Oldham County tourism director credits marketing, new attractions for jump in economic impact

Kim Hides, Oldham County’s tourism director, told the Oldham County Fiscal Court on Sept. 16 that the county’s tourism program has increased overnight visitation and local spending since 2019 by investing in destination development and countywide marketing.

Hides said the county’s transient room tax — the tourism office’s sole funding source — rose from $138,600 in 2019 to $234,000 in 2024, and reported an estimated economic impact increase from about $37.9 million in 2019 to $83.6 million in 2024. Hides also said tourism-supported jobs remained roughly flat, at about 449 jobs.

The figures matter because the tourism office is funded entirely through transient room taxes collected from hotels and short-term rentals, Hides told the court. She said Oldham County is now marketing countywide assets — including Udell Gardens, horse-farm and racehorse-tour experiences, distillery offerings, a large beer garden, the train museum and River Town tourism in Westport — to convert day trips into overnight stays, which generate substantially more local spending.

Hides outlined programs and partnerships developed since the pandemic: a countywide visitor’s guide; festivals and signature events (RailFest, Arts on the Green, a farm- and antiques-based marketing push); farm-tour promotion that emphasizes working farms; collaborations with the Kentucky region for multi-county itineraries; and new digital products such as an augmented-reality “Kentucky Black Trail Blazers” experience.

Hides said the office focuses on six-state targeted advertising, motor coach itineraries and collaborative statewide marketing. She said an overnight visitor couple generates about $446 for one night compared with $74 per person for a day trip, underscoring the office’s strategy to encourage multi-night stays.

When Magistrate members asked how the tourism office is funded, Hides said funding is “100% transient room tax,” including hotels and short-term rentals. She said there are about 65 short-term rental units countywide and that those rentals contribute “a little over 20%” of the office’s budget after the county began collecting from short-term rentals.

Hides described several recent initiatives that helped raise the county’s profile: a ribbon cutting at a distillery clubhouse that allows on-site barrel sampling and bottling; the county’s recognition as the “farm tour capital of Kentucky” with multiple active racehorse-farm tours; the Udell Gardens and botanical trail partnerships; a “Women in Whiskey” event that drew national coverage; and the county’s expanded green-space and events marketing.

Judge Executive David Vogel and other court members thanked Hides for the update and asked follow-up questions about accommodations growth and short-term rental counts. Hides said two hotel prospects had shown interest in a site near Clarkson and another was coming soon to La Grange.

Hides concluded by emphasizing tourism’s contribution to local tax revenue and business support, and by noting the office’s goal to balance resident quality-of-life with visitor attraction.

Kim Hides’s presentation and the court’s questions ran from the start of her update through the end of the tourism discussion at the Sept. 16 meeting; the court took no formal vote on the report itself.