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The Group Travel Leader Going on Faith Select Traveler

Pennsylvania: Poconos proves a crowd-pleaser

By Becky Ferrero, Pam George and Vickie Mitchell
All photos courtesy Poconos Mountain Visitors Bureau

 


Pennsylvania is hard to pigeonhole. It’s got its big cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the suburbs around them. It has its lush rural areas, like the mountainous Poconos. It has energetic college towns, most notably State College, home of Penn State University.

Such diversity breeds an interesting mix of meeting destinations — from a NASCAR circuit racetrack in the Poconos where teams can train in the pits to a suburban hotel in Butler County near Pittsburgh, where baristas compete to concoct complex coffee drinks.

It is also a state that’s constantly changing, fueled in part by a location that puts it within easy reach of much of the Northeast. For example, the state’s new casino industry will take another step toward Las Vegas-like offerings later this year, when many add table games. The state’s only casino resort, Mount Airy, a popular meeting destination, will be among them.

In the Pittsburgh suburb of  Monroeville, the closing of a popular expo center was followed by the opening of a new, more versatile convention complex and a revamped hotel. In another Pittsburgh suburban area, Butler County, a new corporate headquarters and nuclear complex has brought growth, including more than 500 new hotel rooms.

Even in the smallest places, like tiny Cambridge Springs near Erie, change is afoot, as a historic inn’s image — and its meeting space — gets an upgrade from new owners.

Poconos proves a crowd-pleaser

Pennsylvania is hard to pigeonhole. It’s got its big cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the suburbs around them. It has its lush rural areas, like the mountainous Poconos. It has energetic college towns, most notably State College, home of Penn State University.

Such diversity breeds an interesting mix of meeting destinations — from a NASCAR circuit racetrack in the Poconos where teams can train in the pits to a suburban hotel in Butler County near Pittsburgh, where baristas compete to concoct complex coffee drinks.

It is also a state that’s constantly changing, fueled in part by a location that puts it within easy reach of much of the Northeast. For example, the state’s new casino industry will take another step toward Las Vegas-like offerings later this year, when many add table games. The state’s only casino resort, Mount Airy, a popular meeting destination, will be among them.

In the Pittsburgh suburb of  Monroeville, the closing of a popular expo center was followed by the opening of a new, more versatile convention complex and a revamped hotel. In another Pittsburgh suburban area, Butler County, a new corporate headquarters and nuclear complex has brought growth, including more than 500 new hotel rooms.

Even in the smallest places, like tiny Cambridge Springs near Erie, change is afoot, as a historic inn’s image — and its meeting space — gets an upgrade from new owners.