With the Economic Alliance of Lewis County having recently acquired the Discover Lewis County program, the alliance held a summit at the Mayfield Lake Resort and Marina Wednesday evening for tourism-oriented Lewis County businesses and organizations.
Representatives from groups in attendance included Visit Rainier, the White Pass Scenic Byway, the Onalaska Alliance, Cowlitz Basin ORV (off-road vehicle) Club, the Mineral Lake Lions Club and Experience Chehalis.
Other attendees represented Hotel Packwood, the White Pass Country Historical Museum, the Veterans Memorial Museum, Rainier Cabins, the Celtic Elk Campground in Randle, the Elkamp Campground in Mineral, Deer Point Meadows Investments in Vancouver, Lavender Passion Flower Farm in Mineral, Nisqually River Retreat near Elbe, Mill Town Lanes in Morton and the Longmire Springs and Packwood brewing companies.
Attendees each gave a brief introduction and spoke a bit about why they showed up to the summit.
“I have a lot of people that come to my Airbnbs who are going to Mount Rainier and always asking ‘what else is around here?’” said Tina Moore, owner of the Lavender Passion Flower Farm and vice president of Mineral Lake Lions Club.
Moore stated she was accustomed to telling visitors her own personal favorite areas and activities, but wanted more centralized tourism information.
“It would be great to have all this information in one spot, to be able to just give it to them,” Moore said.
She added the Mineral Lake Lions Club is preparing for its 30th annual fishing derby, which will include a standup pond stocked with fish for kids.
Each child will receive a free fishing pole and have any fish they catch prepared and cooked for them. The derby is scheduled for Apr. 22 and 23. For more information, visit https://minerallakelions.com/?page_id=517.
Other highlights included Janice Grose of the White Pass Country Historical Museum and Packwood Visitor Center announcing the visitor center set a new record for visitors in 2022.
“This year it hit a wonderful target number, over 8,100 people came in, along with phone calls and social media. It was our biggest year ever,” Grose said.
Gala Miller, community engagement specialist for Gifford Pinchot National Forest, added that all snow parks within the forest are open for visitors.
Following introductions, attendees broke out into four groups, each focusing on different ideas for drawing in more tourism from increasing engagement, planning and social media activity. The group session lasted more than an hour and concluded the summit.
Todd Chaput, Economic Alliance of Lewis County infrastructure initiatives program manager, stated he along with other alliance colleagues and outside consultants will now work on developing a strategic plan using ideas from the summit to focus on growing Lewis County’s tourism economy.
Discoverlewiscounty.com was previously operated by the Lewis County government.
