The tourism season officially kicked off in Harrisonburg on Wednesday with a two-day event called "Your Personal Help Desk."

The event is being coordinated by Harrisonburg Tourism & Visitor Services and the Virginia Tourism Corporation.

On Wednesday and Thursday, 27 tourism-based businesses will get one-on-one sessions with the "personal help desk" to help them with leveraging tools like marketing, social media, customer service and promotions.

Brenda Black, Tourism and Visitor Services Manager for Harrisonburg, says the sessions will help the Valley attract even more tourists.

"They will take away from this opportunities from the tourism officials that they might just not have known about," Black explained. "For example it could be something that's promotion related."

Black says that the Valley is uniquely positioned to draw in tourists, being just two hours away from major metropolitan areas like Washington, D.C. and Richmond.

That proximity may be more important than ever with potentially record-high gas prices this summer.

"That's where that 2-hour destination comes in. I think that is going to be good for us. We're doing some promotions," Black said. "Some of our local properties are doing some creative promotions with gas cards and discounts and things like that."

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