MANSFIELD – Destination Mansfield – Richland County reviewed its 2017 successes and introduced the community to its 2018 plans during its annual meeting Wednesday at the North Central State College Kehoe Center in Shelby.

Since “Destination Mansfield” was renamed “Destination Mansfield – Richland County” in February 2017, the tourism organization has evaluated and changed how it presents the area’s attractions via a 40-page visitor guide and its website.

“Everything changed when we changed our name Feb. 1, 2017,” President Lee Tasseff said. “That same day, we gathered a group of people to help us re-imagine how we present our attractions as well as the community to potential visitors.”

“The idea was to make it easy for someone to see themselves doing something they like and doing it in our county. We tell visitors not just what we have, but why they should come here.”

The new website and visitor’s guide feature sections like “What we are famous for,” “Don’t you just love” and “Thing your kids are gonna love” instead of an alphabetical directory.

“We now engage visitors by things they are interested in and guide them rather than merely list everything we have and let them find it themselves,” said Alex Rocks, board chairman.

Destination Mansfield – Richland County partnered with DRM Productions for the website design. Jay Miller of DRM introduced the crowd to the website at Wednesday’s meeting.

Later in the meeting, Destination Mansfield – Richland County honored four people with tourism excellence awards. Winners included Bible Walk for its Dinner with Grace, Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District for Pleasant Hill Lake Park, Roger and Christine Bowersock for the Shawshank Hustle and Ed Pickens for Ed Picken’s Events and Catering, which was recently taken over by the owner of China Club.

“The winners this year are all very deserving, all have had a much larger impact on the community than people might realize,” Tasseff said.

With Wednesday’s additions, Destination has now recognized 64 people since the awards started in 2005.

“We always thought we’d run out at some point; that hasn’t been the case,” Tasseff said.

The meeting also highlighted 2017 achievements like the filming of Escape Plan 3 at the Ohio State Reformatory and other local places, publishing a record 73 blogs and making 146 social media posts with an 11 percent increase in engagement. These are in addition to the creation of its visitor’s guide.

Since the start of 2018, the tourism agency has launched a digital marketing campaign for BibleWalk, targeting visitors at The Ark Encounter, Creation Museum and The Museum of the Bible. It also reaches people who search for those attractions within a certain geographic location. This type of targeted campaign has been used before to bring people to the Ohio State Reformatory.

Later this week, Destination Mansfield – Richland County will reopen its Visitor’s Information Center after the completion of interior renovations.

Before 2019, Destination Mansfield – Richland County intends to create a series of short videos for the upcoming 25th anniversary of Shawshank.

The organization’s annual meeting was presented by Alta Florist & Greenhouse, Deluxe Catering & Events and DRM Productions.