2018 ANNUAL REPORT

Mission

The Mercer County CVB creates economic growth promoting the county as a destination.

Tourism is a tremendous economic driver in Mercer County!

The Mercer County Convention and Visitors Bureau is proud to present the 2017-2018 annual report to our community. This is an exciting time to be in tourism! We are seeing growth in visitation, ATV tourism, industry projects and brand awareness throughout our area and surrounding states.

The Visit Mercer County team has invested in print marketing campaigns, website updates, digital ads, social media campaigns, professional tourism photos, videos, content and much more. We are pleased to see an return on investment in visitor spending from 93 million in 2016-2017 to 1.06 million in 2017-2018.*

I want Visit Mercer County to be one of the best tourism-based marketing organizations in the state, with a vision that moves toward the future. We cannot afford to remain in the past and must embrace new adventures and challenges.

Technology plays a big role in travel and tourism. In order to be relative in today’s changing world, we must remain flexible in how we reach out to potential visitor. While Visit Mercer County CVB has seen successful growth in all area of marketing, it is important to remain focused on our mission to bring more visitors to Mercer County, WV. We will continue to explore new opportunities to maximize our efforts and dollars.

Partnerships play an important role. We are grateful to be able to work with the Hatfield McCoy Trail Authority, National Coal Heritage Area Authority. The Division of Tourism and Visit Southern West Virginia.

We believe tourism can bring economic growth to our area. Mercer County’s FY 2017-2018 marketing efforts have resulted in:

  • 16% more website sessions compared to last Fiscal Year and we saw an 18% increase in pageviews. We also saw a slight decrease in bounce rate.
  • Organic traffic to the website has increased by 84% compared to last Fiscal Year and continues to be our leading source of traffic. We have also received 80% more organic new visits and 60% more pageviews from organic search.
  • Digital Ads increased guide requests by almost 5x and page likes by 2x compared to last Fiscal Year. We spent 67% more than we did in the previous Fiscal Year and our website traffic, organic traffic and conversions all increased.
  • Mercer County’s Facebook reach increased by 41% compared to last Fiscal Year.
  • Twitter received two less mentions compared to last Fiscal Year and our retweet reach decreased by 71%.
  • Instagram impressions were up by 58% compared to last Fiscal Year and we received 13% more pageviews.
Jamie Null, Executive Director of Mercer County CVB

Jamie Null, Executive Director

(304)325-8438

jamie@visitmercercounty.com

PO Box 4088 Bluefield, WV 24701 800-221-3206 VisitMercerCounty.com

The West Virginia Accredited Convention and Visitors Bureau Program is a tourism development
initiative of the West Virginia Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus. It is designed to encourage the state’s CVBs to better prepare and equip themselves to further the development and promotion of tourism in their area and the State of West Virginia. The state and its political subdivisions entrust valuable taxpayer dollars to CVBs each year for the promotion of attractions, events, tourism related businesses and activities and the soliciting of conventions and meetings.

This careful and thorough examination establishes select West Virginia CVBs as credible, effective partners with their public/private funding sources and the tourism industry as a whole.

Direct Spending for Mercer County

Direct spending by tourists$106.4 million
Local and State Taxes$8.67 million
Households in our county25,590
Tourism Jobs1,180
Earnings from those jobs$26.4 million
Because of tourist spend in our region, each household pays$345 less taxes

According to a 2018 study by Dean Runyan Associates: “West Virginia Travel Impacts”

Budget

Marketing/Advertising$106.4 million
Print$8.67 million
Guides/Brochures25,590
Digital Media/Social/Website1,180
Overall Budget$26.4 million

*Marketing budget also consists of partnerships, photography services and more.

Key Performance Indicators

105,971

All Traffic to the Website up from 91,515 last year

25,155

Instagram Impressions up 58% from last year

1,490,791

Facebook Reach up from 1,054,534 last year

111,895

Twitter Impressions two less than last year

Visitor Guide Requests

5x higher than last Fiscal Year!
July 16’-June 17’ Total 423
July 17’-June 18’ Total 954

Website

82,337(+60%)

Website Page Views

44,012(+84%)

Website Sessions

34,762(+80%)

New Website Users

DIGITAL CAMPAIGN

Our year-round campaigns generated 34,427 clicks to the website with a Cost-Per-Click of $0.55 and a Click-Through-Rate of $0.46%

Top States Visiting the Website

  1. West Virginia – 23.2%
  2. North Carolina – 15.5%
  3. District of Columbia – 13.7%
  4. Virginia – 11.2%
  5. Pennsylvania
  6. Ohio
  7. Kentucky
  8. Tennessee
  9. Others

Top Devices

79% of Mercer County’s audience is currently visiting their website on a mobile device.

  1. Mobile – 66.7%
  2. Desktop – 21.4%
  3. Tablet – 11.9%

Last updated: July 9, 2025