Bath County Tourism Director Maggie Anderson Has Big Plans For 2011

Warm Springs, VA – Bath County’s tourism director, Maggie Anderson, has been on the job for four months now and has a number of projects in the works. She’s excited about her job as well as some new ideas and plans to expand tourism in Bath.

“I have been delighted by the response I’ve received from the community” says Anderson. “I get phone calls, people have ideas, they’re getting ignited by the idea that maybe we can really make this work in our area. I like that people are getting engaged and getting involved in the success of this project. It’s not something that any one of us can do alone, it’s something we have to do together and I’m getting a real strong sense that people understand that part of this equation.”

The Mountain Strings and Art Festival is planned for April first and second. She says it’s an event that will be held in coordination with Allegheny Mountain Radio’s Bath County station, WCHG.

“It started off as part of the Bluegrass Jamboree that takes place every year as fundraiser for the station” she says. “We thought it might be a grand opportunity to begin to talk about this area as the Arts and Mountain Arts community that I think it is. So, a couple of discussions later, we’re looking at an arts festival and a mountain strings festival that I think is going to be very exciting as the possibility of being our spring event every year.”

She says they hope to have a dance and mountain arts demonstrations in conjunction with the Bluegrass Jamboree, scheduled for April 2nd. The Harvest Moon and Century and Metric Ride Festival is in the works for September 24 and 25. It’s intended to be like a old fashioned country fair with bake and bazaar sales. It will also include a 100 mile Century Ride.

“A Century Ride is a 100 mile ride for cyclists, and the secondary portion of that ride is what’s called a metric ride; it’s about 66 miles” says Anderson. “The routes right now are going to be going through all parts of our county. And then Sunday, the 25th, will be reserved for family friendly rides and there’ll be shorter rides all parts of our area.”

Anderson is looking forward to creating a new marketing effort for Bath County. As part of that, she’s making plans to develop a new website that will offer information about the county, about tourism and the Chamber of Commerce. A request for proposal has gone out seeking a website developer.

“Tourism is about building a business foundation for all of the support services and businesses in our area” says Anderson. “I find and think I need to do a much better job of helping people understand that this is great to grow business as well as grow tourism.”

You can contact Maggie Anderson at 839-7202. Her office is in the Bath County Courthouse in Warm Springs.