Visitors Bureau Chief Sees New Opportunities
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But she's not doing it alone.
"I've basically tried to take the last two months to go out and about, meeting people and listening, listening, listening," said Klefos, who took the helm at the bureau on March 29. "I'm in information-gathering mode and I'm looking at things with fresh eyes.
"But I couldn't do it without the team. It's so much better to come into a situation where you already have a staff who have been here for awhile and who love working here," she said.
Together with the "hands-on and involved" board of directors and the bureau's membership, Klefos plans to move the Visitors Bureau forward in a new direction, though she's quick to note it's one that stays in line with the organization's mission.
"I'm just going out there and finding what people like and what they don't like. I'm the new kid on the block and I'm just trying to get a feel for what works here," Klefos said. "Change is very interesting. People either hate it or they love it and I've got the feeling they love it here."
Klefos came to the Berkshires from Phoenix, where she was working as the president and chief executive officer of the Arizona Tourism Alliance. With more than 20 years experience in the tourism industry and in economic development, she seems the perfect candidate to take over for longtime President William R. Wilson, who retired last June. Her parents grew up in the area and, though she moved around a lot as a child, Klefos often came back to the Berkshires to visit her grandparents who still lived here.
Next Tuesday, Klefos will make her first real appearance in front of the bureau's membership when she delivers a speech titled "Berkshire Tourism: Challenges and Opportunities" at the monthly Tourism Tuesday breakfast meeting. There, she hopes to address what lies ahead for the local tourism industry.
"The challenge is that we need to brand ourselves better. There's so much competition now and it's so important for a destination like this to be in the news," Klefos said.
According to Klefos, not only is the county competing with other destinations but it is also struggling against the trend toward cruise vacations.
"It's not even destinations anymore; it's activities," she said.
Highlighting Activities
The key to success is to highlight the varied offerings in the region and attract visitors who want to experience the Berkshires, which could translate into a lengthier stays.
"We've spent a lot of time talking about the cultural offerings here in the Berkshires but we really need to increase messaging about the scenery, the outdoors. We have the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail. You can rent a kayak and ride down the river. We need to bring more of the outdoors into the messaging, but not at the sake of the cultural message," said Klefos.
BVB's motto — Nature. Culture. Harmony. — alludes to the area's strengths and Klefos (along with her team) wants to emphasize what makes the Berkshires notable and hopefully draw tourists year-round.
With economic instability and high gasoline prices weighing heavily on people's minds, travel may be limited this vacation season.
"People are going to be looking for places closer to home. We should expect to see travel patterns change," said Klefos, who noted that New York and Boston are hot marketing targets for the bureau. "We need to start picking our markets more carefully."
Klefos said she hopes to convince the members that it's the right decision to "take a risk" and concentrate on frequency in certain areas rather than sweeping advertising.
As the bureau begins to make preparations for the busy summer tourist season, Klefos said she's been "a little bit of a tourist myself." She's toured many of the cultural organizations — including the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, the Berkshire Museum and Barrington Stage Company — and she's set up meetings with all of the county's chambers of commerce.
"For me, personally, I'm looking forward to getting to know everything that is here," she said. "I can't wait to sit on the lawn at Tanglewood and listen to the Boston Pops. I'm truly excited personally to experience all of these things."
As she prepares to discuss the challenges and opportunities of promoting the area next week, Klefos is more than excited to get the word out about the place she always considered "home."
"This is a quality destination. We can say to a person, 'You can go see this exhibit, you can go see this artist that is only shown a couple of places in the country and you can do it in the Berkshires and couple it with this scenery,'" she said. "This is an opportunity to zig where people are zagging."
