Businesses Form Tourism Group

A group of about a dozen businesses based in Waitsburg and Dayton are creating a new organization to help promote tourism in the Touchet Valley.

Named the Touchet Valley Tourism Alliance, the diverse group that includes the Dayton Chamber of Commerce, Ski Bluewood and a number of hospitality and retail businesses in both communities, plans to launch a number of initiatives to strengthen the area as a travel destination in the coming years. Waitsburg's Commercial Club has been invited to participate as well.

"This is the first time a coordinated effort has been made to promote tourism throughout the Touchet Valley and that's exciting," said Claudia Nysoe, the new director of Dayton's Chamber of Commerce.

"All the businesses that have attended these (formative) meetings have a fire in their belly and an enthusiasm that's contagious," she said.

The alliance, which will take the form of a nonprofit 501 C 3, expects to collaborate with such local groups as Tourism Walla Walla, which works to bring visitors to the greater Walla Walla area.

The group hopes to form a board soon that includes private and public-sector representatives but also wants to continue its initial largegroup format that has already generated a number of marketing ideas.

The alliance's goal is to expand travelers' horizons beyond Walla Walla and also take advantage of passthrough visitors already on the move on highways 124 and 12.

Though the founders of the Touchet Valley Tourism Alliance applaud Walla Walla-based efforts to boost traffic to the region, they say their valley's own businesses can and should do much more to get visitors to spend money here.

Programs under consideration will educate and draw travelers from Walla Walla north along Highway 12, east on Highway 124, and bring more awareness about the Touchet Valley in markets like the Tri-Cities, Lewiston-Clarkston, Seattle and Portland.

In recent years, Waitsburg and Dayton have garnered more attention from urban travelers through stories in national magazines, syndicated travel articles, statewide television shows and such events as Cycle Oregon.

At the same time, new businesses that complement Walla Walla as a travel destination have sprung up, including the new Dayton Wine Works and the soonto open Mace Meadworks in Dayton.

This summer, Waitsburg is expected to have a new boutique hotel and coffee shop, adding to the existing attractions that include the Whoop Em Up Hollow Café, the Jimgermanbar, the Bruce Mansion and the Waitsburg Hardware & Mercantile.

In the field of recreation, the Ski Bluewood resort has new owners with a long-term interest in boosting winter and summer activities in their area near Dayton. The new managers of the Lyons Ferry Marina have done much to improve that recreational asset.

Now, businesses need to come together to sustain and grow interest in the valley's attractions, events, retail shops, museums and so on, the group believes.

"Tourism is the best economic engine you can develop," said Joy Smith, the owner of Waitsburg's Hugs, Gifts & Collectibles who has been coming to the group's formative meetings.

Another founding member of the group said the alliance has the potential of bringing businesses in the valley closer together.

"We're so close and we have so much in common," said Reggie Mace, the Dayton based owner of Mace Meadworks, which will soon open on that city's Main Street.

"But we've never had a bridge," he said about the communities of Prescott, Waitsburg and Dayton.

While exploring an array of tourism promotion initiatives, the alliance's first project aims to build a stronger local network through a series of monthly "meet and greets" for local business owners, managers and employees. This will allow them to get to know each other better so that everyone is armed with better local information to provide to inquiring travelers thus creating every opportunity for that traveler to spend his or her money locally.

The first "meet and greet" will be at 6 p.m. on Feb. 17 at the Town Hall in Waitsburg. If you're interested in joining the Feb 17 meet and greet or find out more about the alliance, please call the Times at 509-337-6631.

Alliance's First

Meet & Greet

Feb. 17, 6 p.m.

Town Hall

Waitsburg