Chelsea Ruby Story Archives - Page 2 of 3 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Tourism Education Initiative Planned To Support Anticipated Jobs

The Shape Our Future educational program has launched an updated hospitality and tourism curriculum in all 55 counties. It’s meant to help the career path become more viable for students at community and technical colleges.

The West Virginia Department of Tourism is launching an education initiative in anticipation of a boom in tourism jobs across the state.

Other significant parts of the program include a program for high schoolers to receive college credit, grant funding from the Departments of Education and Tourism for students to create tourism infrastructure projects on public lands and a shift in the state’s Discover Your Future program to highlight future careers in tourism at middle schools.

The college program is part of a workforce development initiative called Tourism Works. It was created to support a growing state tourism industry. The state’s Higher Education Policy Commission predicts there will be 21,000 annual tourism openings through 2025.

“We’ve all heard people say there are no jobs in West Virginia, that you’re gonna have to move when you graduate, but that’s not true,” Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby said to a group of students at Nicholas County Career and Technical College.

She announced the program at the college Tuesday alongside Gov. Jim Justice.

Plans for further expansion of the program are scheduled for next year. A tourism marketing specialization will also be launched as part of the curriculum this fall.

New Airline Will Fly To Orlando, Charleston, SC

Breeze Airways will begin offering non-stop flights from CRW to Orlando, Florida and Charleston, South Carolina beginning May 31st.

Right now, there are four flight destinations out of Charleston’s West Virginia International Yeager Airport: Charlotte, Washington D.C., Chicago and Atlanta. Five more destinations were announced on Tuesday.

Gov. Jim Justice was joined by state, county and city leaders in the airport terminal to announce that start-up Breeze Airways will begin offering non-stop flights from Charleston to Orlando, Florida and Charleston, South Carolina beginning May 31st.

Justice said the carrier will add three more non-stop flights over the next two years, including New York City and one stop on the West Coast.

“I’ve said over and over that our airports in West Virginia are our lifeblood,” Justice said. “They fuel our economy, bring in tourism, and their ripple effects are off-the-charts. I’m so proud to welcome Breeze Airways to Almost Heaven.”

Justice said this public/private partnership between Breeze Airlines, a two-year-old company out of Utah, along with the state, Kanawha County, and the City of Charleston comes after years of decline in available destinations from smaller airports around the country, including Yeager Airport.

Justice, Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper and others stressed that this is a long-term partnership. Earlier this month, Spirit Airlines announced it was discontinuing all Yeager Airport service in May, including its Orlando flight.

Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby says this public/private partnership is part of a marketing campaign to expand on the “Drive to West Virginia” concept. She said this venture is about making West Virginia more accessible to visitors and new residents and bringing in people from further and further away.

“When we started these meetings, we were talking about how we would replace Orlando,” Ruby said. “Then, we immediately said, that’s not what we’re here to do. We’re here to find a partner who is here long term, who’s not going to come in and pull out six months later.”

A Justice press release notes Breeze Airways was launched in 2021 by JetBlue founder and former CEO David Neeleman with a mission to fill a key gap in America’s air-travel offerings: efficient, affordable, direct flights between secondary airports, bypassing hubs for shorter travel times.

Angela Vargo, the vice president of Marketing and Communications for Breeze Airways spoke to those gathered at the airport, calling Breeze a N.L.C.C., a nice low-cost carrier.

“We also have family friendly policies, like family seating which you do not pay for,” Vargo said. “We do not think you should have to pay to sit next to your children, although sometimes I want to pay people to sit next to mine. We also have no change or cancellation fees.”

The new routes are now on sale on the Breeze website at introductory fares of $59 to Orlando and $49 to Charleston, one way.

Tourism Budget Review Highlights Pro Sports Partners, Waterfalls Trail, Tourism School Classes

On Monday, Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby gave a preview of the state’s $25.6 million, 2023 and 2024 tourism budgets to the interim Joint Standing Committee on Finance

On Monday, Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby gave a preview of the state’s $25.6 million, 2023 and 2024 tourism budgets to the interim Joint Standing Committee on Finance. She said they are flat budgets both years.

Ruby highlighted a $5.2 million federal grant earmarked for workforce development. She said the state currently employs more than 44,000 direct tourism jobs, and with expected growth, the industry will have 24,000 annual job openings.

Ruby said starting this year there will be middle and high school classes offered to teach kids about jobs in the tourism industry.

“You’ve heard all kinds of kids talk about wanting to be a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer,” Ruby said. “I bet you haven’t heard a kid say, ‘I want to go into the hospitality industry.’ And that’s something that we want to change, especially with the bright future here in West Virginia.”

Ruby explained plans for the high school tourism classes to also earn college credits as part of a career pathway program. She also said higher and non-traditional education are career pathway targets.

“We’re currently working with the higher education policy commission in the community and technical system to do a survey to really do a needs assessment and figure out where we need additional programs,” Ruby said. “Are there universities, are there institutions that could set up specialized programs? We’re figuring out where those are and will we have the funds to help them get them up and running. There will be some new certificate programs as well.”

Ruby said state tourism revenue has never been higher.

“This year we will go over $5 billion, which is the highest that the state has ever seen in traveler spending,” Ruby said. “It’s equal to about $13.6 million per day.

Regarding tourism growth throughout the state, Ruby told lawmakers that gains were not isolated among West Virginia’s nine travel regions, but impacted across the board..

“Last year, we saw growth in all of these regions,” Ruby said. “It’s not that it’s all happening in the New River Gorge or Eastern Panhandle or Southern West Virginia, this growth really continues to be widespread.”

Ruby said advertising West Virginia tourism is paying off with a continually refined effort. She said the state will target more television and radio ads in the receptive Detroit area, along with New York City and Philadelphia. She said the state is involved in strategic market partnership with professional sports teams like the NHL’s Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins.

“If you go to a game this winter there, you will see all things ‘Almost Heaven.’The reason we’re doing these two is we were looking for fall and winter opportunities,” Ruby said. “These are not only our two largest markets, but our two fastest growing markets.”

She made prominent mention of the state’s “waterfall trail” program, calling it “magic in a bottle” for tourism draws.

“There are 29 waterfalls all around the state. You don’t have to download an app, you can just check in on your phone,” Ruby said. “Since we launched it in June, I think we have had more than 20,000 check-ins to our waterfalls. We’ve had visitors from 49 states.”

“I need to figure out what the 50th state is and get someone here,” Ruby told lawmakers about the waterfall trail visitors.

Whiskey Tourism Is Growing In West Virginia

For generations, visitors have come to West Virginia for the scenery and a taste of adventure, but over the past few years, they’re coming to sample whiskey.

For generations, visitors have come to West Virginia for the scenery and a taste of adventure, but over the past few years, they’re coming to sample something else.

Whiskey.

Jeff Arthur at Mountain State Distillery on Capitol Street in Charleston said he was making whiskey in West Virginia before making whiskey in West Virginia was cool – or at least before it was legal.

“I grew up in an area where moonshine was pretty common,” Arthur said. “I knew some people that made it and I eventually learned how to do it myself.”

Across town at the Bullock Distillery, Tighe Bullock said he got into the whiskey business as a way to become part of the neighborhood he was building in.

“I think it’s such a great American endeavor, such a great American task,” Bullock said. “You take some water, you take some corn, you care about what you do and you care about every step of the way. You put some heat in there and you have a really good product. Whiskey comes from Ireland and Scotland, but it’s an American thing.”

Brooke Glover at Swilled Dog, a Cidery and Distillery in Pendleton County, got into the alcohol business because she said her family saw an opportunity.

“Well, the cider market had a big boom, especially in Virginia, around 2016. And that’s when we really came onto the scene,” Glover said. “We found that there was a need in the state of West Virginia that wasn’t being served. There was only one other craft cider in the state. They make amazing cider, as well. We thought that there was a need and we thought that we could use that local agriculture. So, cider which is something that we love to make, and we saw a need in the marketplace.”

They each said they hoped locals would embrace the neighborhood craft distillery much in the same way they embraced neighborhood craft breweries. What they didn’t really count on were travelers stopping by on their way through or tourists seeking them out.

“We really started with people who were coming over and didn’t know about us, had heard about us from locals or just kind of searched for something on Google,” Glover said. “They didn’t have anything to do in the evenings when they were coming over to do climbing, camping and hiking and all those things. That’s how we started with bringing people in. And it has actually changed now to the majority of people who are specifically coming for Swilled Dog. They’re specifically coming to the area and they’re like, ‘What is there to do around you guys?’ And we get to tell them about all the amazing places that we have to experience West Virginia beauty.”

Bullock agreed.

“Some people seek out these kinds of things. They seek out breweries. They seek out distilleries. They seek out that ‘terroir’ of different regions,” he said. “And so we’ve seen people from Brazil, Germany, England, not to mention all the surrounding counties and states. We’ve talked about having a little map where people can put their pins where they’re from.”

It’s been a bonus for some distillers and a real shot in the arm for others.

“It’s very hit and miss,” Arthur said. “When there are events in town, be that Live on the Levee…the regatta was incredible. But even like soccer tournaments down at Shawnee – stuff like that brings all these people here to stay in these hotels. That’s where the bulk of my business comes from. If it wasn’t for tourism, I couldn’t do this.”

Tourists coming to buy products from these distilleries underscores what they say they really want to do –bring outside money into the state and then keep it local.

As much as they can, Glover and Bullock say they buy here.

“We get all of our grains from Mason County, which is old Mr. Yauger. Who, he’s got to be in his late 70s by now,” Bullock said.

Glover said they not only get apples and grain from farms in West Virginia, but they get their oak barrels in-state, too.

“We use West Virginia Great Barrel company barrels for everything that we do,” she said. “They’re in Lewisburg and they’re just amazing. The quality of what they’re producing just ups our quality exponentially. So, it kind of makes it easy.”

The more product they sell, the more local goods they’re able to buy, Bullock said.

The distilleries are trying to be destinations. They schedule live entertainment, host trivia nights and sell merchandise. Some of it comes from area artists or craft businesses.

“We make our money off of this stuff we make in the back, but we have a big tasting room and again like I said, we have a great presence in the capital city of West Virginia,” Bullock said.

“So, while we’re engaging those people, like I said, from Brazil, Germany, people that are visiting us –even if they’re just using the restroom or just getting a sandwich down at the Grill or Gonzoburger or Books and Brews. While we have that opportunity to engage them, why not introduce them to some local honeys, maple syrup that’s been aged in certain barrels? There’s always that opportunity for interaction. If I can help facilitate that, then here I am.”

The distillers all said they’ve had some good experiences with tourism but say the state could probably do more to help them. They did concede that it may not be in the hands of the Department of Tourism.

“Right now, I have a micro distillery license and I’ve already outgrown it,” Bullock said. “One of the main things being that I can’t sell out of state with my current license. I don’t know why the legislature would not want me to sell out of state. I don’t really understand that aspect of it. I think that every license that you have in distilling should enable you to sell at a state. I can’t imagine one good reason why the legislature would want to not allow us to sell out of state.”

Bullock said just allowing small companies like his to sell outside of West Virginia could benefit a lot of people. It would acquaint people with the state’s spirits which might draw fans to come to the state and visit the source. Arthur pointed out people already do this in Kentucky with that state’s popular bourbon trail.

Meanwhile, Glover said the state has been good to them, but they could really use some help from the division of highways. They’re on the wrong side of a mountain.

“Our facility is actually right on the backside of Seneca Rocks,” Glover said. “There’s no road that goes in between. So, you have to go all the way to Franklin and then all the way around. But we’re only like a couple miles just, you know –if you just make a straight line. You can do it. I think there’s like a fire road or something that some people have talked about, but we’re right there. I’m like, ‘Oh, come on, just get off the road!’”

The Pros And Cons Of The Growing Demand For Vacation Rentals

Companies like Airbnb and Vrbo are part of the same gig economy as ride-sharing apps like Uber, or food delivery services like Doordash – they act as online marketplaces that connect property owners with tenants for a short period. They’ve become increasingly popular as an alternative to hotels, allowing tourists to stay in unique lodgings in the communities they’re visiting.

As West Virginia becomes renowned for its outdoor tourism spots, short-term vacation rentals like Airbnbs and Vrbos are increasingly in demand.

These companies are part of the same gig economy as ride-sharing apps like Uber, or food delivery services like Doordash – they act as online marketplaces that connect property owners with tenants for a short period. They’ve become increasingly popular as an alternative to hotels, allowing tourists to stay in unique lodgings in the communities they’re visiting.

Jamie Lopez, a real estate agent based in Martinsburg, has been an Airbnb owner and consultant for six years.

“I think about 25 percent of my traffic comes from tourism,” Lopez said. “And when I tell local people that people are actually coming to Martinsburg to be a tourist, it shocks them sometimes.”

Lopez says the average Airbnb renter tends to be more invested in the community they’re staying in, noting they spend more money in town and contribute more to the local tourism economy.

“The same $100 spent on an Airbnb spends about $100 in town. They spend multiple days in town. It’s a huge difference, the traveler that stays in an Airbnb,” Lopez said.

West Virginia’s Secretary of Tourism Chelsea Ruby says the state has been monitoring the growth of short-term rentals for some time. She says the state has seen a huge increase in the sales tax revenue from what are called “marketplace facilitators” like Airbnb since 2019.

“In the month of August of this year, there were $10.6 million in taxable sales, and the state collected $638,000 in sales tax on these properties,” Ruby said.

That’s an increase of more than 350 percent since the state began collecting sales tax from these companies three years ago.

For the companies’ part, they’ve made more than $100 million dollars in in-state revenue over the past year, with around 4,400 vacation rental listings statewide. The popularity of these rentals has gotten such that West Virginia’s tourism office has partnered with the rental sharing company Vrbo to promote some of the state’s tourist destinations.

“We’re clearly one of the fastest growing vacation rental states in the country as far as new rentals coming online,” Ruby said. “But we’re lagging behind in consumer education, meaning that we’re quickly becoming a vacation rental state, but we haven’t told the world that we’re a vacation rental state.”

But the success of short-term rentals across the state’s real estate and tourism industries could be putting a strain on local workers, especially in more rural areas. Daniel Eades, associate professor and rural development specialist for WVU Extension, says it makes it harder for workers to find housing in the communities they work in.

“This ends up causing real problems when those rental properties that folks could afford at $750 are now being used as short-term rentals where the owner can get $1,000 a month,” Eades said.

It’s not a problem that’s unique to West Virginia, but rural communities in the state are seeing the effects. A town hall meeting document from Davis in Tucker County says 30 housing units in the town have been converted into short-term rentals as of last February.

“I think the absolute number isn’t that high,” Eades said. “But when your town only has 500 homes, that’s five percent of the housing stock that’s potentially been taken out and is being used for short-term rental.”

As one of West Virginia’s premiere vacation areas, around 37 percent of Tucker County’s housing units are second homes. The county average in West Virginia is 3.9 percent, and the national average is 3.1 percent.

But property owners converting homes into Airbnbs isn’t the sole reason why housing is hard to come by in rural communities. Emily Wilson-Hauger of Elkins-based community development organization Woodlands Development and Lending, says it’s an issue that dates back to the Great Recession and housing crisis of the late 2000s.

“I think just the lack of any significant housing being built in the last, you know, 10, 12 years is at play,” Wilson-Hauger said. “High construction costs in the area, it’s pretty remote. Developable land is really hard to find.”

Old housing stock and a stagnant market led to a shrinking workforce in areas like Tucker County. In 2015, Woodlands launched an assessment of housing needs in the area.

“The bigger issue is that even at that time, the employers, the major employers and the small businesses, were saying they could not find enough workers,” Wilson-Hauger said. “Almost everyone we interviewed, every focus group, those employers attributed that to the lack of workforce housing.”

A more recent housing assessment made by economic development consulting firm Downstream Strategies says there is an estimated deficit of 321 units of workforce housing in the county.

State leaders have recognized the issue and are trying to fix it. House Bill 4502 was passed during the legislature’s last regular session, which encourages the development of new housing in the communities that need them by offering tax credits to development companies.

The bill officially took effect in September, and Chelsea Ruby says the tourism office is working with the Department of Commerce and Department of Economic Development to designate areas in the state in need of more workforce housing. She says it’s a way to support these local communities so that they can in turn support the influx of tourists.

“There are a good number of state and federal credits that help with low-income housing,” Ruby said. “But, well, we don’t have our incentive programs to help with that middle market housing, which is exactly where these houses come into play.”

Wilson-Hauger and her team at Woodlands are doing their part to help as well. They’ve just finished building an eight-unit townhouse project in Tucker County and have plans for a larger workforce housing subdivision in the future.

“All the things that go into a development like that will just take time, because we are targeting this median income range, where there’s not a lot of public subsidies to support it, like there is for very low-income households,” Wilson-Hauger said.

And though housing remains a need, they think they can strike a balance between vacation rentals and providing comfortable, long-term housing for the locals that need it.

“I use Airbnb and when I go on vacation, too, you know, they are a very fun way to experience the community and the destination, they can be a really great wealth generator for families,” Wilson-Hauger said.

Tourism Jobs Lagging, But Increases Expected

While the pandemic shook up most of the world’s economies, including tourism, it actually gave things in the Mountain State a boost.

For some, West Virginia has long been a destination for outdoor activities. Visitors have come for skiing, hiking and whitewater rafting along with riding ATVs.

While the pandemic shook up most of the world’s economies, including tourism, it actually gave things in the Mountain State a boost.

According to a press release from Gov. Jim Justice’s office, West Virginia’s tourism industry is up 3.8 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Nationally, tourism is down 27 percent compared to 2019.

Even with the increases in West Virginia, employment in the tourism industry has not kept up.

According to Chelsea Ruby, the state’s Secretary of Tourism, employment often lags a couple years behind visitor spending.

“Halfway through 2017, 2018, what we saw was traveler spending was growing really fast,” Ruby said. “We were outpacing the national rate of growth by about 58 percent. Well, then you get to 2019. And you see this, this huge increase, where employment was actually the highest it had been in the previous decade, because it was starting to catch up with that spending growth.”

According to data from Workforce West Virginia, the leisure and hospitality sector employs almost 69,000 people. But that’s actually 4,000 fewer people than in 2011. And only about 5,000 more than in 2001.

Ruby uses slightly different numbers representing only those who actually work in tourism and hospitality. Workforce West Virginia’s numbers include people who work in support industries.

“Right before the pandemic, we were at the height of where we’ve been as far as directly employed tourism employees,” she said. “And the second thing you’ll see is a gradual increase in earnings that we’ve seen as far as the ratio between earnings and in jobs. We’re starting to pay more in these positions, which I think is important to long term growth in the industry.”

Representatives from the travel and hospitality industry see the challenges ahead, but remain optimistic about the state’s potential for growth as an outdoor destination.

“The spending trends are back and better than ever,” Richie Heath, executive director of the West Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, said. “You’re seeing with the tourism report that spending is up over where it was in the pandemic.”

The governor’s report indicates traveler spending in West Virginia exceeded $4.9 billion in 2021. Spending for lodging alone was up more than 44 percent.

But Heath agreed that employment is still lagging. Every industry is looking for qualified workers, according to reports.

Heath said there is a wide variety of opportunities for tourism jobs beyond whitewater guides and ski instructors. Some West Virginians are taking advantage of the influx of visitors with boutique businesses like specialty stores, wedding barns, distilleries and breweries.

“You’ve got a lot of tourism activity going on in southern West Virginia now, which, obviously, has needed some of that development,” Heath said. “And we’re seeing local businesses down there, they’re now expanding. They’re doing cabins and lodging and things like that geared towards all the traffic on the Hatfield McCoy trail.”

The Hatfields and McCoys Trail is a southern West Virginia success story — on one level. It is bringing money and visitors into a region of our state that has struggled in recent years. It opened in 2000 and has grown every year since. This year, they sold 95,000 permits to ride the trails from March to November. Eighty percent of those visitors are from out of state.

For Jeffrey Lusk, the executive director of the trails system, it’s about the businesses created by West Virginians.

“We’re kind of an engine of entrepreneurship,” Lusk said. “We’ve had a lot of businesses open up around the trails. These businesses primarily are lodging. There has been some food service and stuff like that. I would call us, if I had to frame us, we’re a small regional tourist destination. That’s how you would frame us.”

Lusk explained that impact studies show the trail system brings in about $68 million in revenue. But it supports fewer than 700 direct jobs. Most of the cabins and other lodging places only employ one or two full-time employees and a few part-time cleaning people.

“It’s not an engine for jobs. It’s definitely an engine for entrepreneurship,” he said.

The pandemic was actually a bonus for the trails. Ridership grew as people were looking to do things — but be outside and away from crowds.

“When we were coming into the pandemic, we were at 55,000 riders,” Lusk said. “We came out of that at 95,000. And there’s no way I could have told you in the next 36 months, we’re going to grow 40,000 riders.”

Lusk said the trail system has about 1,000 miles of trails, but the area is saturated with trails. There are plans to expand into several more counties in the central part of the state, but he said that is years away.

They can accommodate more riders on the trails they have, but even that is limited.

“I’m just gonna say we’re maybe at 50 percent capacity,” he said. “I think if you doubled what we had, I think you would get to a point where it would start to diminish the quality for the person.”

One of the big questions when it comes to tourism is — do tourism jobs replace the manufacturing or mining jobs the state has lost over the years?

Jordan Nuzum, the communications director for the West Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association, noted that the expected jobs aren’t all entry level, minimum wage type positions.

“Between now and 2025, I think they said that they’re expecting about 24,000 job openings in hospitality and tourism, and 13,000 of those, so over half, would be management style jobs,” Nuzum said.

The state recently received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Rather than investing that money into advertising or infrastructure, Tourism secretary Ruby said the state chose to use the grant for education.

“We felt like we were doing well in those other two areas, but felt like this was an area where we should focus,” she said. “We’ll start with middle school curriculum development, we’ll be creating pathways in high school, so kids can start earning college credits while they’re in high school towards hospitality degrees, we’ll be looking at creating new training programs for all the hospitality workers.”

Ruby said she thinks this is a field more West Virginians should be looking at.

“The hospitality industry is one of the only ones where you can start at the very bottom and move all the way up to the top,” she said. “A quarter of these jobs are going to be management level jobs. They’re going to be six figure salaries. Those are the types of things that we need to be telling kids and other West Virginians who are looking for employment, that this is an industry that’s growing, this is an exciting industry.”