A Mathews tourism summit was held on Tuesday, Oct. 27, hosted by the Mathews County Visitor and Information Center at Mathews Memorial Library. Mathews businesses or organizations that are involved in one way or another in the tourism industry were invited to send representatives, including retail merchants, lodging establishments, restaurants, the recreation sector, the EDA, and Mathews Main Street. Nearly 20 people attended. Virginia Tourism Corporation representative Laura Messer gave a slide presentation on the various ways that the state agency can partner with localities to increase the number of visitors who come to the county as well as increase the length of their stay and the amount they spend while visiting. Among the suggestions Messer gave were that localities should engage in “partnership marketing,” joining forces to heighten visitor awareness of what the state or the locality has to offer, including placing free listings on the VTC website (virginia.org), placing brochu...