Racing to New Horizons: 2026 Annual Partnership Meeting

More than 140 members of the Richland County tourism industry gathered today at Ontario’s Lofts and Rails Event Center on May 20 for the 2026 Destination Mansfield-Richland County Annual Meeting. The lunchtime meeting featured reporting on the past year’s achievements.  

“In addition to conducting award-winning marketing of the county, we also took time to improve our organization internally,” said Destination Mansfield-Richland County President Lee Tasseff.  “It was time to adapt more of our operation to the ever increasing AI world.”

The county’s Destination Marketing Organization shared some of its latest promotional tools including several  that are AI-powered:

• Ohio-based AI-powered calendar app, Yodel, that creates a true countywide community calendar for event-based tourism marketing.
• Fully-branded DestinationMansfield.com complete with chatbot assistant named “Red.”
• Organization-wide AI nicknamed “Nixie, The Intern”, that helps research, develop communications, content and maintain brand consistency.
• Debuted the “As Real As It Gets” branded, ad concept.

Tasseff added they fulfilled a commitment to create a countywide event calendar that can be adapted to each of the county’s community websites.  “We committed to bring several Mansfield Rising 1.0 projects to life.  Branding was the first. The calendar is the latest.” 

The meeting capped off with its annual Tourism Awards of Excellence, which recognize industry members who developed, improved or materially transformed their attraction or business since the start of the pandemic. Tourism Award of Excellence winners for 2026  include:

• Alpaca Meadows
• Mansfield Fire Museum
• Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport: “Airport Day” event
• Mansfield Parks and Recreation: Sterkel Park
• Richland County Park District: Fleming Falls

“We recognize outstanding community assets that make us better as a tourism destination and as a place to live, work and play,” said Tasseff. “With the addition of today’s award winners, our Tourism Excellence Hall of Fame now has recognized excellence 126 times since we started it in 2005.”

The local tourism industry also received accolades from outside the county, with Destination Mansfield being recognized by the Ohio Travel Association with its prestigious Ruby Award for the Ohio Bird Sanctuary Marketing Campaign and First Place Earth Stewardship Award.

Destination Mansfield-Richland County also shared its successful digital and email marketing campaigns, which saw increased click and open rates with 4.86 million organic views of Destination Mansfield messages. Tasseff highlighted that the work didn’t just reach targets, it moved them. The Ohio Bird Sanctuary campaign, which generated more than a million impressions, resulted in 321 clicks and a 98.6% video completion rate, which helped fuel an impressive 33% increase in visitors at the sanctuary.

2025 marketing successes included generating significant national and regional publicity to drive tourism in the county. 1,054 articles were generated about the area, garnering 158 billion impressions that told Mansfield & Richland County’s story. These stories reached potential travelers across Ohio, the US and beyond.

Destination Mansfield highlighted the important role tourism plays in the local economy, serving as the sixth largest employer in Richland County and supporting 5,094 jobs with a payroll of $115.8 million. Driven by overall visitor spending of $404.5 million per year, the industry generates $11.6 million in local tax revenue to relieve tax burden on residents, while helping fund valuable city and county services and resources.