Tuesday, May 17, Vinton Unlimited along with the Destination Vinton committee hosted the 2nd bus tour of the season. The 53 visitors left the Newton area headed to an unknown location as it was a mystery trip. Nobody had guessed Vinton would be their stop but they all were excited when they arrived in town. A few had been to Vinton quite some time ago while it was a new stop for others. The group’s visit included a stop at the Iowa Braille & Sight Saving School, lunch at the Vinton Country Club provided by the Fifth Street Koffee Haus and a stop at the Railroad Depot. Between stops, the bus made a trip down 4th Street and passed several chainsaw carvings & ears of corn. While they didn’t have time to shop in our stores, all of the visitors were given our special shopping coupons in hopes of a return visit!
With two bus tours down and 10 more to go for the 2016 year, our Destination Vinton committee is staying busy! These tours wouldn’t happen without the wonderful volunteers serving on our committee. Melissa Schwan, Director of Vinton Unlimited says the committee’s passion and enthusiasm for Vinton is outstanding and helps make these tour groups easy to handle.
With 10 more trips scheduled to visit in 2016, possibly the highlight of the tour groups will be the folks travelling with Country Travel Discoveries and the Our Iowa magazine. The Destination Vinton committee began ‘petitioning’ for this visit back in 2014. After much persistence, cheerleading, hard work and a visit from the CEO, Country Travel Discoveries (CTD) had decided to add Vinton to their ‘East Central Iowa Tour’. To top it off, CTD decided that we would be an overnight stop on the tour! These trips have filled up very quickly so CTD has added 2 additional trips on top of the original four. These trips are bringing at least 240 people into our community that normally wouldn’t have visited. Sounds like success to me!
We have several other bank trips lined up and are eager for them to all visit. Plans for the various days include stops at the Iowa Braille & Sight Saving School, the Train Depot, Old School Produce, lunch and some shopping time as well!
For more information on tourism in Vinton or learn more about the Destination Vinton committee, contact Melissa at the Vinton Unlimited office located in City Hall.