Fincastle, VA –Demand for recreation services and facilities in Botetourt County remain steady as the department continued to diversify its offerings and replaced several key staff members including the department’s Assistant Director and Tourism Coordinator over the last twelve-month period.

According to the Department’s Annual Report for 2011, more than 11,400 individuals participated or attended the county’s activities, special events and athletic programs sponsored by the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department with another 27,000 guests passing through the gates of the Sports Complex. These numbers represent a growing trend of participation and visitors over the past several years despite increasing competition from other regional service providers.

Botetourt County’s destination marketing campaign “Start Exploring” consists primarily of three individual initiatives: “The Botetourt County Wine Trail”, “The Downtowns of Botetourt”, and “The Upper James River Water Trail”. Tracking the resulting actual visitation is difficult although tangible numbers such as meals and lodging tax, visitation inquiries, unique website traffic and information obtained from community stakeholders all indicate those efforts are working. According to John and Dan Mays of Twin River Outfitters, a canoe livery and river guide service located in Buchanan, “Business is up about 15% since the roll-out of the Upper James River Water Trail and we’ve serviced customers from all over the East Coast”.

Additional participation figures and achievements for 2011 are as follows:

Recreational Programming

    4,808 participants in youth recreation activities (including athletic leagues).

    1,641 participants in adult recreation activities.

    1,598 participants in senior and accessible van services

    3,410 participants in community and special event activities.

Office of Tourism

    Installation of informational kiosks at each of the five public access points, infrastructure improvements at Springwood and the initial development of two new public access points (Gala & Alpine) along the Upper James River Water Trail.

    Development of the Botetourt County Wine Trail Summer Concert Series. Consisting of five individual concerts held at Daleville Town Center and the three individual farm wineries of Fincastle, Blue Ridge and VA Mountain, attracting over 2,400 guests.

    Development of the Open Studios Botetourt. This self guided tour resulted in several hundred guests visiting each of the 16 Artisans workshops who participated.

Botetourt Sports Complex

    Established a new single season high by hosting 32 baseball and softball events that included four Regional, nine State and six National Championships.

    Realized a 60% increase in Botetourt County room nights over 2010, equating to 19% of all the hotel room nights directly attributed to sports tournaments hosted in the Roanoke Valley.

    Generated over $110,000 in direct gate and concession sales.

    Hosted thousands of county residents during the Botetourt Youth Opening Weekend and SOL Stress Buster, Spring and Fall Adult Men’s and Co-Ed Softball Tournaments and high school play including the Botetourt Bash Invitational, The Blue Ridge and Three Rives District and Region C Softball Tournaments.

“In this tough economic environment, you have to provide both great quality and exceptional value in order for people to commit to your programs” said Richard Peters, Director of the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department. “I continue to be extremely proud of the staff’s creative thinking and ability to develop new partnerships in order to meet the public’s demands for such services. Our stable participation numbers confirm that both residents and visitors appear to appreciate what Botetourt County has to offer.”