Discover Southern Indiana, NOW!

Regional tourism website features hundreds of attractions across eight counties.

 

BEDFORD, Ind. (May 6, 2020) — As the state begins to re-open, Discover Southern Indiana has immediate opportunities for those ready for a change of scenery, while keeping in mind social distancing as we navigate travel and recreation in this post COVID-19 environment.

DiscoverSouthernIndiana.com is up and running to welcome travelers from all over to the Radius region. The region-wide tourism drive is the first of its kind for the area and gives an identity to the opportunities the Radius region has to offer to its visitors.

Natural explorations allow families the opportunity to get outside of the house while still maintaining distance from others. While this is not a complete list of activities, it is meant to serve as a starting guide and more options can be viewed at DiscoverSouthernIndiana.com. We encourage travelers to check with specific attractions for hours/updates before heading out to visit any location.

• State Parks and DNR Properties that are paved –  Hoosier National Forest, Knobstone Trail- Delaney Park Trailhead  Spring Mill State Park 
• ATV Parks – Redbird State Recreational Park, Lawrence County Recreational Park
• Wilstem Ranch
• Lakes – Patoka Lake, Goosepond, West Boggs
• Golf Courses

“Often, when families think about vacation, they think about traveling outside of the state, and we have so much to discover in southern Indiana. The beauty alone of the rolling hills and landscape is enough, but then add on top of that two phenomenal four-star resorts, spas, casino, water park, lakes, state parks, unique lodging, a ranch where you can have hands-on experiences with elephants and giraffes, see bears, sloths, lemurs, not to mention the natural explorations or our trails, woods, and caves. Not all are open at this time, but the closed attractions will re-open as conditions allow,” said Radius Indiana’s Director of Tourism and Quality of Place Blaine Parker.

The website serves as a one-stop-shop for all and any resources that tourists may need to plan a trip to the Radius region. With sections dedicated to food and drinks, events, shopping, sports, art and culture, heritage, and outdoor recreation, the site features a vacation planning tool that allows tourists to plan a trip and offers suggestions on a mileage-based radius to help plan a manageable trip.

Creating Discover Southern Indiana was a regional, collaborative development process. Unifying the tourism initiative across the region allows community leaders and tourism businesses to cost-share practices to more effectively implement the branding because multiple counties are likely to be visited by a single visitor. The communities recognize the need to work together to invite travelers to the Radius region, which includes Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange and Washington Counties.

Parker led a team of 10 committee members to create a unified tourism effort for the Radius region. The committee is made up of members of the region’s eight counties, the French Lick Resort, and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The Tourism Strategy Team met throughout 2018 to bring the idea of a region-wide joint tourism venture to life. 

The plan continued into 2019 by working with Blueline out of Bloomington to capture photography and videography from each county. Blueline also designed the new site.

In addition to the new website. Discover Southern Indiana has also launched profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to grow a following. The accounts will get behind the scenes looks at attractions across the region to entice tourists to visit the region.  

“Southern Indiana is where you can go to have that once in a lifetime experience without ever crossing the state lines. With everything that’s going on in the world right now, personally, I have been looking at what there is to do close to home, where can I go with my family where I know I can be safe and still have fun, and Discover Southern Indiana has those options,” said Parker.

To learn more about ‘Discover Southern Indiana’, visit www.discoversouthernindiana.com.