Kilgore tourism, visitor numbers up after marketing effort | Local News

KILGORE — Kilgore’s tourism business continues to recover from the problems done by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the most the latest report from Go to Kilgore Tourism Supervisor Ryan Polk.

Polk resolved the City Council at a latest conference and explained how the town attracted site visitors in excess of the previous 12 months. Tourism and journey have been impacted nationwide by the COVID-19 pandemic due to the fact 2020, but Polk explained 2021’s tourism figures, in some cases, returned to pre-pandemic amounts.

“2021 was a extremely fast, bizarre 12 months,” Polk mentioned. “The temper proper now is that matters are wanting a little bit related to 2019, to a selected degree. Individuals are additional self-assured to travel, and we noticed that in Kilgore. We had an increase in (lodge) occupancy of 17.9{6932ee47e64f4ce8eedbbd5224581f6531cba18a35225771c06e4f1b3f0d9667} more than 2020, so we’re transferring on up, and this calendar year it proceeds to go up increased.”

He discussed Go to Kilgore had pursued digital and print promoting campaigns in the course of 2021 and had continued a trend of concentrating print travel guides to the interests of prospective readers.

“At the close of 2021, we had been up to 4,874 Facebook followers,” Polk said. “We customized our print guides to whoever is coming in, irrespective of whether it was a baseball match, the Texas Shakespeare Competition, Texas Radio Corridor of Fame or Reel East Texas Movie Festival. Instagram followers have been up as perfectly, to 2,209.”

In accordance to Polk, Pay a visit to Kilgore’s marketing endeavours in 2021 compensated off by attracting far more people to the town and spreading the word about Kilgore in print and in social media.

He also stated Kilgore had been the focus of two vacation displays in 2021, as perfectly as internet hosting 9 tour operators from around the U.S. as section of the American Bus Association’s marketplace occasion in Grapevine.

“They beloved Kilgore. It was an fascinating group because they ended up from all more than the nation,” Polk claimed. “They weren’t just from Texas. They were from just one coast to the other coast, and they cherished every little thing from the Place Tavern barbecue we served them to the tales that Mayor (Ronnie) Spradlin and Bill Woodall explained to them on the bus.”

1 of the highlights of 2021, Polk explained, was a stop by paid to Kilgore by author and producer Chet Garner and the crew of “The Daytripper,” a PBS travel show that characteristics Texas sights, vacationer destinations and sights.

Garner and crew visited Brigitta’s Hungarian Cafe, the East Texas Oil Museum, Kilgore College’s Rangerette Museum, Region Tavern, Bighead Creek Mountain Bike Trail and more. The episode premiered in February and can be viewed at https://TheDayTripper.com.

Garner also wrote an write-up about the pay a visit to for Texas Highways, the official vacation journal of Texas.