The Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) hired Kendall Clinton as its new director in December. The bureau moved offices in January.

CVB was previously in Grayson’s Tavern in Constitution Square. They have moved to the Goldsmith House, at the intersection of Walnut and Second, also in Constitution Square. Goldsmith had been the Heart of Danville offices before they moved to 112 N. Second Street.

A new gift shop will be opening downstairs in the Goldsmith building this spring. It will sell t-shirts, posters, mugs, books, and other merchandise related to Danville and Boyle County.

Clinton was the previous director of tourism in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, for four years. Lawrenceburg’s tourism commission had never had a director before. Clinton built up the position, despite never having worked in the tourism business.

After graduating with a print journalism degree from Western Kentucky University, Clinton worked for more than 20 years at The Dothan Eagle newspaper in Dothan, Alabama, as reporter, then managing editor. He is originally from Madisonville, Kentucky.

Clinton said his newspaper skills transferred to the tourism position, which he said is about providing information to the public and knowing how to communicate. In four years, Clinton grew the Lawrenceburg Tourism Facebook page from 400 to about 10,000 followers.

Clinton worked to promote events, and increased the presence of tourism in Anderson County to where it’s being recognized outside the area.

When he found the position in Boyle County, Clinton said he wanted the opportunity to work with more people. He likes the central Kentucky area, and said that since Danville is a little larger town, it has more events and things to promote.

“It’s just a great town with a lot going on, a lot of opportunities to promote businesses that are tourism-related and the events,” Clinton said.

When Rick Serres from CVB’s board of directors introduced Clinton to the Danville city commission, he said, “When we were interviewing [Clinton], this will make you proud, I said, ‘why would you want to move here from Lawrenceburg, home of Wild Turkey, Four Roses, and some other things?’ and he says, ‘because there’s more going on in Boyle County than there, and I want to be here.’”

Since starting at CVB, Clinton has met with numerous businesses and organizations in the county that have events, in order to promote things far in advance. He is working on CVB’s existing Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts to be more active, sharing events on their calendar. He wants to do more videos for their Youtube channel.

He also sends events to post on state-wide event calendars to attract people from outside of town. Clinton is looking for an assistant to help with social media and mailing brochures, so he can have more time to meet with businesses.

In Lawrenceburg, Clinton helped coordinate a show on the network KET all about Lawrenceburg and Anderson County. The show, called Downstream, highlighted landmarks like Young’s High Bridge and the county’s distilleries. Clinton is working to have the same show do an episode on Boyle County.

If finalized, the show would film a 30-minute episode focusing on locations that bring visitors to Boyle County. KET often re-runs their shows, so people can see those episodes for years after they premier. Clinton has also reached out to national TV shows.

“There are a lot of shows that would potentially be interested in Danville and Boyle County because we have some interesting things here, such as the Dollhouse Museum, the Brass Band Festival, we have a lot of unique things here,” he said.

Clinton is also helping promote a Corvette Cruise-in event at Wilderness Trail Distillery on May 21. The event was held last year for the first time, and they had 219 corvettes show up. This year, Clinton has contacted more than 30 corvette clubs outside Kentucky to let them know about the event.

Clinton said he is always looking for new ways to bring people to Danville. He has lots of ideas and has been meeting with people about possible new events.

“What tourism is all about is quality of life for people who live here, because when you bring people in from the outside, they support local businesses by going to the businesses,” he said.