EODA Hosts Summer Tourism Meeting
CALDWELL, OH – The Eastern Ohio Development Alliance hosted their Summer meeting today in Caldwell.
Local leaders and travel experts from Noble, Guernsey, and Muskingum Counties were present at the Apex Event Center to hear about some area tourism updates.
Sarah Wickham, the State Tourism Director, says tourism across the whole state brings in around 242 million visitors as well as $57 billion in tourist spending each year.
“We are supporting small business, we are creating jobs, and we’re really showcasing the best of what makes Ohio the heart of it all.” Wickham said. “We’re at Apex Gaming here in Caldwell and it is a really unique place. They bring in gamers from all across the world, so it’s a really neat experience. Appalachia has so many things to offer like this is one of the very unique offerings in Appalachia and so being here today is a really great opportunity and so being here today is a really great opportunity to have conversations with our partners in Appalachia, the counties, the business owners, the government folks, it’s a really unique opportunity.”
The Event Center has a very cool feature; on the other side of a door leading from the event space is a dedicated gaming area and trading card store.
Kyle Huck, the owner of Apex Gaming, says they’ve had players from the U.K., Netherlands, and Germany stop in to see in as well as participate in some of their gaming tournaments.
He says that this not only adds to tourism in Caldwell, it also gives locals a place to come and hang out with friends.
“And this is in person gaming, not like online gaming, you know this is where we game together.” Huck said. “But one reason they come here, we have our stream and our stream set up and they really like to play on camera and have it broadcast. It’s broadcast out all on Twitch, all over the world.”
The Apex Event Center is located at 44519 Marietta Rd. Suite B.
Apex Gaming and Esports is located at 44523 Marietta Rd. Suite B.
For more information on upcoming events, you can head to their website.
