PATRICK MORRISEY

WHEELING – Republican West Virginia gubernatorial nominee Patrick Morrisey sees West Virginia as already promoting its tourism destinations very well, and he wonders if such effort can be used to market the state’s resources and potential for investment and job opportunities.

Morrisey, the state’s current attorney general, discussed how best to promote the state during a stop in Wheeling on Wednesday.

“I think our tourism folks have done a really good job marketing our beauty, and the beauty of our state parks and attractions,” Morrisey said. “There’s an opportunity to take that approach and market it much more broadly to people thinking of moving to West Virginia, and businesses thinking of coming to the state. Let’s sell the incredible beauty we have, and show that West Virginia isn’t just a beautiful state but it has so much going on.

“Really unpacking how that tourism effort has worked really should be studied, and I do plan to study that. It’s actually a really important priority for me.”

He lauded the current administration of Gov. Jim Justice for its successes in marketing West Virginia as a travel destination.

“You have to give a lot of credit to the current administration for what they are doing, and I would rank that near the top in terms of the things going right in the state,” Morrisey said.

“Then I think about how you can communicate better what West Virginia is all about. If you have people who have done really good work promoting the state parks and attractions, you can start to talk more about the people.”

He sees the state in the future offering plenty of job opportunities in healthcare, energy and technology that can be marketed nationwide and worldwide.

But Morrisey acknowledges there are going to have be some changes made to improve West Virginia’s numbers before additional marketing can take place.

“I think we can let people know that West Virginia is really going to be the cool place to live and relocate in the upcoming years,” he said. “I think we can get there. But we are going to have to measure it by metrics.

“I don’t want to be 49th and 50th (among the 50 states) in some categories. We have to get the numbers up.”

While people from outside the state often look down on West Virginia, they think of West Virginia a lot differently when it comes to tourism, Morrisey continued.

“Around the world we’re considered a destination place by travel magazines. They’re doing something really well there, and I think we can build upon that,” he said. “We’re going to lead by example. People are going to see a state government that is run very well, and that matters.”

Morrisey added West Virginia is going to have to make the right decisions to get state government ready for future challenges.

“As technology starts to evolve, we’re going to take on some challenges so we can modernize state government, do things the right way, and get out in front of other states,” he explained.

“All these things can be packaged and communicated to people so people ask, ‘What’s in the water in West Virginia?’ And I mean that in a good way… We have a lot of water, and a lot of energy,” he said.