CHARLESTON, W.Va. –Director of Division of Natural Resources says that state parks visitors have grown significantly due to an increase in revenue thanks to the Department of Tourism and their advertisements.
Director Brett McMillion, along with Tourism secretary Chelsea Ruby, gave an update on state parks in front of the Joint Standing Committee on Finance Monday morning during the legislative interim sessions at Stonewall Resort Park.
McMillion said that state parks are $857,000 dollars ahead of pace in revenue compared to this time in 2024.
He said that with this increase of revenue, they have also seen an increase of people wanting to visit the areas, especially Watoga State Park in Marlinton. This increase has led state park officials with the problem of not being able to add more camp sites fast enough.
“If you guys try to book at any of our campgrounds or even our lodges and cabins, you’ll realize that same challenge, so the more that we expand these facilities the more we can provide those guests coming to West Virginia,” McMillion said.
He also said that along with Watoga; Little Beaver State Park, Blackwater Falls State Park, and Babcock have also led in the increase of revenue.
During his presentation he showed a chart that included numbers from 2015 to present day. He said that in 2015 they were close to closing areas due to the lack of revenue but thanks to the investments made to state parks they have been able to reverse that.
“We are 40 million in revenue, we have doubled that in a 10-year span and that’s thanks to Chelsea and her teams marketing, the investments made by the legislators and the governors,” McMillion said.
Ruby got the opportunity to give an update from her perspective as the one heading the marketing.
She said that they have started a couple of different things that have helped with the increasing revenue. One of the things she said that they are doing is targeted emails. Through this, they have a list of people who have stayed at a state park already and when they’ve stayed, so they can send them an email when it’s around the time of year again to ask them if they’re ready to come back.
She said that they sent out 500,000 million emails to those on the list.
Another thing Ruby spoke on was leaning into the use of social media in order to focus on advertisements.
She showed three social media reels that grossed the greatest number of views; the highest one came in at over 600,000 views, another one had 400,000 views and the last one had 112,000 views.
Ruby said that with these ads, people were booking their vacation at one of the parks within three days of seeing the ad.
She said that these social media ads allow them to make a more targeted approach to get people to book at and eat at specific places while their visiting.
It’s more about booking this specific hotel, and coming to this specific park, and riding this specific boat and having this meal et cetera,” Ruby said. “So, really excited on the progress we’ve made on the social ads and the return that we’re getting.”
She has said that they launched an online store for people which has also garnered revenue.
Since revenue has skyrocketed, McMillion said they have been able to make improvements throughout the parks and campgrounds to enhance visitors’ experiences.
They have been able to start improvements to 88 bath houses, they were able to add a visitors’ center near the Elk River Trail, and they were able to add onto to Summersville Lake State Park.
McMillion says that the improvements are working.
“These investments are realizing a tremendous return, our attendance is through the roof,” he said.