West Virginia gets recognized as one of the Best Places to Go in 2022

WEST VIRGINIA (WOAY) – The Mountain State is gaining some momentum.

Following the positive recognition the state garnered from a series of publications and media outlets in 2021, West Virginia is now receiving the title as one of the Best Places to Go by both Frommer’s and USA Today for 2022. And New River Gorge Park Ranger, Eve West, says she isn’t surprised by the recent recognitions.

“We have had a tremendous amount of media attention this past year. Prior to the National Park designation, most of the attention was regional or local, but this has put us on a national agenda as well as an international agenda, so it will be interesting to see what happens to our visitation this year because of this,” West says.

In addition, the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve recently made TIME Magazine’s annual list of the World’s Greatest Places featuring 100 extraordinary travel destinations around the world.

And, West goes onto say that due to such titles, visitation numbers that have already been going up since the new park designation should only continue to rise, specifically attracting more international visitors than ever before.

“I think for those of us who live and work here, we have always recognized that the New River area, Southern West Virginia, and West Virginia in general was a very special place, and so what this does is it gives us the opportunity to share that with the rest of the world,” says West.

And, while last year West Virginia saw a number of good attention being thrown its way, many are already anticipating that the Frommer’s and USA Today rankings are only the beginning of what 2022 may bring.

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