Springfield, MA- June 17, 2020 – The COVID-19 virus has led to new ways of doing things for many Western Mass businesses and The Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau (GSCVB) is no different. The Burea has just released a completely digital Guide to Western Mass for the first time in the organziation’s history.

The Guide content includes ideas for traveling to Western Mass during these unprecedented times along with other helpful travel tips including:

  • What’s New at Western Mass attractions
  • Information about attractions and things to do based on contextual categories like history, culture, outdoor adventure, etc.
  • ‘Off the Beaten Path’ things to do in Western Mass
  • Dining Around the Clock
  • It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere round-up of craft cocktails
  • Tourism-related business listings and ads

“When the pandemic hit Western Mass, we knew this meant we would need to do some things very differently,” said GSCVB President Mary Kay Wydra.  “With the digital Guide to Western Mass, we decided early on to completely change the way this information was provided for visitors.  By providing the online Guide, we are able to react quickly to any change in the tourism landscape and provide the most current information to our visitors.”

While the print Guide has consisted of 125,000 copies distributed throughout the Northeast, the GSCVB has committed to promoting the online resource with 125,000 digital advertising impressions each month in the same target markets.  “Industry research tells us that at this time potential visitors don’t want to handle any more materials than they absolutely have to,”  said Wydra.  “We’ll continue to monitor our target markets to see if this changes in the future and will make a determination next spring about whether to provide a printed Guide to complement our online resource.”

The GSCVB, an affiliate of the Economic Development Council of Western Mass, is a private non-profit destination marketing organization dedicated to promoting Western Mass for meetings and conventions, group tours, sports, and leisure travel. For more information on the GSCVB, visit www.ExploreWesternMass.com or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/explorewesternmass and follow us on Twitter using handle @XploreWesternMA. Engage with us using #westernmass.