TRUMBULL TOURISM Next stop: the Avalon Inn

The inn hopes to build bus-tour business by inviting group leaders in for a look.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
HOWLAND -- Joe and Juanita Parker are retired, they travel a lot, and they bring their friends along.
The Cuyahoga Falls couple, trip leaders for a 120-member travel group based in an Akron suburb, are just the type the Avalon Inn & amp; Resort wants to reach with a series of complimentary regional tours it kicked off Tuesday.
The idea, said Wayne Hays, director of Avalon Inn's group sales, is to persuade more travel groups to include Trumbull County attractions and the inn and resort when they put together their annual bus tour schedules.
It worked for the Parkers.
Leaders of the Cuyahoga Falls Senior Travel Club, they said they enjoyed touring the W.D. Packard Museum in Warren and were impressed with renovations under way at the inn.
"We're always looking for ideas, and this is a marvelous location, maybe for a day trip or a weekend trip," Joe Parker said.
He said the club takes 12 to 15 long and short trips a year. This year's itinerary includes Hawaii, Bermuda, Branson, Mo., sections of southern Ohio and, next week, a tour of historic Cleveland churches.
Checking it out
Hays said 47 tour leaders from the Cleveland area traveled to the area by bus Tuesday morning. The group stopped off at the Packard Museum, ate a complimentary lunch prepared at the inn's Italian restaurant, Ristorante Allora, and heard presentations by Ridgeview Farms in Middlefield and the Gerald E. Henn Basket Factory in Lordstown.
The tour leaders, mostly volunteers, help to plan and escort group trips for church clubs, senior citizen groups and other organizations. Hays has other tours planned this spring for groups from as far away as New York state.
Geraldine Kersey, a member of the Autumn Leaves Senior Group at St. Henry Catholic Church in Cleveland, said she planned to promote the inn as a potential golf getaway to her friends and fellow parishioners. The group is small, but its tours seem to attract all ages, she said.
Mary Lou Potoszak said she's always part of the trip planning for her 120-member group at St. Peter the Apostle Church in Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb. She was impressed with the inn's golfing facilities and liked the idea of including Ridgeview Farm on the group's itinerary.
Stepping up efforts
Jeff Cataffa, the inn's marketing director, said officials are stepping up their promotional efforts now to show off a major renovation project started about a year ago. So far, he said, a new front entrance and lobby have been added and a $40,000 face-lift at the junior Olympic-size pool and locker rooms is nearly complete.
The former Tall Oaks restaurant was remodeled, renamed Ristorante Allora, and opened last summer. He said business has more than doubled since Jimmy Chieffo, a well-known local chef and former restaurant owner, joined the staff as its head chef in November.
The inn next plans to remodel its 144 guest rooms, one section at a time, starting with about 35 rooms on the first floor.
vinarsky@vindy.com