Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Tourism in Kosciusko County is steadily increasing and the agency that promotes it is preparing to re-invest.
Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors Bureau plans to use $140,000 - revenues accumulated over the past 10 years - toward opening a 24-hour visitor service center.
CVB director Linda Arnold said she wants to move the office from the current location within the Warsaw-Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce complex on South Buffalo Street to somewhere along U.S. 30 in Warsaw.
"We need to be more accessible, more visible to the traveler on the highway. We would like to have an area of our office open 24 hours a day."
In addition to office space for the CVB's two employees, the proposed visitor center would include a slew of brochures and a computer available to motorists that would allow people to access information on immediate hotel availability.
The software program Arnold is looking at would list options and prices and then would dial directly to the specific hotel.
Arnold said she would like to relocate the CVB office by the end of the year. The organization has looked at a site on Ind. 15, but wants the office to be on U.S. 30, the county's largest traffic route.
"If we're going to make a move, we need to be really visible," she said.
Whether they lease, rent or buy remains undecided.
"Right now we're open to options. This is the first time we've ever had the dollars outside of our regular budget," Arnold said.
The revenues come from the county innkeepers tax, a 5 percent surcharge collected on each rented room.
Funds from the innkeepers tax have continued to increase steadily in recent years as the number of overnight visitors has risen.
In addition to providing the CVB's entire annual budget, a portion of the innkeepers tax revenues had been accumulating since the tax was established in 1987.
Those dollars, formerly controlled by the county, were recently turned over to the CVB.
About one-third of the agency's funds are spent on promoting activities in the county. In 1997, $71,000 will be spent on magazines, newspapers, billboards, travel guides and other promotional materials.
The CVB has also designated $150,000 be given to the City-County Athletic Complex over several years.
The rise in revenues is due to increased use of hotel space, which is being matched in recent years by construction of several hotels in the county.
Recent and expected hotel construction includes:
• Brooke Point Inn, offering 30 spacious rooms with a bed-and-breakfast atmosphere, opened west of Syracuse in May 1995. The facility includes a conference center and rooms with hot tubs.
• Oakwood Inn, located along the shores of Lake Wawasee, opened last summer. It features 76 rooms. Suites and rooms with jacuzzis are available. The hotel joined an already existing conference center.
• Super 8 Motel, with 56 rooms, including four spa suites, opened in early February along U.S. 30 in Warsaw.
• Initial construction has begun on two more hotels in Warsaw. Hampton Inn and Suites and a Holiday Inn Express have begun initial construction efforts for facilities along U.S. 30. Both projects were announced nearly two years ago but have been slow to develop.
Some of the increased demand for hotel space is caused by the City-County Athletic Complex, which attracts out-of-town softball players participating in weekend tourneys.
But demand for hotel space goes beyond that, Arnold said.
"I think our corporate travelers have increased and I think the type of properties that are coming in - the suites - I think that will generate more overnights.
"Once the word gets out that we have suites, the corporate traveler staying outside of the county will start staying inside the county."
