FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE            CONTACT:    Chris Kellogg, 502-564-2611
October 15, 2003                                                        or Jayne McClew, 502-564-4930

GOVERNOR PAUL PATTON ANNOUNCES THE
CONTINUATION OF KENTUCKY TOUR INITIATIVE

Frankfort, Ky. – Governor Paul Patton today announced the continuation of a motorcoach incentive program responsible for increasing tourism in coal producing counties of Kentucky. 

            “The tremendous success of this program and the careful use of the funds originally allocated will give us one more season to target tour bus travel to areas of our state that are not well-known to national audiences,” Patton said.

            “The intense promotion that is part of this effort has a mushrooming effect, so the longer we can conduct it, the more impact we will have.”

            Patton pointed to the Kentucky Music Trail in Eastern Kentucky, which was the first one launched in 2001, as an example of how the trail promotions can make a difference.

            “There was some new travel the first season, but the real impact came last year,” he said.  “Every county along the Music Trail showed a significant increase in tourism’s economic impact, with the average increase being 14 percent.  The statewide average increase for visitor spending for 2002 was 5.2 percent.

            Tourism Development Cabinet Secretary Ann Latta, said the program for the 2004 summer season will promote all three trails that have been developed under the motorcoach incentive program.  The Kentucky Music Trail begins its third season and features stops in Ashland, Prestonsburg and Renfro Valley and concerts by major Kentucky stars. 

            Repeating for a second year will be the Daniel Boone Country Trail in southeastern Kentucky that spotlights Boone’s historic opening of the west through the Cumberland Gap and the coal culture that settled in the area, and the Kentucky Barbeque and Bluegrass Trail, that takes advantage of western Kentucky’s status as the “cradle of bluegrass music,” as well as its prowess in barbeque.

            “The themed trails create new product, a real draw for tour operators,” Latta said. “The program has produced a greater awareness of Kentucky as a desirable destination for the traveling public and generated a buzz within the media that covers tourism.”

            Latta said the motorcoach program was developed with funds budgeted from coal severance tax dollars, to create and promote special trails in coal producing counties.  The program included cash incentives for motorcoach operators, but Latta said very few have applied for them.

            “We are carefully tracking this program, and a key finding is that most tour operators, once they take the tour are not as interested in applying for the rebate.  They have found the tour to be very good, their clients enjoyed it, and they are satisfied with the overall results,” Latta said.

             Unused cash rebates will allow the continuation of the program in the summer of 2004. 

            Tourism was a $9.1 billion business in Kentucky in 2002, contributing more than $942 million in state and local taxes.  The tourism industry is Kentucky’s third largest and second largest employer.

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