SKYHA hosts unique panel for hospitality industry

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Southern Kentucky Hospitality Association holds their monthly meeting with a twist.

“This was a whole new format for us. Having a panel was totally foreign and we thought, ‘What can we do to better involve the rest of the community about all the things that we are working on and how can we get them more in tune and how can we work better with them?,'” Telia Butler, board member of SKYHA, says.

The panel offered their perspective on an industry we don’t really think about too often.

“The hospitality industry is so important here locally, and I think a lot of our citizens don’t always realize that because tourists blend in with all of our residents when they’re out at the Lost River Cave or touring the museums and things like that that we offer here locally. We don’t always notice that we have tourists in our midst everyday doing the same things that we do as residents,” Sherry Murphy, executive director of the Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, says.

Panelists also looked forward to the future of the city of Bowling Green and what’s to come.

“It is so bright. I saw the other day on Facebook, a friend of mine quoted saying hospitality should be part of every business, and it’s 100% true whenever you travel. Every time you go to a new restaurant, go to any city, stay in a hotel, you come into action with the people who live there,” Butler says.

“We have a lot of people coming in and it’s always wonderful to talk with them, to see where they’re coming from and what exactly attracted them to come to this area. It’s really beneficial for us to have that type of interaction with our visitors here,” Murphy says.