MetroWest Visitors Bureau Awards Mini-Grant to Franklin
By J.D. O’Gara
The Town of Franklin is among the recipients of The MetroWest Visitors Bureau’s spring cycle of grants. The awards, totaling $70k, are funded through the Bureau and the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism to promote MetroWest events, attractions, businesses, services, cultural and recreational opportunities. Franklin has received $1,600 to fund a mini-visitor’s center in the lobby of the Franklin Municipal Building.
“Through these grant projects, we are able to highlight our region and stimulate economic recovery,” says Erin Lynch, Executive Director of the Bureau. “We are attracting visitors while generating local enthusiasm and support for MetroWest community businesses.”
“As the municipal building and more of our facilities open up to the public, and we have more traffic coming in to do business here, we’re wanting to capture that audience and expose them to all the wonderful things to do in Franklin and beyond, the amenities we have, the shows, our open space, all the parks and recreation,” says Franklin Marketing and Communications Specialist Anne Marie Tracey. “We just didn’t have a dedicated space to offer that type of information.”
Working with interns from Franklin High School, Tracey will design the visitor’s center as a tablet-based, interactive experience to easily access information. “I figured we’d start this and do a proof of concept to see how many people we got, how many found it helpful and maybe grow it in the future, with bigger, perhaps more locations. The great thing about it being digital is it can be duplicated,” says Tracey, who envisions the kiosk to be up and running by July.
One of sixteen Regional Tourism Councils in Massachusetts, the MetroWest Visitors Bureau participates in the state’s MyLocalMA campaign encouraging Massachusetts residents to eat, shop and stay local, and the Bureau’s mini-grant program aligns with that mission. “As travel begins to open up again,” Lynch says, “it remains critical to include MetroWest in your plans. Our local hotels and attractions have been very hard hit and still need help to survive.”
Learn more about the MWVB by visiting www.metrowestvisitors.org or by following on social media @visitmetrowest. #visitmetrowest #visitma #mylocalma
The Town of Franklin is among the recipients of The MetroWest Visitors Bureau’s spring cycle of grants. The awards, totaling $70k, are funded through the Bureau and the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism to promote MetroWest events, attractions, businesses, services, cultural and recreational opportunities. Franklin has received $1,600 to fund a mini-visitor’s center in the lobby of the Franklin Municipal Building.
“Through these grant projects, we are able to highlight our region and stimulate economic recovery,” says Erin Lynch, Executive Director of the Bureau. “We are attracting visitors while generating local enthusiasm and support for MetroWest community businesses.”
“As the municipal building and more of our facilities open up to the public, and we have more traffic coming in to do business here, we’re wanting to capture that audience and expose them to all the wonderful things to do in Franklin and beyond, the amenities we have, the shows, our open space, all the parks and recreation,” says Franklin Marketing and Communications Specialist Anne Marie Tracey. “We just didn’t have a dedicated space to offer that type of information.”
Working with interns from Franklin High School, Tracey will design the visitor’s center as a tablet-based, interactive experience to easily access information. “I figured we’d start this and do a proof of concept to see how many people we got, how many found it helpful and maybe grow it in the future, with bigger, perhaps more locations. The great thing about it being digital is it can be duplicated,” says Tracey, who envisions the kiosk to be up and running by July.
One of sixteen Regional Tourism Councils in Massachusetts, the MetroWest Visitors Bureau participates in the state’s MyLocalMA campaign encouraging Massachusetts residents to eat, shop and stay local, and the Bureau’s mini-grant program aligns with that mission. “As travel begins to open up again,” Lynch says, “it remains critical to include MetroWest in your plans. Our local hotels and attractions have been very hard hit and still need help to survive.”
Learn more about the MWVB by visiting www.metrowestvisitors.org or by following on social media @visitmetrowest. #visitmetrowest #visitma #mylocalma
