CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After years of trying to convince travelers to discover West Virginia, the state’s new tourism secretary says the next challenge is giving them reasons to return.
Kayla Kessinger, the incoming secretary of the W.Va. Department of Tourism, used Monday’s appearance at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism to outline priorities focused on repeat visitors, stronger local partnerships, and spreading tourism’s economic benefits across the state.
“People across the country are starting to discover West Virginia, really what we’ve all known for a long time, that we are America’s best-kept secret,” Kessinger told tourism professionals gathered for the conference.
“But my challenge is to make sure that secret gets out,” she said, “that we start shouting it from the rooftops and to build on the foundation that’s already been laid.”
Kessinger said that means continuing to tell West Virginia’s story, giving travelers new reasons to visit, turning first-time visitors into repeat visitors, and creating opportunities in communities throughout the state.
Her arrival comes as West Virginia tourism is setting another round of records.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced at the conference that the state’s tourism economy generated an estimated $9.4 billion in total economic impact in 2025, when West Virginia welcomed 78.4 million visitors. Travelers spent $6.8 billion in the state, he said, while overnight travel increased by two percent.
The figures continue several years of tourism growth, but Kessinger’s remarks point to a different question for the industry: What does West Virginia do after travelers discover it?
Tourism as a doorway to living in West Virginia
Morrisey connected the state’s tourism strategy Monday with another longstanding challenge — attracting new residents.
The governor recalled visiting West Virginia decades before moving to the state, including trips to Berkeley Springs, Hampshire County, and the Appalachian Trail.
“Quite frankly, I fell in love with the state,” Morrisey said.
He said introducing travelers to West Virginia’s landscape and communities could eventually persuade some to consider living there.
“If people come and experience our great state firsthand, the odds are fairly strong that at some point a percentage of them will say it’s time to move to West Virginia,” Morrisey said.
Morrisey said increasing net migration remains a priority and indicated that additional initiatives to attract residents will be proposed during the upcoming legislative session.
Tourism already represents a significant part of the state’s economy. Morrisey said 61,728 jobs are tied to the visitor economy — roughly one in every 15 jobs in West Virginia — and that tourism generated $643 million in state and local tax revenue.
Kessinger emphasized another part of her approach: listening to the people operating tourism businesses and organizations outside Charleston.
“I’m new to this role, and I believe it is really important for me to learn and listen,” she said.
Kessinger told conference attendees she intends to travel around West Virginia, meet tourism operators, and learn how their businesses and organizations work.
“I don’t believe that this next chapter of West Virginia tourism gets written in Charleston alone,” she said. “But it gets written by all of you, all of us together, as we continue to build on the foundations that have already been laid.”
More investment coming to state parks
Morrisey also used the conference to signal additional investment in West Virginia’s state parks.
He announced more than $2.2 million in improvements at Twin Falls Resort State Park in Wyoming County, including cabin renovations, HVAC upgrades, room refurbishments, and new mattresses.
Morrisey said the Twin Falls project would be followed by a series of state park investment announcements over the coming weeks and months.
The governor also announced a new 35-site campground at Lost River State Park, expected to open next spring.
Those projects join other tourism developments underway around the state, including 32 upscale glamping sites planned at Pipestem, Blackwater Falls, Lost River, and Summersville Lake state parks, as well as the new Slabtown Campground at Cass Scenic Railroad State Park.
For Kessinger, the assignment begins at a time when West Virginia is attracting more travelers and receiving greater national attention than it once did. Her remarks suggested that the next stage will be measured not simply by whether people discover the state, but by what happens afterward.
The goal she described is to turn discovery into return visits, return visits into stronger local tourism economies, and, for at least some travelers, an introduction to a place they might eventually consider home.