An Appalachian four-season escape with tourism diversity and meetings appeal, West Virginia serves up some of the nation’s best white-water rafting, skiing, hunting, fishing, hiking and biking.
Nine rivers and plenty of rafting outfitters await groups. Hundreds of miles of rail lines have been transformed into recreational trails. There are 100-plus golf courses throughout the state, with six in the eastern highlands designated the Legends of Golf Trail.
Meanwhile, the “Wild and Wonderful” Mountain State has a rich historical legacy. There are five national scenic byways, rejuvenated historic towns and more than 20 Civil War sites.
Bordered by Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky, and with more than 75 percent of its land forested, West Virginia is crossed by six interstates and has nine airports, each served by one or more regional carriers.
For the last fiscal year ending June 30, revenues at West Virginia’s 37 state parks were up 5 percent.
The state has 37 state parks, and 10 have resorts with conference facilities, catering and restaurants. A growing number have high-speed wireless Internet access.
“We’re very affordable and cost- effective,” says Kathy Johnson of the West Virginia Division of Tourism. “We’re mainly a drive destination. We’re within 500 miles of 55 percent of the country’s population. People don’t realize just how much we have here. There are lots of off-site venues and lots of places to tour.”
Johnson says the state is looking at diversifying its group business and is now going after the religious and sports markets.
The only state entirely within Appalachia is also notable for its four racetrack casinos (racinos). Together these large entertainment destinations have 11,500 slot machines and make up the country’s No. 2 racino state in revenues, second only to Pennsylvania.
In 2007, voters in respective counties approved such table games as blackjack and roulette, and poker at three of them. By year’s end they were installed at two—Mountaineer Racetrack & Resort in Chester and Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack—and last October, at Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center near Charleston. One county rejected them: Jefferson County for Charles Town Races and Slots.
Another gaming referendum was on last November’s ballot; Greenbrier County voters approved casino gaming at West Virginia’s most famous resort.
Resort Areas
While the Mountain State can be considered one big outdoor playground, several rural resort areas stand out.
The Greenbrier, the legendary resort dating to 1778 at White Sulphur Springs in the New River/Greenbrier region, received AAA’s Five Diamond award for 2009 for the 33rd consecutive year.
With 721 guest rooms and 85,000 square feet of meeting space, it can handle groups of up to 1,000 people. It has three championship golf courses, a 40,000-square-foot spa and activities that range from tours of its former Cold War-era Congressional bunker to tennis, fishing, rock climbing and falconry. It recently completed a $50 million renovation, reopening in April 2007.
After voters approved casino gaming, a move supported by the resort’s unions, the property retained a third-party advisor to evaluate gaming’s potential impacts.
“While we do not know what the outcome of this analysis will be, we do know that gaming would require a significant investment in a challenging economy and therefore must be evaluated very carefully,” says Lynn Swann, the resort’s director of public relations.
The Greenbrier has upped its number of meetings “hot dates” for 2009. Each month has them.
“We have several windows of opportunity for planners to schedule a meeting at a surprisingly affordable rate,” says Jerry Wayne, the resort’s vice president of sales and marketing. “They also provide groups with greater availability of function space and activities, which creates an even greater value.”
Between Charleston to the west and White Sulphur Springs to the east lies Beckley, where the Resort at Glade Springs has a lodge and other accommodations, 15,000 square feet of meeting space, two championship golf courses and a nearby sister ski resort.
Beckley boasts Tamarack, a 50,000-square-foot retail showplace of West Virginia arts, crafts and products, plus working studios, an art gallery and a 22,000-square-foot conference center.
Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine, a top tourist draw, recently opened a $3.5 million, 14,000-square-foot building featuring a visitor center, a museum and a gift shop. It also has a number of historical buildings and special event sites.
Other attractions include the 876-foot-high New River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville, site of an annual October parachute base-jumping event; Bramwell, a town of mansions owned by mining moguls of the early 1900s; and Daniel Vineyards, the largest of the state’s dozen wineries.
Three of the state’s four major ski areas are in the Potomac Highlands Region in the Allegheny Range flanking Virginia.
It is home to West Virginia’s largest resort: Snowshoe Mountain, delivering 1,300 accommodation units and activities ranging from skiing to golf and mountain biking. Last summer it added off-road dune buggy tours and a geocaching program. In summer 2006, it unveiled the 15,400-square-foot Expo Center, bringing total meeting and event space to 40,000 square feet.
To the northwest at Davis, the 250-room Canaan Valley Resort and Conference Center on the edge of the Monongahela National Forest features 25,000 square feet of meeting and function space, a ski area and golf.
Another resort standout is the IACC-certified, 208-room Stonewall Resort in the state’s central Mountain Lakes Region. Located at the 2,000-acre Stonewall Jackson Lake State Park near Weston and managed by Benchmark Hospitality International, the 6-year-old resort provides an Arnold Palmer signature golf course, a spa and 14,000 square feet of conference space.
A new attraction, the 525-seat American Mountain Theater, opened in 2007 at Elkins, 38 miles east of Weston and a similar distance from Davis. Billed as the state’s first and only “Branson-style” family variety show and located in the historic Railyard, home of the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Scenic Railroad, it will also put on daytime shows for groups.
State Parks
Both Stonewall and Canaan are in state parks but are operated by management companies. In addition, the State Parks & Forestry Division also operates lodges with conference facilities at eight parks, all in spectacular locations with lots of recreational options.
The newest addition is at Chief Logan State Park, 50 minutes southwest of Charleston. In 2006, it debuted a 75-room lodge to complement its existing 13,000-square-foot conference center.
The Beckley area has Twin Falls Resort State Park, with 20 rooms plus cottages and meeting space, the largest room seating 110 people for banquets. A $7.5 million expansion and renovation is slated for completion in September and will bring the total number of rooms to 48.
Also in the Beckley area are Pipestem Resort State Park, with 143 rooms and 16,800 square feet of meeting space, and Hawks Nest State Park near New River Gorge Bridge, with 31 rooms and banquet seating for 60 people.
The others are Blackwater Falls State Park near Canaan, with 54 rooms and 5,300 square feet of conference space; Cacapon Resort State Park at Berkeley Springs, with 48 rooms and 13,000 square feet of function space, plus cabins, golf and archery; North Bend State Park near Parkersburg, with 29 rooms and 2,000 square feet of meeting space; and Tygart Lake State Park south of Morgantown, with 20 rooms as well as cottages, in addition to banquet seating for 75 people.
Sissie Summers, program director for the State Parks & Forestry Division, says the parks remain an affordable option for meeting planners.
“In these economic times, such options as biking and hiking offer real value,” Summers says. “We can put on such activities as a morning bird walk prior to a meeting or the interpretation of an area and its history during a break.”
Charleston
Located on the Kanawha River, West Virginia’s capital and largest city has a population of just 51,300 and 250,000 spread over its entire metro area.
Its primary venue, downtown’s Charleston Civic Center, encompasses a convention center with a 50,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a coliseum, a 3,400-seat auditorium and a 750-seat theater. Within a six-block radius are 1,750 of Charleston’s 4,000 hotel rooms.
Close by are two of the city’s prominent meetings hotels: Charleston Marriott Town Center and Embassy Suites Charleston, each with around 15,000 square feet of function space. Across from them is Town Center Mall, with more than 100 stores and restaurants.
A renovated West Virginia State Museum with 23,000 square feet of exhibits is slated to reopen in the West Virginia State Capitol complex this spring.
The 1,600-slot Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center, a greyhound facility near Charleston, added craps, roulette, blackjack and a 40-table poker room in October. The track can handle groups of up to 300 people.
Among the other off-site venues available is Charleston’s Clay Center for Arts and Sciences, featuring a dozen event sites and a capacity for up to 1,800 people.
Five carriers serve the city’s Yeager Airport. Last fall, four increased airlift by converting from 36-seat turboprops to larger 50-passenger jets: Continental Airlines for its two daily Houston flights; U.S. Airways for its five daily Charlotte flights; Northwest Airlines for one of its three daily Detroit flights; and Delta Air Lines for all three daily Cincinnati flights.
Huntington
Huntington, the state’s second-largest city, 50 miles west of Charleston on the Ohio River across from Ohio, is home to Marshall University.
Its downtown has undergone a revitalization, notably with the retail and restaurant magnet of Pullman Square. The largest meetings property, the 202-room Pullman Plaza Hotel, has more than 20,000 square feet of function space.
Its major convention space, the Big Sandy Superstore Arena and Conference Center, has more than 80,000 square feet of event space and 500 of the city’s 1,400 hotel rooms nearby. The university’s Memorial Student Center also has meeting space.
Craig Warner, director of sales and marketing for the Cabell-Huntington CVB, says hotel occupancies have been on a par with 2007, with a recent youth soccer tournament attracting 20,000 people from 15 states and autumn’s New River train rides helping to boost business.
“People also want to see the filming sites of We Are Marshall,” he says.
The 2006 movie stars Matthew McConaughey and is based on the story of the aftermath of a 1970 charter plane crash that killed most members of the Marshall football team.
Huntington’s newest hotel, the 134-room Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Barboursville, with banquet space for 120 people, is just 10 minutes from downtown.
Parkersburg
To the north, Parkersburg, also on the Ohio River, is the state’s third-largest city.
Its largest meeting facility, the Grand Pointe Conference and Reception Center, which opened in October 2006, can seat groups of up to 850 people. One of the city’s meetings properties is The Blennerhassett Hotel, a Historic Hotels of America member with a ballroom holding up to 250 people.
Steve Nicely, the Greater Parkersburg CVB’s president and CEO, says the area offers easy access, a diversity of attractions and activities, great shopping and reasonably priced accommodations.
Access became easier last June with the opening of the city’s new 4,009-foot Blennerhassett Island Bridge, the last segment of the four-lane U.S. Route 50, which connects Clarksburg, W.Va., with Athens, Ohio, eliminating a bottleneck for east-west travelers.
“It has taken traffic off downtown streets and made it more attractive,” he says.
Morgantown
Home to West Virginia University (WVU) and the hub of Mountaineer Country, Morgantown is on Interstate 79, which connects Pittsburgh with Charleston.
Two new meetings venues and a third under construction add to its appeal.
Last July, its Mylan Park, a 320-acre recreational and educational complex, opened the 53,000-square-foot Ruby Community Center with an acre of exhibit and sports tournament space.
In October, WVU unveiled the $15 million, 44,000-square-foot Erikson Alumni Center, triple the size of its former facility that held 300 meetings and events per year.
The downtown wharf area features the 206-room Waterfront Place Hotel, with 10,000 square feet of function space. A 78,000-square-foot event center expansion, slated for completion in March 2010, will have seating for up to 2,500 people for sporting events and productions, and up to 1,500 people for banquets.
“The new facilities will enable us to attract more and larger meetings and events,” says Peggy Myers-Smith, executive director and CEO of the Greater Morgantown CVB. “It takes us to a whole different level.”
Other facilities include the university’s 4,000-seat coliseum and 10,000 square feet of function space. East of the city, the 187-room Lakeview Golf Resort & Spa has two championship golf courses and 23,000 square feet of meeting space.
In Bridgeport, 34 miles to the south, the Bridgeport Conference Center, which has 15,000 square feet of meeting space and two adjoining hotels, opened in 2006.
Wheeling
The Northern Panhandle’s most popular city for meetings features a major resort, a casino and a multipurpose civic facility.
“We pride ourselves that we have something for everyone,” says Olivia Litman, marketing director at the Wheeling CVB.
Wheeling’s waterfront WesBanco Arena seats 6,000 people and includes two meeting venues, each accommodating 300 people.
The city has 1,000 guest rooms. Its newest hotel, a Springhill Suites with 2,200 square feet of meeting space, opened last May.
The 1,700-acre, 268-room Oglebay Resort in the surrounding hills boasts a zoo, gardens, three golf courses, skiing and more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space. A 2007 expansion and renovation added a 56-room wing.
The 2,000-slot Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack recently added 43 table games and a 20-table poker room. The greyhound track has a 150-room hotel with three conference rooms, the largest with a capacity for 300 people.
Anchored by a Cabela’s outdoor store, The Highlands shopping and entertainment complex is a major attraction that has grown in the last two years to feature more than 30 stores and restaurants. The developers expect to break ground on a theme park this spring.
Situated 50 miles north of Wheeling at Chester, the 3,200-slot Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort recently added four table game areas. The thoroughbred track has 359 guest rooms and 39,000 square feet of meeting space.
Eastern Panhandle
Historic communities of the Eastern Panhandle provide a rural backyard for the urban areas of northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland.
They are connected by the Washington Heritage Trail, a 137-mile circular route and national byway that begins at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, an hour from Washington, D.C.
October 2009 will mark the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid on the Harpers Ferry armory, and special events are being planned throughout the year (www.johnbrownraid.org).
John Brown was hanged at nearby Charles Town, which today is home to the country’s largest racino: Penn National Gaming’s 5,000-slot Charles Town Races and Slots.
Last September, the racecourse unveiled the $21 million, 153-room Inn at Charles Town, with a 1,470-square-foot function room and a boardroom, augmenting the thoroughbred track’s existing 5,200-square-foot ballroom overlooking the course.
The region’s meetings hotels include The Inn and Spa at Berkeley Springs, the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center in Shepherdstown, and the Woods Resort and Conference Center near Martinsburg.
For More Info
Cabell–Huntington CVB 304.525.7333
www.wvvisit.org
Charleston CVB 304.344.5075
www.charlestonwv.com
Greenbrier County CVB 304.645.1000
www.greenbrierwv.com
Greater Morgantown CVB 304.292.5081
www.tourmorgantown.com
Greater Parkersburg CVB 304.428.1130
www.greaterparkersburg.com
Lewis County CVB 304.269.7328
www.stonewallcountry.com
Martinsburg-Berkeley County CVB 304.264.8801
www.travelwv.com
New River CVB 304.465.5617
www.newrivercvb.com
Pocahontas County CVB 304.799.4636
www.pocahontascountywv.com
Southern West Virginia CVB 304.252.2244
www.visitwv.com
Travel Berkeley Springs 304.258.9147
www.berkeleysprings.com
Tucker County CVB 304.259.5315
www.canaanvalley.org
West Virginia Division of Tourism 304.558.2200
www.callwva.com
West Virginia State Parks & Forests 800.CALL.WVA
www.wvstateparks.com/conferences/groupservices.html
Wheeling CVB 304.233.7709
www.wheelingcvb.com
