PORT ANGELES — “A million-acre park is just the start.”
And with that quote on the cover, the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce’s 2005 tourist brochure is newly off the press with information on sites and activities around Olympic National Park, which covers nearly one million acres.
Chamber Executive Director Russ Veenema debuted the brochure, titled “The Center Of It All,” during the chamber’s weekly luncheon meeting on Monday that also featured presentations on other tourism marketing projects.
About 60 chamber members meeting at the Port Angeles CrabHouse also were updated on a proposal to build a covered equestrian arena at the Clallam County Fairgrounds.
The 24-page visitor brochure, Veenema said, was developed for the chamber by the firm InsideOut Solutions of Sequim and emphasizes destination events on its cover for the first time, Veenema said.
New features also include community information and an expanded restaurant section.
It is aimed for visitors from off the North Olympic Peninsula and will be distributed at points both inside and outside Clallam County.
Close to home
Another marketing program under development by the chamber is dubbed “Vacationing In Your Own Backyard,” and emphasizes small getaways designed for local residents, chamber member Kathy Charlton told the audience.
Charlton, owner of Olympic Cellars Winery east of Port Angeles, said chamber members will soon have Web site access to coupons and other incentives for “little vacations” at area inns, eateries and other destinations.
Veenema, who also chairs an airline task force for the Port of Port Angeles, briefly discussed a questionnaire now being distributed in Clallam County that is surveying use — and potential use — of airlines in and out of Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles.
The survey form appeared on Page D4 of Sunday’s Peninsula Daily News. It is available at the Chamber of Commerce office at 121 E. Railroad Ave. and soon on the chamber’s Web site, www.portangeles.org.
The chamber audience also heard a short presentation from Carol Johnson, the chamber’s representative on the Clallam County Fair Advisory Board, on the board’s proposal to build a 300-foot-long covered arena at the fairgrounds.
Events in the steel arena, which would have a dirt floor and seating for 3,000 or more spectators, could be held year-round despite the weather, Johnson said.
No cost estimate, funding source or construction timeline have been developed, she said, although similar arenas have cost in the “million-dollar range” to build.