Established by a congressional resolution in 1983, National Tourism Week serves to champion the power of the tourism industry. Travel and tourism professionals from across the nation work to promote the impactful contributions travel and tourism organizations make to the U.S. economy. This year, the US Travel Association’s theme shines a spotlight on the power of travel by recognizing the millions of people who keep this industry strong: the #FacesofTravel.
In response to this movement, we are focusing on one of our most visible #FacesofTravel. We are shining the spotlight on 1Berkshire Executive Vice President Lauri Klefos, who has worked tirelessly to share the Berkshires to people from all over the world and promote tourism in our region.
Lauri Klefos with 2016 Southern Berkshire Person of the Year, Vijay Mahida; Location: Norman Rockwell Museum; Photo Credit: Kara Thornton
Lauri Klefos has a lifelong relationship with the Berkshires. She has spent the last ten years marketing the Berkshires to people from all over the world, but this isn’t her first rodeo. With a professional background in economic development and more specifically, tourism and marketing, Klefos has managed tourism advertising all over the country, from Massachusetts to New Hampshire to Arizona. When she’s not in meetings with community leaders, consulting with local business owners, or advocating for the Berkshires in general, you might find her buying a new pair of earrings at Heirlooms Jewelry in Stockbridge or just hanging out with friends at Patrick’s Pub in Pittsfield.
It wasn’t just the picturesque rolling hills and quintessential New England towns that brought Lauri to the Berkshires. Her roots are here. While her father was born in Lenox and her mother was from Pittsfield, Lauri was part of a military family who moved all over the world. Klefos attended Southern New Hampshire University, graduating with a bachelor’s of business administration and marketing. Shortly after graduation, she took a job at an economic development organization in Manchester, NH which led her to work for the State Office of Industrial Development.
In 1996, Klefos was appointed by New Hampshire’s Governor Jeanne Shaheen as State Tourism Director where she served for nine years. From there, she went west to work at an advertising agency in Arizona whose biggest account was the Arizona Tourism Office.
Her long term return to the Berkshires was not something she had on her radar, but it started with a call from a headhunter who asked, “… if I said the Berkshires, would you know where that is…” The Berkshire Visitors Bureau, the official regional destination marketing organization was looking for it’s next President and CEO. For Klefos, coming back to the Berkshires was destiny.
The new Berkshire Visitors Bureau President and CEO quickly joined the conversation about how best to collaborate with other economic development organizations and form a single entity focused on bringing people here to live and work as well as to visit – and they were thinking big.
“1Berkshire represents the idea that we are stronger together than we ever could be as individual entities,” Klefos stated at a BVB Annual Meeting in 2013.
As regionalization became a bigger agenda item, this collaborative project gained momentum. With that, the Berkshire Visitors Bureau, the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, Berkshire Creative, and the Berkshire Economic Development Corporation united their efforts and became what is today 1Berkshire: a regionwide organization for marketing and economic development in the Berkshires.
“The Berkshires is a region with endless potential, rich in nature and brimming with culture. Everywhere I go, people tell me how lucky I am to live here and I agree,” said Klefos. “I think of all the places I’ve lived in my lifetime, and I know I belong here.”
And for those who say that tourism jobs are not “good” jobs, Lauri points to her own personal growth and career. “I started in this business waiting on tables and then working trade shows. I put myself through college and today I enjoy one of the premier positions in the region and work with a great staff of people who believe as I do, that tourism is a vital component of our economy.”
This month we are happy to spotlight Lauri as our face of tourism. We thank her for her dedication and enthusiasm for the region which has educated millions of people about the Berkshires. Lauri embodies the fabric of the Berkshires, a love for the lifestyle, the spectacular scenery, creativity, invention, and innovation. Life has called her to the Berkshires!
Lauri can be reached at lklefos@1berkshire.com.