CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A travel magazine has named West Virginia one of its top places to visit for 2022.
Conde Nast Traveler on Wednesday published its list of the best places to go, in which West Virginia was the only state to be included.
“Obviously, over the last year and a half, we’ve all been staying a bit closer to home and rediscovering places right around us,” Conde Nast Traveler senior editor Megan Spurrell said on Thursday’s “MetroNews Talkline.”
“West Virginia was somewhere we got excited about.”
The publication noted the designation of the New River Gorge as a national park and preserve as West Virginia’s leading attribute to visitors. The writers also cited West Virginia’s state parks and its 10 million annual visitors as factors impacting the listing.
“States don’t often make it,” Spurrell said.
“I think it’s very exciting to have West Virginia. Personally, I’m based in New York and — I’m embarrassed to admit it — I haven’t been to West Virginia yet. Now I know I have to get myself down there come Jan. 1 because I’ve learned so much about the state by doing this.”
Gov. Jim Justice discussed the publication’s list during Thursday’s coronavirus briefing; he said the list is the byproduct of West Virginia’s efforts to improve its image.
“We are becoming really noticed,” he said. “We knew how great we were. We needed to turn the world loose. We needed to change our image, and we did it.”
Other locations selected by the publication include Charleston, South Carolina; Honduras; Sicily, Italy; and Serbia.