Office Of Tourism

State grant money may push Carroll County above par in the golf industry.With six public and several private golf courses, the county leads the state in the number of greens per golfer and will use the state money to tout its golf resources.Yesterday, the county Office of Tourism received $4,840, the first of two state grants that will total $20,000. Barbara Beverungen, the county tourism director, is already planning a golf brochure.Golf can generate a larger portion of the state's $5.7 billion tourism industry than it now does, said George Williams, director of the Maryland Office of Tourism.

Michael S. Whipple, general manager of the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel, has received the "Maryland Travel Person of the Year Award" from the state Office of Tourism Development for service to the industry.Tourism Partnership awards, presented at the 15th annual Governor's Tourism Conference, which ended yesterday, went to: Gangplank Ragtime Band at Phillips' Restaurant in Harborplace, for serving as a goodwill ambassador for the state; Mary Junck, publisher of The Sun, for the paper's redesign, its expanded Business section and its new beat to cover tourism; the Baltimore Business Journal, for its special section on conventions; Icelandair, for helping promote Maryland and moving its headquarters from New York to Columbia; the State Highway Administration and the State Police, for a partnership to ensure tourists' safety.

An article in Monday's Carroll County section about a Halloween walking tour of historic sites in Westminster should have credited Jesse Glass' book, "Ghosts and Legends of Carroll County, Maryland," for much of the material presented by the county Office of Tourism.The Sun regrets the error.

Richard McClure, a Severna Park High School graduate and longtime Severna Park resident, has been named to two major tourism development groups, the Maryland Tourism Development Board and the first-ever White House Conference on Travel and Tourism.Gov. Parris Glendening appointed Mr. McClure to the three-year post. Mr. McClure, general manager of Carrol's Creek restaurant in Annapolis, represents the restaurant industry on the Maryland board. The group acts as an oversight organization for the state Office of Tourism and Development.

Alexander, Herndon transfer to new officeThe team of Valerie Alexander and Helen Herndon has transferred to the Fort Meade/Odenton Long & Foster office from the Glen Burnie office.The real estate associates transferred to be closer to the hub of the West County market.Richard McClure named to groupsRichard McClure, general manager of Annapolis' Carrol's Creek Restaurant, has been appointed to two major tourism development groups.Mr. McClure was appointed by Gov. Parris N. Glendening to the Maryland Tourism Development Board as a restaurant industry representative and was chosen as a delegate to the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism.

Carroll County is learning to sell itself to more and more tourists."Look at your product and play it to the hilt," Mike Fish, Central Region consultant for the Small Business Development Center, said at a meeting of the Carroll County Tourism Association yesterday.The numbers from the county Office of Tourism are encouraging.More people have stopped at the Visitor Information Center in Westminster in the first six months of this year than for all of 1993 and 1994."Through May 1994, we had 190 visitors," said Sharon Kirk, who manages the center on East Main Street in Westminster.

Maryland's tourism industry moves into prime time this weekend. As always, the stakes are sizable. The trade generates $4.6 billion in annual sales.State officials estimate that 16 percent of all retail sales tax revenue is derived from travel. Last year innkeepers, restaurateurs and retailers reported mixed results. Resorts did well, but the baseball strike hurt Baltimore businesses.What kind of summer are tourism officials expecting this year?Mary Jo McCullochExecutive director, Maryland Tourism CouncilFrom what I'm hearing, the summer will be a very good one. I'm told that many hotels in the area are looking forward to capacity crowds throughout most of the summer, particularly on the weekends.

A $14,000 Maryland Office of Tourism grant will help bring more visitors to Carroll County. Jack Lyburn, county director of -- economic development, said the money will be spent in ways he hopes will show a quick return on the state's investment."

Sign onto a computer anywhere in Maryland and find out what is happening in Carroll County.The 1995 Calendar of Events, published by the Office of Tourism, will be on-line in Carroll County Public Library computers by March 1.Last spring, Carroll County became the first county in the state to publish its events electronically, although in an incomplete version. Tourism officials, pleased with the response, plan to computerize the full calendar every year.Scott Reinhart, library assistant director for technical and support services, said it would be difficult to calculate how many callers accessed the calendar, but the dial-in lines are continually in use.Now, an electronic version of the printed calendar gives a user a list of activities and events in Carroll County from March through December.

The Maryland Tourism Council last night honored officials from Baltimore and the state for their contributions to the state's travel industry.The awards were presented at the 14th annual Governor's Conference on Tourism in Hagerstown. About 200 people from state county tourism offices, hotels, inns and other attractions attended the event, which ends today.Awarded the council's top three awards were Nicholas Brown, executive director of the National Aquarium in Baltimore (President's Award for Outstanding Service to the Industry)