New tourism director aims to boost Vinton County outdoor travel

Vinton County’s tourism office has put a new director in place with a clear economic job ahead of him: turn the county’s forests, trails and parklands into more visitor traffic, more overnight stays and more spending in local businesses. Aidan Reagh started as director of the Vinton County Department of Tourism on March 9, after county commissioners unanimously chose him from 18 applicants.

Reagh arrived with a background built around outdoor recreation and community promotion. Before coming to Vinton County, he served as director of communications and development for the Buckeye Trail Association, where he worked to spread the word about the trail, encourage usage, connect with businesses and support marketing efforts. That experience lines up with the county’s own tourism pitch, which leans heavily on outdoor destinations and small-town access points that can draw day visitors as well as longer-stay travelers.

The county sits in the Hocking Hills region and promotes a slate of attractions that includes Lake Hope State Park, Lake Alma State Park, Zaleski State Forest, Moonville Rail Trail, Tar Hollow State Forest and Wayne National Forest. The Vinton County Convention and Visitors Bureau describes its mission as promoting the county’s tourism economy, while county government says the tourism department, established in 2024, is meant to market and support those assets as part of responsible tourism growth. For a county of just 12,645 estimated residents in 2025, and 12,800 at the 2020 Census, even modest gains in visitor spending can carry outsized weight.

That scale helps explain why the hire matters. Vinton County is Ohio’s least populous county, which means tourism is not just a branding exercise. It can influence how many meals are sold in McArthur, how often rooms are booked, and whether local events produce spillover business for shops, outfitters and restaurants. The county’s tourism bureau says it serves leisure travelers, event planners and tour operators, signaling that the office is expected to do more than promote scenery. It is also supposed to bring organized traffic into the county economy.

The department itself is still taking shape. A 2025 county resolution described the Vinton County Department of Tourism as a local government agency created to market and support the county’s tourism assets, including park development and lodging facilities. In 2026, the department announced a restructuring and capacity-building effort, including a role change for Keirsten Yates to cultural tourism manager. Reagh’s first months on the job will show whether the county can convert that growing structure into measurable results for bookings, foot traffic and local business activity.