Shenandoah Valley tourism entities team up with Capital Region USA

Nestled between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains in Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley offers beautiful rolling hills and rich local culture.

Visitors discover natural attractions such as caverns and mountaintop vistas, as well as wineries, breweries, outdoor adventure, music festivals and much more. The vibrant small towns feature local shops and restaurants all just a couple hours from Washington, D.C. Best of all, the Shenandoah Valley offers abundant and diverse opportunities for adventure every season of the year.

Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO) are working together to promote the Valley as a premier travel destination attracting visitors through national and International marketing initiatives. Partnership marketing reaches a larger demographic; creating a greater economic impact for our local businesses, says Brenda Black, Director of Harrisonburg Tourism and Visitor Services.

Therefore, DMO offices in the Shenandoah Valley: including Harrisonburg, Shenandoah County, Martinsburg-Berkeley County W VA, Shenandoah National Park, Rockingham County, County Bath, Waynesboro, Staunton, Lexington and Rockbridge County have teamed up with the Capital Region USA (CRUSA) to showcase the Valley through their 2015 International Marketing Program. The program includes a print ad, featured online article and banner advertisement in one of CRUSA’s emails to their more than 40,000 subscribers. Each locality had opportunity to translate their ad into several different languages including: Chinese, French, German and Portuguese.

International travel to the United States is strong and tourist arrivals are increasing each year. Lexington and Rockbridge Area Tourism realizes the importance of marketing our destination to these international markets, however the cost is prohibitive. The Shenandoah Valley DMO partnership with Capitol Region USA is designed to promote their individual destinations as a region to travelers visiting the DC, Maryland and Virginia area, providing opportunities for “hub & spoke” experiences up and down the valley. Without this partnership, the possibility of reaching those foreign markets at an affordable rate would have been impossible.

CRUSA is the official regional destination marketing organization promoting Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland internationally, in partnership with Destination DC, the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the Maryland Office of Tourism Development and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Their mission is to have more overseas travelers staying longer and spending more money in our local economies. CRUSA’s markets are typically the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, France and China.

For more information on CRUSA visit www.capitalregionusa.org.