MONEY

Tourism benefits us all

Luconda Dager Guest Columnist

It’s easy to miss, but each and every one of us is an ambassador for Licking County. We may not realize that the family standing in line in front of us, or the car pulling into the gas station may be here on a vacation. They’re here to create special memories, enjoy time together and escape the every day.

Explore Licking County, our local convention & visitors bureau, is hard at work promoting our area as a destination to visitors. That visitor spending pumps more than $356 million dollars into our county, resulting in jobs and a healthy economy. But travelers’ interaction with everyone in our county helps shape their experience.

Open to the public through Oct. 31, at Velvet’s Ye Olde Mill, we welcome more than 150,000 guests every season for tours, tastings and events, including live music and entertainment every Thursday and Sunday all summer. We welcome all to come see how our delicious ice cream is made by taking a free factory tour, Monday through Friday from 11am to 3pm. In fact, Frommer’s has dubbed the Mill one of America’s 10 Best Ice Cream Factory Tours. And of course, another 40,000 visitors flock here for the annual Utica Sertoma Ice Cream Festival every Memorial Day.

This season we’ve developed some fun ways for our guests to experience Ye Olde Mill and our pride and joy, Velvet Ice Cream. Initially created for groups of four or more, our massive Feed Bin Sundae is such a hit that we created a food challenge. Any ice cream-loving adventurer who can devour the three-pound sundae within an hour on his or her own gets the $29.99 cost of the sundae back, plus a crisp $100 bill, recognition on our wall of fame and, of course, bragging rights. The Feed Bin is a huge hit with groups, offering fun way to share ice cream. It includes: 14 scoops of ice cream, three toppings, two fresh-sliced bananas, eight maraschino cherries, chopped nuts and eight dollops of whipped cream. Our Election Sundaes let visitors vote early by ordering either the Blueberry Donkey (D) or Elephant Ear (R) sundae, with results being tabulated before the general election.

A visit to Ye Olde Mill is just one way visitors enjoy all that our community has to offer. We can all be proud of the work done by the talented tourism pros at Explore Licking County as help visitors “Find Their Way” to Licking County. So next time you meet someone visiting from out of town, be sure to say hello and welcome them to our county. You help create positive memories that are lasting and benefit for us all.

The fourth-generation to run her family’s company, Luconda Dager is president of Utica-based Velvet Ice Cream, a major employer and community partner for Licking County. Dager is a regular contributor to the Business Advocate, writing a monthly column on topics that are important to the area’s business community.