Kentucky has nine tourism regions that structures existed for a long number of years.

Every one of the 120 counties of Kentucky is is in one of those nine regions.

How did the travel and tourism department come up with nine regions for Kentucky?

They did it by focusing on the defining or shared characteristics of an area that would appeal to Kentucky's families and tourists alike.

Those nine regions are the Kentucky Appalachians.

Daniel Boone Country.

Northern Kentucky River Region.

The Bluegrass Kentucky Southern Shorelines.

Bourbon Horses and history, Caves, Lakes and Corvettes, Bluegrass, Blues and barbecue and the Western Water Lands.

All nine of those regions were named to help identify those characteristics or to help travelers find them.

Western Water Lands is a good example of this.

The region makes up the western corner of the state and is mostly made up of the counties which border Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake to the Mississippi River.

That regional structure offers at least two really important advantages for us as far as promoting travel to and within Kentucky.

And that's the mission of our department, is to promote travel, to bring people in and to generate travel within the state.

The two ways that that regional structure helps us achieve that is the first and the most important one is Kentucky has this wonderful array of things to do and to see and to experience.

The problem is the challenges.

It's wonderful challenges.

How do you articulate the contents of that treasure chest in a way that prospective visitors understand and comprehend all the compelling and wonderful things there are to experience here?

So through the regional structure, the nine regions, in effect, we've created nine smaller treasure chests where we can promote each region, each area, and the particular opportunities and experiences that people can have in each one.

And one of the things when people travel is that they don't pay attention to county lines.

They don't pay attention to city limits.

They what they're looking for are experiences and memories.

And so what that means for us is that the more that the counties can collaborate with each other, the more they can present a collective brand and a coordinated message.

The better.

And the regional structure helps do that.

The way that this regional structure is presented and put out there in front of perspective is there's really two ways.

One is through our website Kentucky tourism dot com.

But within that site there is that regional structure.

People can can search and research all the things to do in places to see by region.

And the other way is through our annual published visitors guide which is actually formatted on that regional basis.

And so once again people will be able to see and to search for the things to do in each of those nine regions.

Here's another way to experience all of what our state has to offer.

Keep watching Kentucky life before every segment.

You'll see where our next story is coming from.

Here you'll see the name of the tourism region and where it is in relation to the rest of the state.

And over here you'll see a more detailed map so that you can get a better sense of where we're visiting, including which town we hope.

Using the Department of Travel and Tourism's Regions will help you explore Kentucky.