Pictured is Grace College’s men’s soccer team. Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors Bureau recently had assistance from the team unloading new visitor guides. The team unloaded 1,000 of the 63,000 guides at the visitors center in Warsaw. (Photo provided)

WARSAW — Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors Bureau recently had some assistance unloading a large quantity of newly printed 2017 visitor guides from the Grace College men’s soccer team.

The team unloaded 1,000 of the 63,000 guides at the visitor center, located on US 30, as a community service contribution. Last year, the team assisted with cleaning out the visitor center basement.

“Each time they are here, I am knocked over by their obvious desire to serve others. Their help and energetic spirit while working is welcomed and a blessing. We couldn’t do these jobs on our own. They’ve become our angels in saving us time and expense by contributing the heavy lifting that we need,” said Executive Director Jill Boggs.

The remaining 62,000 visitor guides are stored for distribution at CCI, the manufacturing arm of Cardinal Services Inc. Guides are distributed in the county, on the Indiana Toll Road, and throughout Indiana by CCI’s excellent delivery and bulk mailing services. The many individual requests received directly at the visitor center or through the Indiana Office of Tourism Development’s website are also distributed in and out-of-state by CCI.

The visitor guide, published annually by the CVB, is a publication in the travel industry designed to guide a person to take an action to visit a location, refer the location, and/or share with family and friends the many tourism opportunities in a specific location. Last year, all 67,000 of the Kosciusko County 2016 Visitor Guides were distributed.

“Leisure travel is difficult to measure and as a destination marketing organization, we are always looking at our marketing efforts just as any business does. Print, along with a marketing plan that includes paid digital, owned and earned media, is alive and well in the travel industry as 50.3 percent of Americans still make their travel decisions via print collateral,” said Boggs.

The 2017 Kosciusko County Visitor Guide is now available at the visitor center during business hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday during March through October.