The day after the Interstate 65 billboards went up, so many tourists flooded Hart County attractions that their owners joked that they’d have to cover them up.

Over the past several years, Hart County has grown into a thriving tourism network, thanks to what tourism executive director Sandra Wilson calls “a perfect confluence:” assets, location and a variety of businesses willing to cooperate for the region’s greater good.

The new marketing strategies don’t hurt either.

The acceleration of tourism popularity since the pandemic began has been striking. According to the most recent Tourism Economics study, Hart County’s 2021 visitor spending totaled $34.86 million, up nearly a quarter from 2020 and 5.5% from 2019, the previous record year.

Sure, the increase may have began due to a lack of other options during the pandemic shutdown, but Wilson is working as part of a tourism marketing network to make sure Hart County’s peak popularity sticks around.

The Hart County/Horse Cave area has a lot to offer. In addition to its caves – Hidden River Cave, Onyx Cave and part of Mammoth Cave National Park – the county has Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo and Dutch Country Safari Park for animal lovers, Dennison’s Roadside Market, 5 Broke Girls and Farmwald’s Restaurant and Bakery for foodies, and Horse Cave KOA Holiday for camping aficionados.

Many of these are among the 11 Hart County attractions voted for by the public as winners or finalists in Kentucky Living’s 2022 Best of Kentucky awards. That’s the most awardees the area has ever had, Wilson said.

Each attraction seems to have a similar success story. Hidden River Cave’s 2021 numbers were three times better than the previous record year, said executive director Dave Foster. Dutch Country Safari Park is already on track to double its debut season’s visitors, owner Michael Troyer said. Kentucky Down Under brought in more visitor spending in July 2021 than its entire 2014 year.

It wasn’t always this way. Foster said that when the 2008 recession hit, “there was nothing open in town but us and the bank.”

“The town was literally dying,” he said.

One thing that changed was the entry of a diverse group of small businesses into the scene. Another was marketing.

Hart County holds a favorable position right off I-65, where roadtrippers and passers-by can easily take an exit straight to one of its tourist attractions. Kentucky has the best highways in the country, said Brian Dale, Kentucky Down Under marketing director. The challenge, he said, is to keep drivers from speeding through the state and instead “slow down and enjoy it.”

Wilson uses “intercept marketing” to accomplish this; that is, meeting potential tourists where they are – at rest stops through tourism representatives and on the road through billboards. She also launched a digital assistance program to finetune attractions’ internet presences, since that’s the first step billboard viewers will take on their journey to the eventual attraction.

It’s a game-changer for Kentucky Down Under, Dale said.

“People didn’t even know we were here before.”

Joe Farmwald, owner of Farmwald’s Restaurant and Bakery, said that in the first year and a half of his business, which opened in late 2019, they had a guestbook for visitors. In that time, they got notes from people from all 50 states and at least 14 countries.

Tourism is “everything,” Farmwald said. “We like local people but the tourist people really help us out.”

Wilson hopes that the “perfect confluence” solidifies Hart County as more than a day trip or rest stop.

“We’re trying to establish ourselves as a destination,” she said.