Visit Frederick says it’s received a lot of requests for information about Frederick County from potential visitors.
Frederick, Md (KM) It could be a good summer for Frederick County businesses which depend on tourism. John Fieseler, the Executive Director of Visit Frederick, says his office has been receiving a lot of requests for information on Frederick County from potential visitors.
“To this day, even with smart phones and everything being on line–and we do get a lot of on line traffic–we still have tens of thousands of people that ask to be mailed our Visitor’ Guide and our Calendar of Events. And so that has really been picking up,” says Fieseler. “That’s an indication that people are thinking of traveling, and so we’re optimistic it will be a good season.”
In the past, Fieseler has said that most of the visitors to Frederick County were day-trippers from the Washington and Baltimore areas, and he’d like to see more travelers who spend a few nights. “I’m happy to say that our percentage is not quite 50-50. It’s about a little over 45% that are overnight guests, and 54-and-a-half percent day trippers.”
While a lot of people still come to Frederick County for wine and craft beer tasting, food sampling, antique shopping or enjoying outdoor activities, Fieseler says a large numbers still come for the history, specifically the Civil War. In addition to the Monocacy National Battlefield, they also want to see the Antietam Battlefield, Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry. Fieseler says they often stay in Frederick while they’re here. “It’s not a hard sell to convince them that Frederick is a convenient place to stay, and not have to pack your suitcase every night and check out because you’re staying somewhere else tomorrow night,” he says. “Stay here, make it your base camp, see all the great things that are here, but you also take in those nearby attractions.”
One of the sites these tourists could visit while in Frederick is the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.
By Kevin McManus