Last month, Governor Glenn Youngkin announced that Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) awarded more than $2.7 million for 259 local and regional tourism marketing programs across the state to help increase visitation and revenue for Virginia’s localities through tourism.
The Mathews County Visitor & Information Center received a $10,000 grant for its marketing project called “Explore our Shorelines in Mathews County”. This year’s marketing efforts include promoting day-trips and driving tours to Mathews for visitors to reach our shoreline and enjoy the endless waterfront recreational opportunities. For the county that boasts the most shoreline of any other in Virginia, we must promote our ecotourism assets.
This includes kayaking, paddle boarding, kiting, birding, boat charters, fishing, outdoor sports, aquaculture tours, and sightseeing. Mathews provides a truly rich landscape with an abundance of unspoiled natural areas, and MCVIC would like to encourage outdoor lovers to explore our 214 miles of shoreline, tread lightly amongst the vast wildlife, and patronize our local businesses while they drive through town. If visitors want to extend their stay, we have numerous beautiful waterfront lodging establishments and bed and breakfasts.
“Mathews is a down-to-earth place to visit, providing visitors a unique opportunity to hit refresh: to disengage from work or their busy lives, recharge, and feel reconnected with nature and the outdoors. If you aren’t into waterfront sports, there are plenty of backroads and interest points to grab views of expansive marshland, take a walk on a beach, enjoy views of the lighthouses, or pop-up a waterside picnic,” said Emily Allen, Executive Director of the Mathews Visitor Center.
In 2020, tourism produced over $13.5 million in travel expenditures in Mathews, supporting our local businesses and providing travel-related revenue for Mathews County through meals, transient and sales taxes (according to Virginia Tourism Corporation and Tourism Economics data.)
“These grant funds provide an important opportunity for communities across the Commonwealth to accelerate recovery efforts and continue with their best-in-class marketing initiatives to attract new travelers,” said Rita McClenny, president and CEO of Virginia Tourism. “Increased visitation translates directly into revenue generation, underscoring tourism’s important role in stimulating economic growth and expansion”
The VTC Marketing Leverage Program is designed to increase visitor spending by leveraging limited marketing dollars, stimulating new tourism marketing through partnerships, and extending the “Virginia is for Lovers” brand.
