Tourism Spending Increased Again In 2022 For Mercer

Jul. 26—By CHARLES OWENS

and GREG JORDAN

BLUEFIELD — Revenue from visitor spending in Mercer County increased again in 2022, with social media influencers now helping to spread the word about local attractions.

Jamie Null, executive director of the Mercer County Convention and Visitors Bureau, presented a report Tuesday to both the Bluefield Board of Directors and the Mercer County Commission on the county's "tourism triumphs" in 2022.

Null said visitor spending in Mercer County in 2022 topped $130.7 million, an increase from the previous year.

"That includes hotels, motels and any attractions," Null said. "Anything a visitor can spend money on when they come into Mercer County."

Hotel occupancy rates in Mercer County in 2022 stood at 61.1 percent, an increase of 1.2 percent over 2021. This includes an estimated 10,000 rooms sold to riders of the Hatfield-McCoy Trail system.

Two of the new visitors to Mercer County in 2022 were social media travel influencers, according to Null.

By partnering with popular travel bloggers and social media influencers, Null said the county has been able to showcase its unique attractions and experiences to thousands of people around the world. Some of those individuals who are exposed to Mercer County through a social media influencer or travel blogger may one day decide to visit or even move here, according to Null.

Null said two of the social media influencers who visited the area in 2022 shared the story of Mercer County with another 148,179 online followers.

"That is what they do," Null said of the social media influencers. "They go to destinations and they present the highlights to their followers."

Null said additional social media influencers have visited Mercer County this year.

"This is going to be something that is a permanent part of our marketing efforts is to bring people who are influencers to Mercer County," she said.

Also in 2022, Null said the CVB launched a new mobile visitors center and also passed the West Virginia Association of CVB's accreditation program. The Mercer County CVB also won a "Stars of Almost Heaven" industry award at the 2022 Governor's Conference on Tourism.

Another tourism initiative that has exceeded expectations is the new "Almost Heaven" swing located at the East River Mountain Overlook. The CVB, and the West Virginia Department of Tourism, encourages visitors to take and share photographs on social media of themselves on the swing.

"We really underestimated just how much people would fall in love with this," Null said of the Almost Heaven swing, adding that people have shared on social media photographs of everything from dogs to lizards on the swing high atop East River Mountain.

"That swing that is in the picture there didn't actually cost a lot and was really innovative," Bluefield City Manager Cecil Marson added. "Now that thing is all over the place."

In other tourism developments, Null said the town of Bramwell also was recently named as one of MSN's "Small But Mighty: 20 Small Towns in America With Big Surprises and Unique Charm."

The recognition from the Microsoft Network website honors the town that is also home to a trailhead site for the Hatfield-McCoy Trail system.

"This is a direct result of working with our public relations agency, so we pitched Bramwell to MSN and to the writer of that article," Null said. "We pitched Bramwell for this piece and we're excited to see they made it to the Top 20."

Besides Bramwell, the bureau has also pitched the cities of Princeton and Bluefield as well as local events such as the Bluefield garden tours to tourism media outlets, Null said.

"As of June 2023, we have had 26 media placements about Mercer County in regional and national publications," she said. "We estimate at the end of the year we will have more than $1 million in earned media value. Earned media value is media we don't pay for."

Null said it's never known which pitch will appeal to an editor or writer of any particular media outlet. Locations and events throughout Mercer County are pitched to the media outlets.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com. Follow him @BDTOwens

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