Click here for the February 8-9 Legislative Event Schedule with directions.
KTC LEGISLATIVE EVENT SCHEDULE
February 5th, 2010STS Continuing Education for the Tourism Professional
January 15th, 2010Save Your Tourism Budget!
Explaining the Economic Value of Tourism to Your Local Officials
Presented by: Dr. Steve Morse
Director & Economist – Tourism Institute
University of Tennessee – Knoxville, TN
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Time: 10:00 AM ET
Dr. Steve Morse is the director of the Tourism Institute, University of Tennessee. He focuses on tourism consumer demand trends, tourist demand patterns and examining the role of the hospitality and tourism sectors. He is a native of Georgia.
Many tourism organizations across the Southeast, have faced the threat of budget cuts. Since the economic downturn, county and city governments are encountering lower tax revenues. Now, more than ever, tourism organizations need to spend time telling their local officials about the positive economic benefits of tourism:
Jobs Created
Payrolls Increased
State and Local Taxes Generated from Tourism Activity
Mark your calendars for this informative POP class on Wednesday, February 10 at 10:00 AM ET. Dr. Morse will be sharing proven tips on how to tell your local government officials the importance of tourism to the local economies. We will discuss the positive tourism economic story that will preserve your tourism budgets.
KTC REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM
January 15th, 2010Click here for the Request for Proposal for our 2011 Tourism Development Symposium. KTC usually tries to hold this conference at a location that could not usually handle our larger conference in the fall. Please look this over, fill out and return – we’d love to come to your city!
KTC LEGISLATIVE EVENT INFORMATION
January 15th, 2010It’s coming soon! February 8-9 will be KTC’s Tourism Day At the Capitol!
We need you here with us to welcome the legislators, as the response is getting very strong! Please invite your co-workers, local officials, board members and others. Click here for a registration form: Legislative Event Registration & Information
We also need you to contact your Legislator to make sure they know you will be there and looking for them! Don’t know their email or phone number – or who they are? Copy this site for full information: http://lrc.ky.gov/Legislators.htm
Want a suggested form email to send to your legislator? Click here for one you can use. Suggested email wording to Legislators
Week One Legislative Report
January 11th, 2010KTC’s lobbying team has prepared a report following week one of the 2010 General Assembly Legislative Session. Click here for full details:
Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon Changes Course
January 6th, 2010It could be the largest day of road racing in Kentucky history. The Kentucky Derby Festival recently announced changes to the race route and set a cap registration for the 2010 Derby Festival Marathon and miniMarathon, presented by Walmart. The races, which begin simultaneously at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 24, will now start near Iroquois Manor Shopping Center and will finish at Kroger’s Fest-a-Ville, a 500,000-square-foot entertainment venue located within Waterfront Park. The Marathon course will also include a slightly longer loop in Jeffersonville, Ind., with competitors running alongside the Ohio River.
“We’re very excited about the new race course, especially the finish line location,” said Mike Berry, President and CEO of the Kentucky Derby Festival. “The start line should flow more smoothly and the finish will be much more welcoming for both runners and spectators. The overall experience for runners at all levels of competition will be greatly enhanced.”
Combined entries for both the Derby Festival Marathon and miniMarathon were capped at 12,000 runners for the past two years. In 2010, the number of registrants will cap at 15,000, setting the stage for the largest annual day of road racing in Kentucky history. Berry said the expanded race field is part of the overall growth of the races in recent years, which in 2009 attracted runners from all 50 states and 13 foreign countries.
“Our goal is to be one of the premier springtime races in the United States,” said Berry. “We’ve gotten tremendous feedback from both local and out-of-state runners and we want to build on that momentum. The support of sponsors such as Walmart allows us to add new components to the races that bring it to a world-class level.”
Berry said the new start location will eliminate any congestion among elite runners exiting Iroquois Park and slower runners and walkers.
“The runners won’t be ‘doubling back’ on each other leaving the park as they have in the past,” he said. “We definitely wanted to keep the start in the south end of the city because of the tremendous fan support those neighborhoods have offered for more than 35 years. The finish at Kroger’s Fest-a-Ville will feature a more comfortable and scenic reunite area for runners and their loved ones. There will be food and other concessions available starting at 8 a.m., followed by a concert at the site later that day.”
Registration for the 2010 Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon and miniMarathon, presented by Walmart, is now open online at www.derbyfestivalmarathon.com. Entry fees are $50 for the mini and $65 for the Marathon if registered by Jan. 31. All runners will receive Asics “technical” t-shirts at packet pickup, which will be held April 22-23 at the Kentucky International Convention Center. In addition, runners will receive a limited edition race poster, complimentary admission to the Derby Festival’s entertainment venue, Kroger’s Fest-a-Ville on the Waterfront, and free admission for two to Churchill Downs on April 24 or 25.
In addition to the races, several other Derby Festival events occur over the weekend along with more than 100 original city attractions from Slugger Museum & Bat Factory and the Muhammad Ali Center on Museum Row to the Urban Bourbon Trail and steamboat rides on the Ohio River aboard the Belle of Louisville. Runners wanting to bring family and friends for a weekend visit to Louisville can take advantage of the travel and itinerary-building services offered at the Louisville Visitors Center at 4th and Jefferson Sts. or online at GoToLouisville.com. Visitors can book hotel rooms, buy attraction tickets, view city podcasts, print maps and more to help plan a visit to Louisville for one of the most exciting weekends of the year.
For more information contact KDF at 502-584-6383 or visit www.kdf.org.
KTC LEGISLATIVE EVENT FEBRUARY 8-9
December 18th, 2009KTC’s 2010 Legislative Event will take a new twist this year – we are taking it to our Legislators! Our members will meet on Monday, February 8 at the Buffalo Trace Clubhouse for an afternoon meeting with our lobbyists and then on Tuesday, February 9, we will have an open house luncheon for all Legislators at the Capitol Annex! For detailed information and registration, click here: KTC Legislative Event
It is very important for each KTC member to personally invite your legislators to this luncheon! Don’t know who yours are or how to contact them? Copy this site: http://lrc.ky.gov/Legislators.htm
N. Ky. Aquarium Treating Penguin’s Cancer
December 11th, 2009By MARK CURNUTTE – The Kentucky Enquirer
NEWPORT, Ky. — The honking, cooing and growling echoed from the back room of the penguin exhibit at the Newport Aquarium last week.
Tica, a 2-foot tall, 8-pound male chinstrap penguin, stood on the rock nest with his mate of 11 years, a female named Spike. Their wings flapped. Tica puffed out his white chest. They extended their long necks and moved closer in a dance typical of mating season.
Standing a few feet away, Ric Urban nodded his approval. Tica’s behavior was a good sign, said Urban, the aquarium’s curator of birds and mammals.
Tica was returned to the aquarium from his fifth radiation treatment of the week. At 8 in the morning, much to Spike’s vocal and physical opposition – she has sharp teeth and a strong bite – trainers loaded Tica into a pet carrier and placed him into the trailer, kept between 30 and 40 degrees, for the drive to Cincinnati Animal Referral & Emergency Center.
There, veterinarians sedated Tica and performed a 20-minute radiation treatment on a cancerous area on his tail.
Tica’s is one of the first cases of penguin cancer being aggressively treated, and medical staffs at zoos and aquariums nationwide are watching closely, said Urban.
“We’re not alone on an island,” he said. “This is being talked about.”
Trainers at the Newport Aquarium noticed an abscess on Tica’s tail, in the preen gland, in September. The gland produces a water-proofing substance for penguins that they apply to their feathers. The infected area was removed a couple of times but would not heal. A biopsy revealed skin cancer.
Earlier cases of penguin cancer were treated with removal of the gland, Urban said, but many of those penguins were older, closer to the species’ 28-year lifespan.
Tica is only 16 years old, “in the prime of his life,” Urban said. “He has produced six viable offspring and can continue to produce.”
He talked to veterinarians at the CARE Center, who had treated as many as 100 dogs and cats, and even a ferret and rabbit or two, with as many as 1,500 total treatments, but never a penguin or any other wild animal.
The challenge for vets is to focus enough radiation on the tumor site while minimizing radiation exposure to other tissues.
“It’s an irregularly shaped body,” said Daniel Carey, a veterinarian and medical director at the CARE Center. “It’s not as much weight-dependent as it is geometrical.”
Tica is sedated and kept cold in a thermal sleeve during the treatment.
“We’re animal people,” Carey said. “It’s cool to treat a penguin. We think we can do something important for the medical field and help this guy out.”
Tica is showing no ill effects from the radiation.
He is showing interest in mating. Penguins at Newport Aquarium are indigenous to Antarctica, the continent centered on the South Pole. Subtle lighting changes in the exhibit, as well as the penguins’ seasonal diet, keep them on that cycle. The exhibit is a slice of the southern hemisphere that’s north of the equator.
Tica appears to be the first penguin getting better because of radiation treatment, which started on Nov. 17 and is expected to conclude Friday.
“There are some really nice developments in healing,” Urban said. “He is showing some scabbing and growth of scar tissue.”
Tice has not lost weight. His appetite is good; he prefers capelin. Tica continues to swim in the exhibit and should be out there today at the aquarium.
In fact, after lunch last week, trainers – placing their hands under the penguins’ wings in the back room – moved Spike and Tica into the exhibit, where Tica immediately jumped into the water for a swim.
Spike had nothing to do with the water. She waddled back to her nest to wait for Tica.
KTC Member List
November 30th, 2009Click here for a list of KTC current members KTC Member List
The Most Exciting Winter Festival in the Tri-State!
November 13th, 2009Named a Southeast Tourism Society Top 20 Event and a Kentucky Tourism Council Top 10 Winter Event, Owensboro’s 6th Annual Winter Wonderland is skating beautifully into one of the Tri-State’s best holiday gatherings!
The most festive, theatrical special effects will turn Owensboro’s Ohio Riverfront into an elaborate Winter Wonderland from November 27th through January 3. The Winter Wonderland festivities will kick off on November 27th with an enormous FREE gospel concert inside RiverPark’s premiere state-of-the-art 1,500 seat Cannon Hall. The Gospel groups performing during the opening of the festival this year are The Conquerors Quartet, Living Faith, and the Woodsmen. Cannon Hall has received national and international acclaim by now being the place where more than a dozen Broadway shows have been built before heading to multi-city and sometimes multi-country tours. Including, “The Wizard of Oz” on Dec 14 and “The Drowsy Chaperone” Jan 1.
RiverPark Center will transform its huge BB&T Plaza, famous for “Fridays After 5”, into a New York Rockefeller Center-style ICE RINK! A 35-foot Christmas tree at the welcoming entrance, giant movie screen showing your favorite holiday movies, live music, Many Carnival rides, games, and goodies, and of course Santa himself are just a few features of this fairy tale festival. In addition to everything happening outside the majority of evening while open will also feature live musical groups, soloists, choirs, carolers, and more food and drinks to round the evening events. Birthday parties can also be booked in the lobby during Winter Wonderland by calling Lynda Youngman at (270) 687-2770.
Beginning Blades will return again this year to the festival. Beginning Blades is an opportunity for young skaters to take the ice before the rink is opened up to more experienced skaters. The RiverPark Center is designating hours on Saturday mornings and late afternoons for parents and children under six to have time on the ice. “For so many youngsters, this is their first skating experience,” says RiverPark Center General Manager Roxi Witt. “We want the children and their parents to thoroughly enjoy learning to skate and the time together without feeling intimidated by more experienced skaters.”
Every Monday is FREE skating (including skates). Witt, says, “We are extremely fortunate to be able to offer free skating every Monday. The citizens of Owensboro and Daviess County have been very generous in contributing money to off-set the cost of free skating.” . RiverPark’s huge outdoor movie screen with its Dolby sound will present many children’s classic holiday movies.
Questions are already pouring into RiverPark Center regarding the festival. And here are a few of the answers:
- Skating and skate rental will be an ALL INCLUSIVE charge of $5
- There is no charge to enter Winter Wonderland
- Concessions are available (hot dogs, nachos, cookies, funnel cakes, cotton candy, hot chocolate, your favorite holiday spirits)
- Indoor restrooms are available.