Tourism revamped: Board launches new campaign for the Valley

VERONA—If the latest efforts of the Greater Augusta Regional Tourism Board are successful, people throughout the state will come to know Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County as the “Virginia Valley.”

They’ll also spend more of their tourism dollars here.

With the tagline, “more reasons to visit than miles between us,” the tourism board hopes people will come to know the area for more than mountains.

The board, funded yearly with $20,000 each from the governments of the three localities, paid about $35,000 to the Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based ad agency C.A.S.E. Solutions to do the re-branding and will spend more than $63,000 on an advertising campaign in regional publications.

Lianne Crookshanks, the board’s president and tourism director for Waynesboro, said it also used leftover money from last year in the new marketing effort.

Tonia Speir, managing partner for C.A.S.E. Solutions, said Shenandoah was easy to misspell in typing in searches or Web addresses. Also, with other places that can stake a claim to Shenandoah, it wanted to create something unique.

The one thing that jumped out to people in test-marketing surveys was the area’s mountains, so the company included that in the new logo.

“We felt like we really needed to name and brand the group as an area,” Speir said.

The new Web site, with a list of 22 reasons to visit Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County, went live Wednesday.

“The message that we wanted to send was ... that is this is a great destination for a weekend getaway,” Speir said. “There’s so many things out here to do that people may not necessarily realize.”

The former brand, “Crossroads of the Shenandoah Valley,” was not effective, according to a Request for Proposal that ultimately led to the hiring of C.A.S.E. Solutions. It said just 16 percent of people receiving “Crossroads of the Shenandoah Valley” literature actually visited the area, and just half even knew what major attractions were in the greater Augusta County area.

Crookshanks said pooling resources among the three localities “gives us greater buying power.”

Sheryl Wagner, director of tourism for Staunton, said this effort is another way to promote the city.

“I already promote Staunton through our brand, “As U Like It,” and it’s been working really well for us,” Wagner said, “but if we pool our money together with Augusta County and Waynesboro, and we’re the Virginia Valley, it’s just to drive more people to Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County. So it’s a plus for us.”

John McGehee, assistant county administrator for Augusta County, said the new campaign will better be able to show off the area. Beyond the outdoors, people don’t know what the Augusta County region has to offer.

“I think this new Web site and ad campaign will be benefiting the whole area,” McGehee said. “And that’s what the county wants to look at, working in a regional manner.”

Augusta County Supervisor Nancy Sorrells said it made sense for the three localities to come together.

“When the tourists come, they don’t know where the boundaries are between the three entities,” Sorrells said.

The National Park Service has announced the awarding of a $54,000 grant to rehabilitate White Falls Rock trailhead and visitor parking area at milepost 18 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was one of five projects from around the United States selected to receive grant money.

“This grant program will enable our visitors to better appreciate both the national parks and the national trails that touch or cross the parks through new connections, better information systems and upgraded facilities,” said Dan Wenk, acting director of the National Park Service in a statement.

Nine more project grants are to be awarded later this year.