Kent County has at least one thing in common with destinations like the Catskills area in New York and Sonoma County, California.
Each has made Yahoo Travel’s list of the “15 Best Places to be this Fall.”
Cindy Small of Kent County Tourism says marquee events like the Firefly Music Festival have contributed to Kent County’s rising profile.
She notes that an estimated 80,000 people attended the Dover music festival this summer, most from out of state.
“That’s a lot of people coming here for the very first time ever," she says. "What do we do when we have a great experience? We go home and we tell our neighbors, friends and family. You can buy advertising but when someone tells about a fantastic visit to a destination, that is a testimonial that money cannot buy.”
Yahoo Travel’s favorites were determined by looking at three factors. Each destination had to have a “special energy in autumn,” offer something unique other than foliage, and had to host at least one key autumn festival, like Saturday’s Delaware Wine and Beer Festival in Dover.
“It was the first festival of its type in Delaware," says Small. "It's really the only festival that promotes all of the state’s wineries, breweries, distilleries, meaderies, and cideries so it really makes us a very well- rounded libation state.”
The Delaware Wine and Beer Festival, now in its 6th year, takes place Saturday from Noon to 5 at the Delaware Agricultural Museum & Village in Dover.