This has been an interesting week for me. Because of some of thefun i’ve been having on twitter, and some of the relationships i’ve developed with other tourism folks, i’ve had a lot of love thrown my way.
A tweet from Anne at Visit Chicagoland was one of my favorite compliments: @TravelCoosBay has a way of making people want to visit the area.
It reminded me of something my dear old boss used to say: Just do what you love, and the rest will follow. I get it, I totally get it; because I LOVE my communities, the towns of Coos Bay, North Bend & Charleston are all just a little different, a little quirky, and all equally as charming as the next. I love the people here, I love our little stretch of the coast, how beautiful it is, how I can let my dogs run free and even at the busiest times of year, walk just a little way and feel like the beach is all mine. I love that our part of the coast isn’t lined with back to back houses, that the kids at Dutch Bros know me by name, that I have the fish market’s phone number memorized, and that when a visitor asks how the crabbing is today, I can just call the grocery store in Charleston and they always have an answer.
It’s my hope that people who follow me on twitter, or read this blog, or who talk to other folks from my area get just a tiny glimpse of all this, that it makes them want to come and fall just a little bit in love as well.
I just finished reading a blog at the Oregon 150 website from Todd Davidson, CEO of Travel Oregon; he says it best of course (that’s why they make him CEO!)
“For all of her (Oregon’s) diverse natural beauty, amazing culinary offerings, abundant outdoor recreation, dynamic urban centers, cherished rural communities and sweeping scenic vistas found along backroads throughout the state – to appreciative Japanese students, to the grateful tears of a New Yorker, and to millions of visitors who travel to Oregon each year on vacation from across the country and around the world – it is Oregonians themselves that are our greatest asset.”