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Visit Herrington Manor State Park on Sunday March 8th for a pancake breakfast and maple syrup demonstrations. Pancakes, buckwheat cakes, pure maple syrup, sausage, orange juice and coffee will be served at the park while maple syrup demonstrations are being conducted from 8am until 2pm. The event is $7.00 for adults and $4.00 for children 12 and under. For additional information, please call 301-334-9180.
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The Garrett County Chamber of Commerce has received the first report of the data collected from a year-long four-season Tourism Survey of visitors to the county.
“This report covers the fall season, featuring our Autumn Glory Festival,” noted Charlie Ross, President and Chief Executive Office of The Chamber. “With the remaining three reports we will have the next complete picture and the best marketing infrastructure of any community I know,” he concluded.
Along with providing The Chamber with definitive demographic and seasonal guest information so they can market more effectively, the information collected from the surveys will be used by The Chamber’s member businesses to better serve the area’s guests.
In summer 2008, The Chamber hired West Virginia University Professors Dr. Steve Selin and Dr. Jinyang Deng and their team of graduate students to create the four-season survey, with help from The Garrett County Chamber’s Tourism Survey Committee. Along with demographic information, the comprehensive survey asks visitors to the county about their vacation habits including trip planning, trip spending, accommodation types, activities completed, relocation interest, second home usage, and guest comments, among others.
Since last August, the WVU team has conducted the surveys at various high-traffic locations throughout the county with a minimum of 600 surveys conducted per season (for a minimum total of 2,400 surveys completed over the course of one year).
Based on 635 completed surveys from September through November of 2008, the results show 58.8% of Garrett County visitors were female and 41.2% were male. 72.1% were adult visitors traveling with at least another adult while 27.9% traveled with at least one child age 17 and below. The majority of visitors (41.2%) were between the ages of 40-54 years old, were married (74.9%), 61.1% did not have children in the household, 76.3% had either an undergraduate (41.1%) or graduate degree (35.2%), and were affluent with 38.1% having a family income over $100,000.
53.9% of the fall respondents have visited the county more than 10 times while 18.0% indicated that their first time to visit the county. Additionally, 19.1% and 9.0% reported having visited the county for 2-5 times and 6-10 times, respectively. The majority of visitors (73.3%) stayed at least one night in the county while the remaining (26.67%) were day trippers or passed through the county en route to other places. Of those who stayed overnight, 17.1% stayed at their second home, 12.6% stayed at a vacation rental home, 15.8% stayed with friends/family, 14.5% stayed in a hotel/motel, 5.4% stayed in a cabin, and 4.1% stayed in a bed & breakfast. The most popular activities were dining out (60.7%), hiking (35.7%), cooking in (31.1%), photography (26.6%) and visiting Swallow Falls (24%).
The average group size was 3.9 people. An average of 8 people stayed at vacation rental homes, the largest group size for all accommodation types, 4.6 people stayed at a cabin, 3.7 stayed with friends/family, and 3.6 stayed with a second home owner. Bed & Breakfasts had the smallest group size at 2.3 people and day trippers had an average of 2.8 people.
Visitors staying in vacation rental homes planned their trips to Garrett County 92 days in advance, followed by cabins (83 days in advance), short-tern RV/Camping Ground (52 days in advance), staying with friends/family (38.8 days), bed & breakfast (38.7 days), hotel/motel (35.2 days), and 30.9 days ahead of time for day trippers. 44.3% of visitors planned their trips less than two weeks ahead of time. 7.7% of respondents made their plans to travel to the county the same day.
The WVU graduate students began the surveys in August 2008. The information collected during that time will be combined with the survey data collected in June & July 2009. The winter surveys began in December 2008 and will continue throughout February at various high-traffic locations around Garrett County. The spring surveys will be conducted March 2009 – May 2009.
For more information, please contact The Garrett County Chamber of Commerce at 301.387.4386 or www.visitdeepcreek.com.
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Welcome Deep Creek Weather to The Deep Creek Blog. Deep Creek Weather, created by Mountainstone Media, is a site providing comprehensive weather information for Deep Creek Lake, complete with a live cam. Weather conditions at Deep Creek Lake are now one click away from every Deep Creek Blog page. ________________________________________________________________________________________
Help the Nature Conservancy on April 25th during the 2009 Spruce Planting Workday. Transport red spruce seedlings rescued from a West Virginia right-of-way and then replant them on a beautiful preserve. This is the second of a 3-year "follow-up" planting effort at this preserve. From 1996-1998, they planted 14,000 red spruce seedlings at The Glades. In order to create some age diversity among these trees, they are now returning to the site to plant another 3-year round of seedlings. The work day is from 10 am until 4pm and will involve some walking, but no steep hills. Children as young as fourth-grade can do a great job and kids of any age are welcome to come along just for the fun of it. Sign up for the event at dlandau@tnc.org.
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Jonathan Shadel is organizing a series of events in Western Maryland to further the art of the spoken word. The goal of the project, called "TRAPAGE," is to give an outlet for those who wish to "perform" their poetry, prose or some sort of improv. Events will be held at the Garrett College auditorium beginning at 6PM on February 25th, March 25th, and April 15th. This is an ongoing community oriented arts event for artists to display their literary work. For more information email trapageoutloud@gmail.com or learn more at myspace.com/trapage.
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The 10% discount off of Season Subscriptions for Garrett Lakes Arts Festival ends Saturday, February 28. A season subscription is one ticket for each event during the GLAF 2009 season. It also entitles the holder to preferential seating during the performances of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as well as "Beatlemania Now". Call the GLAF office at 301-387-3082, or order your subscription on line at www.artsandentertainment.org.
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Dan Neuland writes about Trophy-size trout opportunities on the Casselman in today's Frederick News-Post Online.
Pictured above is "Trout Season" by Robert Yonke.
WTAE Pittsburgh and Wisp Resort bring you a contest with an opportunity to win a summer or winter getaway to Wisp Resort. Enter on WTAE's site
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A record crowd of 141 guests attended the Garrett County Chamber’s Business After Hours networking event on February 18 at Mountain State Brewing Company.
Guests enjoyed Mountain State Brewing Company’s signature flatbread pizzas and handcrafted ales, as they mingled and perused Chamber member exhibits from Rocktops, Jesse’s Signs and Designs, Debbie Beitzel of Long & Foster Realtors and Ridgeview Valley, LLC. Door prize winners included Chad Ward with Rodeheaver & Associates and Kristen Fischetti with Railey Mountain Lake Vacations, who both won a cutting board with knife and Terah Crawford with the Will O’ Lounge who won a gift card from Mountain State Brewing Company.
“We are thrilled with the record turnout for this Business After Hours event,” said Charlie Ross, President/CEO of the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce. “The Board and the Staff of the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce would like to thank not only Mountain State Brewing Company and our exhibiting McHenry businesses, but also everyone who came out to support the event. We look forward to continuing to spotlight the communities of Garrett County at future Business After Hours events.”
In December, The Chamber announced that, in an effort to allow smaller Chamber member businesses an opportunity for additional participation, the 2009 Business After Hours events will be held at a central location in different communities throughout Garrett County. Following the motto that ‘people do business with people they know’, whether you have a small office, are home-based, or work out of a business vehicle, Chamber members will now be able to join in as hosts for a Business After Hours just like those with storefronts or meeting rooms have done in the past. The events provide a relaxed, social setting for Chamber members to mingle and network with other Chamber members.
The next Business After Hours will be held in Accident in March. The remainder of the 2009 schedule is Deer Park in April, McHenry in May, Friendsville in June, Oakland in July, Grantsville in August, McHenry in September, Loch Lynn Heights in October and Kitzmiller in November. Dates and exact locations will be determined.
For more information about the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce or future Business After Hours events, please contact the Chamber at 301.387.4386 or visit www.garrettchamber.com
____________________________________________________________________________________The Republican reports on Winterfest, kicking off tonight in Oakland.
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Paula from Ridgeview Valley sent a message today that the cross country ski day planned for tomorrow has been canceled. The wind has blow all of the snow out of the fields, so they aren't able to properly groom out the area. They are planning some Mountain Bike days in the spring so stay tuned and visit www.blog.ridgeviewvalley.com.
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Congratulations to Feedblitz subscriber Ket Troxell, the winner of the "Old McHenry" print. Thanks again to all subscribers and Fans for keeping up with "The Deep Creek Blog". ___________________________________________________________________________________________
Congratulations to Railey Realty who came in at number one again this year in market share for the Deep Creek Lake and Garrett County market. Stats and more information are posted on the Railey Blog .________________________________________________________________________________________
