West Volusia Tourism

On My Mind By Georgia Turner, Executive Director:

Who would’ve known back in January that words like “Zoom” and “virtual” would be be playing a major part of our daily vocabulary! I just did a quick count and it turns out that I’ve attended -- hold on to your hat -- 190 virtual meetings and events between March 30 and September 30! The good news is, I’ve gotten a lot of great information about the tourism industry and our path to recovery during these calls. If you’d like to get a sampling of some of the fantastic information I’ve gathered from the webinars I’ve attended, click on this link, courtesy of the Southeast Tourism Society. Locally, I’ve been impressed with the creativity shown by organizations like the Athens Theatre who transitioned into virtual events almost immediately after the pandemic began. Thankfully, they also transitioned to safe LIVE events as soon as they could. I’m also thankful for the four Chambers we belong to who have adapted their morning meetings, business after hours and networking events to a virtual platform. Some have been Zoom only, while others gave you an option to be there in person OR in the comfort of your own home. One last shout out to Joe Hearn at the Center at Deltona who has hosted in-person meetings where the attendees felt extremely safe. Two memorable events that I personally attended were the Team Volusia board meeting and the Volusia Hispanic Chamber membership meeting. With all this said, it’s very encouraging to see how our community and especially our tourism industry is adapting! Hopefully more and more meetings and events will be going “live” again soon.

New Art, History Tours

There are two new tours in town! The Downtown DeLand Miniature Art Adventure, conceived by Ray Johnson and facilitated by John Wilton, features a self-guided tour of small art works by eight artists all decorating a variety of nooks and crannies. With support from WVTAA, the Museum of Art-DeLand has published a guide to the 20 locations which includes a map and color-coded locations. The guide is available at both Museum locations (100 and 600 N. Woodland Blvd) and our Visitors Center, 116 W. New York Avenue. The other tour, developed by the West Volusia Historical Society, offers a new experience: Walking Through History -- The Old Northwest and Stetson University Historic Districts. This is a one-hour docent-led walking tour of the DeLand House neighborhood. Click here for reservations!

Speaking of New Art...

The Lue Gim Gong mural, which was destroyed in 2015, finally has a new home -- on the side of our Visitor Center in Artisan Alley! The original mural was painted by artist Courtney Canova in 2003, and he recreated it on our building. Lue, known as “The Citrus Wizard,” created what became an early version of today’s Valencia orange. We’re so glad he’s back!