This morning, the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County and the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau announced the creation of "Stay Local, Play Local," a joint tourism project created to urge locals to stay in the area this summer.
Charlottesville is filled with vacation activities, according to Ann Mallek, chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, who evoked images of local farmers stands, artisan studios and Monticello in her comments. "Stay Local, Play Local" aims to reveal activities so locals will vacation in their own backyard, and perhaps keep vacation money circulaing within the local economy. Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris emphasized that vacationing in the Charlottesville area this summer is one thing citizens can do in order to help Charlottesville combat the current economic situation.
The program hopes to garner ideas for local activities from citizens, and has launched a website, mybackyardvacation.org, and a Facebook fan page in order to encourage locals to share their favorite area activities. The web site already lists potential activities for everyone from super sports fans (a trip to the Virginia Polo Center) to dogs (a leash-free stroll in Azalea Park). Perhaps you could find a suggestion of your own within this week’s cover story.
