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The spotlight was shining on tourism Wednesday as the Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors' Bureau hosted its first "Spotlight On Tourism" networking event.
Local members of the hospitality industry socialized and then heard presentations on three featured area attractions.
Brent Wilcoxson, president of Winona Lake Town Council, gave a presentation on the Village at Winona. Anita Pattison told the group about the Festival of Trees. Representatives of the Wagon Wheel Theatre concluded the evening with a slide show and discussion on the theater.
Wilcoxson said, "I think one of the purposes we're here for is to create a bigger pie." He said they're not there to create competition but to work together. "I look at our region as being in competition with Disney or Paris. Our region is in competition for those dollars."
He said Winona Restorations is trying to emphasize three features of Winona Lake to attract tourists and to consider the area a destination point. Those three features are the natural attraction of Winona Lake, the historical architecture and using Winona Lake as a gathering place.
"The essence of Winona Lake was a place of gathering," Wilcoxson said.
In the coming years, Wilcoxson said, new shops will open, there will be an upscale restaurant, the Billy Sunday Visitors Center will be open and the Winona Hotel will be completed in summer 2001.
He also said, "It looks very possible we may be able to acquire an old manufacturing building just outside the town limits for an auto museum."
Pattison said the Festival of Trees is moving this year from the Center Lake Pavilion to the Westminster Hotel in Winona Lake.
"As we looked at the event, we just wanted to beef it up a bit," she said.
The move will allow the group to hold special events, including bringing in 150 children for a Teddy Bear picnic; a traditional ladies tea, complete with guest speaker and Victorian-era clothing; and having local health care patients and Head Start children visit the Festival of Trees.
Generally, the festival was a five-day event, Pattison said, but this year the festival will be Nov. 21 to Dec. 5 with public viewing on the weekends. The display will also be open Thanksgiving Day from 3 to 7 p.m.
"After viewing other community events ... we're pretty proud of what we do here in Warsaw, Indiana," she said.
The festival benefits the Health Care Foundation of Kosciusko County Inc., a not-for-profit organization.
Jennifer Tandy and Carol Craig began their presentation on the Wagon Wheel Theatre with the history of the theater. Craig said they will be going into their 45th year this summer.
Tandy, director of marketing for Wagon Wheel, said, "The Wagon Wheel play is very vital to this complex."
She said during the seven performances in the summer, more than 65,000 people went through the doors. Another 40,000 attended the concerts.
Their Christmas program this year will be "Joseph." Concerts in 2000 will include the Charlie Daniels Band, the Oak Ridge Boys and Billy Ray Cyrus, among others. Plays in 2000 will include "Cinderella," "Oliver" and "Evita."
"No, Madonna is not coming in for the part," Tandy said of "Evita."
She concluded by saying that more than 40 percent of the people who watch performances at the Wagon Wheel Theatre are from out of the Kosciusko County area.
