Yakima Valley Major Draw for National Travel Writers

The tourism season is on in the Yakima Valley and John Cooper says the valley is a big weekend destination for a lot of people from the west side of the state.

But Cooper, president and CEO of Yakima Valley Tourism, says people from around the country will soon hear about Yakima. He has spent the past week hosting travel writers from San Francisco and Seattle.

People will pay more attention to an article then they will an advertisement.

Cooper says the writers traveled throughout the Yakima Valley, visiting farms and wineries. He is hoping the writers have good things to say about the valley to drive tourists to the area.

Tourism is a valuable business to the valley. According to a 2013 report from Yakima Valley Tourism, visitors supported more than 3,500 jobs in tourism industries. And tourism created an additional 1,400 jobs in Yakima last year.

Those visitors also generated $23 million in state and local taxes and the numbers are growing every year.