kentucky

And in 2023, (again from the 2023 Tourism Director’s report to the City Council) the city hosted more than:

• Twelve Conferences in collaboration with Tourism
• Ten Festivals and Events organized through Tourism
• Twenty organized events supported by Tourism
• 67 recruited and scheduled bus tours representing over 3,000 tourist, and another 42 non-scheduled buses representing an additional 1,890 tourist for 4,890 total; of which, 3,560 of these tourists stayed overnight
• Two musical series offerings, The Levitt AMP Music Series, sponsored by a private organization, and the Pavilion Series, put on by Tourism; as well as numerous others musical offerings by Berea College, local schools, businesses, and others
• Berea has developed approximately 20 miles of trails; and when including the Pinnacles and the surrounding areas; we now have approximately 30 miles of outdoor trails available
• Tourism either help promote or support over 35 community projects sponsored by other agencies or private organizations
• Berea Tourism consistently worked in 2023 to highlight local businesses

In addition to Berea Tourism’s efforts, many other organizations such as the Celtic Festival, local churches, Berea College, the Levitt AMP Music Series, the Chamber of Commerce, Get Outside Kentucky, and many more like these have made big additions to Berea’s cultural scene.

Organizations such as these have made huge contributions to our local region in both time and money, and they deserve much more recognition than they get. 

They are often privately funded and mostly staffed by volunteers who seek, not just to talk about making things better, but rather instead, take personal action to make things better. All of these efforts, both public and private, work together to add to our local economy, to create jobs, and to improve everyone’s quality of life.

These accomplishments don’t just happen; it takes planning, diligence, hard work and persistence by many dedicated people.  Sometimes accolades and events can become so commonplace that we take their existence in stride and forget the effort that is needed.  Oftentimes, it is easier to focus on the few things we don’t have rather than the many things that we do have. 

It is easy to be discouraged by negative dialogue; dialogue that most often comes from the talkers of the community, not the doers of the community. When at the point that we, the community, get tired or discouraged by the occasional negativity, this type of month-after-month progress starts to wand and we can easily start to lose the gains we have worked so hard to achieve.

When this happens, rather than let those gains evaporate, we need to recommit and reinvigorate our efforts. We should be proud of and celebrate each and every one of Berea’s accomplishments and its attributes and its people, including our differences, and work together and work harder.

I encourage you to keep up with, and more importantly participate in, local events by watching for the many social media postings that Berea Tourism makes daily or by following the city’s event calendar at visitberea.com.

Often, there are more than 50 social, cultural, educational, and outdoor activities listed. Also, find the social media homes of local businesses and organizations, and then utilize and support them.  If we don’t encourage and support local services, we will not have as many of those local services. 

And I encourage you to attend, in person, city council meetings, zoning meetings, tourism commission meetings, and other city government activities.  Become involved, and if you are involved, become more involved. And vote.

I want to close by saying that I am appreciative of, and I want to thank all of, the workers, public servants, businesses, and volunteers that make Berea possible.  Many of these people live outside the city but work, shop, go to school, and volunteer in Berea. 

They too are part of our community and collectively we are all neighbors. We should be aware of, and thankful for, all of the fellow citizens that contribute in some way to our common well-being and quality of life. 

And we should be even more aware of the very positive affect that our own involvement, words, transparency, and empathy for others can have on our community.

Bill West,

Chairman, Berea Tourism
Owner, Churchill’s

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