If you look at the vehicles in the Kentucky Splash parking lot each summer, then you will likely notice a pattern among the license plates. Many of the vehicles are from Tennessee and, more specifically, the Knoxville area.
This is why Williamsburg officials have directed a lot of their advertising dollars for the waterpark to a Knoxville television station each year.
Williamsburg Tourism Director Alvin Sharpe said he recently met with NBC affiliate WBIR out of Knoxville about advertising for the waterpark, and the city still plans to do advertising with the station even though Williamsburg viewers are no longer able to watch the channel on their local cable system.
Mayor Roddy Harrison said that Spectrum cable recently switched their local affiliates for NBC, ABC, CBS and other local network affiliates from Knoxville stations to Lexington television stations. Harrison said this is a big deal since much of the business for the waterpark and The Mint Gaming Hall come from the Knoxville area.
Harrison and Sharpe noted Williamsburg residents get a lot of their news from the Knoxville stations, especially weather.
Sharpe said he still plans to run waterpark advertising on WBIR and WYMT out of Hazard even though local residents can no longer receive WBIR over their local cable system.
Sharpe added advertising in Lexington markets is not as effective for the waterpark as advertising in the Knoxville market. He said many people from the Lexington area go to the Somerset waterpark, which is closer for them.
