Tour Your Town Tradeshow set for Sept. 24

The Tourism Association of Greater Waynesboro, in collaboration with the Waynesboro Tourism Office, is pleased to announce the second annual Tour Your Town Tradeshow in support of the area’s travel industry.

The event will take place on Monday, Sept. 24 from noon–5 p.m. at the Best Western PLUS Waynesboro Conference Center.

The vision of this event is to target the local businesses whose staff encounters tourists on a regular basis, such as hotel front desk clerks, restaurant employees, and gas station attendants in order to educate them on all that our region has to offer for tourists. Also, since 40 percent of Waynesboro’s visitors are visiting friends and family; members of the local community are encouraged to attend this tradeshow to learn more about the area’s attractions.

The event is free and open to the public.

This year’s training in conjunction with the event is provided by Bobbie Walker with the Virginia Tourism Corporation. Businesses and their staff can attend the customer service training, ‘Great Customer Service Comes from the Heart’. The training is free to attend, open to anyone and will be held from 12:30-2:30 p.m.

Waynesboro’s proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive attracts travelers from all over the East Coast, especially during the Fall Foliage Season. Traveler spending contributes over $27 million to the local economy resulting in the Travel Industry having a major impact in Waynesboro. One of the goals of the tradeshow is to further increase traveler spending in the Greater Waynesboro area.

The free tradeshow will have over 30 vendors that will highlight area attractions, such as museums, wineries, historical venues and outdoor activities. In addition, there will be a free customer service training session. Door prizes will be given every hour on the hour including a roundtrip ticket to Orlando and an Apple iPad. Katie McElroy, Director of Tourism for Waynesboro stated “This event is a great way to showcase all that we have to offer our visitors and community members. Having a training session and staff from Virginia Tourism Corporation will be an added benefit.”

For more information, please contact Katie McElroy at (540) 942-6644 or [email protected].