After leaving her post as tourism director in the town of Appomattox on Friday, Beckie Nix will take the lead of the regional tourism program based in Lynchburg.
The Lynchburg Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau has been without a tourism director for about two and a half years. Nix will officially take on that role Monday.
“Nix has a solid background in tourism, public relations and marketing,” said Rex Hammond, president of the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, in a written statement. “We are gearing up for some tremendous possibilities and innovations in our program, and Beckie’s expertise will help us move forward.”
The chamber of commerce runs Lynchburg’s tourism program as the convention and visitors bureau.
Nix first got involved with tourism while doing marketing work on the West Coast.
Since then, tourism has become her passion, she said.
“It’s such a critical element of a locality’s economic development and economic sustainability,” Nix said.
Her first local project was helping to start the first Appomattox visitor’s center when she was president of the Appomattox Chamber of Commerce, she said.
Since then, she managed the Visitor Information Center in Lynchburg for the Convention and Visitors Bureau before taking the tourism director job in Appomattox in 2006.
“Nix did an outstanding job in substantially overhauling our visitor center operation,” Hammond said Tuesday afternoon. “I hated to lose her to Appomattox, but I was glad she was with an ally county, one that we work closely with.”
In Appomattox, Nix helped increase the service at the visitor’s center, spearheaded the creation of the town’s first promotional video and a series of MP3 audio tours and influenced the recently announced plan to put a satellite of the Museum of the Confederacy in Appomattox.
“In her short time there she’s done some remarkable things,” Hammond said.
While Nix was in Appomattox, the Lynchburg tourism program did not have a director. The last director, Lisa Meriwether, left in spring 2006.
The city was choosing whether to continue having the chamber control the tourism program. Hammond said the chamber did not want to hire a new director until it was clear who would manage the program.
In April of this year, City Council approved a new five-year contract with the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce for managing the tourism program.
The contract also doubles the tourism program budget over the next three years by devoting a larger slice of lodging tax income to tourism.
Hammond said most of the additional money would be used for external marketing.
Nix said she’s excited to join a program that will be able to grow with the increased funding.
“Lynchburg’s always had a great program,” she said. “With the new contract and great funding, it’s going to allow us to do some exciting things.”
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