COVA Office and Central Oregon Welcome Center Open in New Location

The Central Oregon Visitors Association (COVA) will open in its new location on Wednesday, December 19.  Visitors will find the Central Oregon Welcome Center and the COVA administrative office operations in the Mill Point Business Campus located at 705 NW Bonnett Way, Suite 1000, in Bend.  Bonnett Way is near the intersection of Columbia and Colorado.  COVA’s new office site is off Columbia, approximately two blocks west, of COVA’s prior office in the Old Mill District.

The new Central Oregon Welcome Center will be co‐locating office space with Economic Development for Central Oregon (EDCO), the regional economic development agency.  COVA serves an average of 2,100 visitors monthly in its Visitor Center.

“This relocation is an exciting and economically responsible opportunity for COVA and EDCO,” stated Alana Hughson, CEO of the Central Oregon Visitors Association. “With an estimated 80 percent of new businesses initiated by people who first discovered the region on vacation, there has long existed a natural synergy between the mission of COVA, to attract destination visitation to Central Oregon, and the mission of EDCO, to invite and facilitate new business development in Central Oregon.”

To continue to service the demand for Visitor Information in the Old Mill District retail core, COVA and the Old Mill District are collaborating to provide Visitor Information Services from the Ticket Mill kiosk, which will now operate seven days a week, year-round.   A COVA staff member will provide visitor information about local events, attractions, dining, nightlife, shopping, accommodations and transportation from the Ticket Mill kiosk.

COVA Members are invited to visit us in both new locations.  A grand-scale Open House and Ribbon Cutting is planned for COVA’s new Bonnett Way office during National Tourism Week, May 4-12, 2013.