The Owensboro-Daviess County Convention and Visitors Bureau has taken over the Kentucky Tourism’s Facebook page and Instagram this week.
A posting Sunday on the state agency’s Facebook page says, “Takeover Alert! Starting tomorrow, our friends at Visit Owensboro are taking over our Facebook and Instagram for the week! Follow along for an inside look at this very special city.”
“They let different communities across the state do this,” Dave Kirk, the CVB’s destination management director, said Monday. “This week is our turn.”
The state’s tourism page has 172,092 followers, which gives the CVB a lot more exposure this week.
A Monday post says, “It’s the perfect time to Visit Owensboro. So many options. Take your pick. visitowensboro.com.”
By Tuesday morning, it had drawn 69 likes, three comments and 18 shares.
The comments said, “I love it there,” “Really nice water front” and “I miss Oboro and my friends there.”
“We’re getting before an audience we’ve never had,” Kirk said. “Our goal is to get more people to follow us.”
He said, “We’re seeing an increase already.”
The CVB had 10,421 Facebook followers on Tuesday.
Owensboro is also getting attention from another online posting.
A video about the late Nicky Hayden, who was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame last week, has been viewed 74,000 times online, Mark Calitri, president of the CVB, said recently.
The video features Mayor Tom Watson, pictures of the bronze statue of Hayden on a motorbike in front of the Owensboro Convention Center that the city unveiled in June and scenes around town.
Hayden, an Owensboro native, won the 2006 MotoGP World Championship.
He was killed in Italy in May 2017 when a motorist ran over the bicycle he was riding.