Written by Skylar Laird, SC Daily Gazette
When people visit Chester County, they often don’t realize everything it has to offer, said Keianna Benson, the local tourism director.
Benson hoped becoming part of the state’s Front Porch Program, a network of local welcome centers that get help from the state in promoting local attractions, will remedy that. In November, Chester County joined 41 other cities and counties in the 2-year-old program, which offers training and resources to every part of the state.
Located about halfway between Columbia and Charlotte, the county of 30,000 has two state parks, a skydiving center and plenty of local places to eat and shop, Benson said. The visitors’ center promotes all of those activities to anyone who stops by, whether they live out of town or locally, she said.
“I want us to be an all-inclusive tourist hub,” Benson said.
The idea is similar to that of the state’s nine major welcome centers, which offer brochures, maps and staff who can help plan an itinerary for any visit to the state, said Heather Harley, who oversees the program. Along with suggesting the state’s large cities, employees at the welcome centers often direct some of the 5 million visitors they see each year to what they consider undiscovered gems in smaller, less-traveled parts of the state.
“If we can get just a portion of that into these smaller towns, then we’ve done our jobs,” Harley said.
Having visitors’ centers in those locations, however, gives a local’s perspective the welcome centers can’t offer. The people running the local visitors’ centers typically know the area better than anyone, and they can help a visitor find more out-of-the-way destinations or curate a more specific plan, Harley said.
“We named it the Front Porch Program to emulate what we strive to be, which is that front porch of South Carolina, that happy smile, that welcoming, ‘Come on, have a seat, sit a spell’ feeling that you get when you visit somebody’s home,” Harley said.
For cities and counties, joining the Front Porch Program means easier access to resources and more promotion from the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, Harley said.
After applicants submit the $75 fee, a state-level staff member will tour what they have to offer, evaluating how many brochures advertise local activities, whether public bathrooms are available and the friendliness of staff.
If a location passes muster, the state agency will give it a plaque officially designating it the visitors’ center for the area and add it to the map of statewide spots to visit.
“Really, this is just more visibility,” Benson said.
The visitors’ center’s staff can join special training opportunities usually reserved for state agency employees, which can help them run the centers and come up with more ideas to drive tourism, Harley said.
For the smaller towns the program targets, such as Chester (with a population of about 5,300), more tourism can mean big economic benefits, Benson said. Making sure everyone who comes through has a good experience, including knowing where to go and meeting friendly people, they could become a repeat customer, Benson said.
“It’s very important for us to leave Chester in the back of their head as a place they want to visit another time,” Benson said.
The network of visitors’ centers in so many different places became an asset when Tropical Storm Helene struck in late September 2024, knocking out power for more than 1.2 million homes and businesses and killing 49 people in South Carolina.
Visitors’ centers that still had power turned into hubs where locals could charge their phones or come seeking non-emergency help, and the centers’ employees reached out to each other to ask for ways they could help, Harley said.
“The day-to-day things are amazing, but when you can really have that ability to lift each other up, I think that’s really when it changes how you feel about a program,” she said.
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