Prestonsburg Tourism’s Executive Director, Samantha Johnson, has been elected by her peers to represent the Kentucky tourism industry at the state level.

Johnson will serve a three-year term as an at-large member of the Kentucky Travel Industry Association (KTIA) board of directors. Elections were held on Friday, November 11 at the Kentucky Travel Industry Annual Conference in Lexington. In 2019, Samantha was awarded the KTIA Emerging Leader Award. Since then, she has also served on their nominating and awards committee.

In addition to the KTIA board of directors, Johnson also serves as President for the eastern Kentucky regional tourism initiative, Kentucky’s Appalachia, through the Kentucky Department of Tourism and holds advisory roles to the Kentucky Wildlands and CMH23.

The Kentucky Travel Industry Association represents and serves all segments of Kentucky’s tourism industry, which contributed $11.2 billion to Kentucky’s economy in 2021. The nearly 1,000-member association engages in advocacy and provides its members with education, information and business development opportunities. The association also works to inform the public of the enormous economic, employment and tax revenue contributions tourism makes to the people of Kentucky.