BUILT ON HISTORY

Louisville Tourism Continues To Boom

Louisville has accomplished an enviable feat; it has become a brand that represents a vibrant and multifaceted city. Its journey to be recognized as more than the site of the Kentucky Derby or the home of the Louisville Slugger Factory is aided by a rich history, unique geographic location and friendly hospitality. In recent years, the city has increasingly become known as a place that offers attractions for multiple types of visitors. As Bourbon City, it appeals to couples and individuals who come for the Urban Bourbon Trail. It also attracts families who visit Museum Row, the Louisville Zoo or Kentucky Kingdom and Hurricane Bay.

The brand logo is its name and the fleur-delis centered in the middle is a nod to King Louis XVI of France, Louisville’s namesake. The city, founded by Revolutionary War hero George Rogers Clark, began in the late 1770s as a settlement on the Ohio River, close to the Falls of the Ohio. Since there were dangerous rapids, it was necessary to unload cargo before boats reached the falls. The result was the development of a major shipping port which continues today. This area was also the meeting place of Clark’s younger brother, William Clark, and Meriwether Lewis. After recruiting local men, they began their famous exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. Later, in 1875, the Kentucky Derby was begun by Lewis Clark, who was George Rogers Clark’s great nephew.

The location has the distinction of being within a day’s drive of 60% of the continental United States. Post the Covid-19, Louisville Tourism has reached out to these areas to promote all the city has to offer. Michael Fetter, the organization’s Director of Marketing, has been with the organization for five years.

“It’s been a wild ride. We had a record year for tourism in 2019,” Fetter says. “Then the pandemic hit. We had to push on the breaks and really rethink what we were doing. We had been promoting Louisville as a place to fly into to experience Bourbon Country, much like people fly into San Francisco to visit Napa Valley. Instead of targeting places like Los Angeles, we had to recalculate.”

“The question was- how can we continue safety while respecting peoples safety,” he says. “We started up again, then stopped and rethought, then started again. Now the focus is on bringing awareness of Louisville as a travel destination to markets such as Indianapolis and other sites within a four to five or even six-hour drive of us. It is the long weekend.”

Louisville’ bourbon connection is undoubtably a huge asset for tourism. Most of the world’s bourbon is produced in Kentucky and the state’s history is woven throughout the industry. Louisville’s Urban Bourbon Trail consists of establishments dedicated to sharing stories and lore while educating participants on the facts behind bourbon production.

“Bourbon tourism has been a thing for a while. The Evan Williams Distillery Experience began in 2013 but even before that, in 2006, the brand ‘Come to Kentucky for Bourbon Country’ was launched. Now we promote Louisville as Bourbon City. The Urban Bourbon Trail started with about eight to 10 bars and restaurants that focused on bourbon. Now there are 40 on the trail. Ten distillery experiences have reopened since COVID-19, and each tour ends with an expansive tasting session. Reservations are needed as the facilities definitely get booked out,” Fetter says. Another facet to Louisville is that it is a great destination for a fun family weekend. Kids don’t realize they are getting a history lesson when they experience cruising down the Ohio River on a steamboat via the Mary M. Miller or Belle of Louisville riverboats. Sports lovers and boxing enthusiasts will enjoy learning about how determination enabled a local legend to triumph at the Muhammad Ali Center. Across from the downtown center is the expansive Waterfront Park where events, concerts and festivals are scheduled throughout the warm weather months.

“The biggest surprise people have when they come to Louisville is how much the city has to offer. There are lots of tidbits about the area people don’t know,” Fetter says. “We have a walkable downtown with so many things to do and great parks. Museum Row on Main Street has seven attractions within close proximity to each other. The Old Louisville area has the largest collection of both shotgun houses and restored Victorian homes in the country. We also have the second most cast-iron facades outside of Soho in New York.”

Besides Kentucky fried chicken, Louisville is known for unique dishes that a visitors love to sample. The ‘hot brown’ originated at the

Brown Hotel and while it might be classified as an open-faced sandwich, it’s a meal. Slices of ham, turkey and bacon atop toast are smothered in gravy and baked, making it a substantial lunch or dinner. Burgoo stew is another tradition, and dates to pre- civil was times. Like the hot brown, it includes several different meats but also vegetables.

No one should leave the city without having a slice of rich chocolate derby pie. There are many versions to be had around town, but the original recipe was developed in 1954 by the Kern family for their restaurant, Kern’s Kitchen. The eatery has trademarked the name and the recipe is kept top secret.

Fetter shares that 90% to 95% of visitors who participate in surveys say they would come back. Louisville Tourism’s job is to get them to initially come to the city, and he is quick to point out that the organization doesn’t do it alone.

The word gets out through connections with both social media digital business and local travel-based entities. Building partnerships with neighborhood associations, restaurants, hotels, venues and attractions is key. Large travel sites such as Expedia, Priceline and Trip Advisor offer information to travelers that can point them in directions that will make the most of their visit. In addition, Louisville

Tourism maintains close ties with groups such as Louisville Forward, an economic development organization and Greater Louisville, Inc., GLI, the metro area’s chamber of commerce.

The most visited page of Louisville Tourism’s website is the Calendar of Events. Anyone with an upcoming event or activity can submit to it. It is a great resource in communicating happenings around the city especially during the holiday season.

“The future is very bright. There are new hotels and restaurants popping up in downtown and neighborhoods such as the east market district of downtown, NuLu

(New Louisville), as well as places like St. Matthews,” Fetter says.

“Tourism is important to the city for the business it bring and it’s the people of Louisville that sell it. Louisville has its own southern hospitality. It’s not considered to be part of Midwest but not the true deep South either. Louisville is the front porch of the south,” Fetter says.

You can visit the Louisville Tourism website at GoToLouiville.com or by calling 1.888.568.4784. Louisville Tourism is on Instagram as @gotolouisville and on Facebook as Louisville Tourism.

Writer / Amanda Spalding, MSN, RN Photography Provided

You’ve worked a full day, cared for children, elderly parents or both. All you want to do is grab something quick to eat, go home, pour a glass of wine and binge watch the latest buzz-worthy series on Netflix, then catch up on Facebook. You drag yourself to bed later than you wanted, only to wake up and start the cycle all over again. You’re feeling tired, anxious, depressed, or burned out. What can you do?

Self-care to the rescue. Selfcare is the ability to care for the mental, physical, spiritual and social aspects of your life. It is not selfish or ‘pampering.’ It is essential to functioning in a world that can be increasingly overwhelming. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines self-care as “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.”

Much like a car requires maintenance, our ‘self’ requires a plan to restore, renew and recover. Self-care is a way to help clarify and prioritize your personal health and mental wellbeing. It involves identifying various areas of your health that are concerning and creating a plan to actively address those concerns.

While there are numerous areas to address when it comes to selfcare, the following seven are the most common; emotional, physical, mental, social, spiritual, practical and professional. Take a look at how you feel about these areas, or how satisfied you are with them. Perhaps your physical health is not ideal, or you feel dull and mentally bored. Journaling about each area for a few days can also help. Take the time to check-in with yourself and listen to what you need.

Next, come up with a plan to address these areas. Keep it simple. You don’t want to be overwhelmed by your self-care plan! One of the first self-care skills to master is the most difficult: carving out time to work your plan. There is nothing bad about scheduling ‘me time,’ in fact, you can’t effectively care for anyone or anything else if you are not taking care of yourself.

Schedule your self-care time in your calendar. Make it an essential appointment and keep it. Time is both a finite resource and a commodity. You make the decisions on where and how you spend your time. Practice scheduling small self-care tasks daily and honor those commitments. While we can’t make time, we can choose how to spend it.

Use your smart devices to help with self-care. Calm is an app that can help you learn how to meditate, relax and help you fall asleep. Endel is another great app for self-care. It allows you to select a mode based on your activities, and Endel will play music with a beat and mood that helps with focus, energy, or sleep. You can also set reminders on a smart device that can help you work a self-care schedule.

Incorporate exercise into your daily routine. It doesn’t have to be hard core, high intensity interval training (although HIIT is a great way to get your mind off your stressors and focused on yourself). Walking, swimming, or yoga are excellent forms of exercise that can be gentle on your joints and body. Regardless of which exercise you choose, make the effort to appreciate it. Notice how you feel before you start: are you tense, frustrated, anxious? Then, allow yourself to get lost in the sensation of movement. Focus on your breathing, the sounds, and smells and how your muscles feel while engaged in activity. Then, when you are finished, notice if your mood or physical sensations have changed.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) DEFINES SELF-CARE AS “THE ABILITY OF INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITIES TO PROMOTE HEALTH, PREVENT DISEASE, MAINTAIN HEALTH, AND TO COPE WITH ILLNESS AND DISABILITY WITH OR WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF A HEALTHCARE PROVIDER.”

Perhaps one of the most neglected areas of self-care is adequate sleep. The Mayo Clinic recommends sticking to a set sleep schedule and turning off light-emitting screens before going to bed. Avoid checking e-mails one last time and turn off the cell phone. If you have a job that requires you to sleep during the day, black-out drapes can help. Without adequate sleep, people run the risk of health issues such as obesity, high blood pressure and irritability. Harvard University has identified microsleep as a period where your brain does not respond, and you don’t react. Microsleep, which lasts mere seconds, also contributes to both fatal and non-fatal motor vehicle accidents.

You may discover you need more assistance learning how to provide yourself care. Don’t be afraid to reach out to a trusted health care provider, a life coach, a personal trainer or an accountability friend. While engaging a professional in the self-care field may be costly, a few sessions with a professional can help get your practice off the ground.

Self-care can be hard work. It can involve working on some difficult

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502-897-9721 | areas of your life such as unhealthy coping mechanisms. You may need to take a hard look at habits and relationships that don’t serve you anymore. It may involve exercise, avoiding your favorite comfort foods, turning off social media or getting up early to find an hour of quiet to journal, read or exercise. Don’t hesitate to reach out for assistance. It doesn’t mean you are weak; it means you love yourself enough to give yourself this gift.

Self-care can involve a wide range of healthy activities. Establishing healthy routines and coping mechanisms is challenging, especially when your new habits and actions are new. Don’t give up. And, if you decide that massages and facials are part of your self-care routine, more power to you! Self-care is what you make it.