The Washington State Tourism Commission has elected Kimberly Bennett, CEO of the Southwest Washington Convention and Visitors Bureau, to serve as co-chair of the commission. She takes over the role from Kris Watkins of the Tri-Cities Visitor and Convention Bureau. Washington State Tourism Commission co-chairs are elected to serve for one-year.

“I am thrilled with the work the tourism commission has already achieved in its first year,” said Bennett. “Our task going forward is to strategically leverage the state’s current $7.8 million budget and develop additional public-private partnerships that will continue to grow tourism in Washington.”

The commission was formed in 2007 by Gov. Chris Gregoire’s historic tourism legislation. Since the first meeting in September of that year, the commission has developed a six-year strategic plan for statewide tourism development; created a two-year tourism marketing plan; overseen the development and launch of a redesigned state traveler Web site at http://www.ExperienceWA.com ; and established criteria for and launched the Washington tourism competitive grant program.

The next meeting of the Washington State Tourism Commission will be Nov. 21 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. A full schedule of meeting dates, locations and agendas (for past meetings) is available on Washington State Tourism’s industry Web site.