Associated Press Published

Tourism Commission to Improve Rest Areas

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The West Virginia Tourism Commission wants to improve the state’s highway rest areas and welcome centers.

Proposed actions include improving methods to count visitors to the welcome centers, installing brochure racks at all rest areas and working with the Division of Highways to re-evaluate the state map.

The Charleston Gazette reports that the proposals are contained in a recommendation approved by the commission on Wednesday.

Commissioner of Tourism Amy Goodwin says the state’s welcome centers saw an 8.8 percent increase in visitors between August 2013 and August 2014. (This is a correction, our report previously reported at 30 percent increase). 

The state’s eight welcome centers are operated by the Division of Tourism. The Division of Highways oversees all five rest areas. There also are five travel plazas along the West Virginia Turnpike overseen by the West Virginia Parkways Authority.