Years of marketing Lancaster County as a buggy-ride-shoofly-pie place have paid off.

The county is well known for its Amish-themed attractions, said Christopher Barrett, president of the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Now, local tourism promoters are working to add to that picture by emphasizing the county's fancier side.

Their long-range goal: shoofly pie on a china plate.

The Visitors Bureau is working with Interstate Hotels, operators of the future Lancaster County Convention Center and Penn Square Marriott, to develop an advertising campaign aimed at professional meeting planners.

Those ads are the opposite of the usual "plain and simple" portrayal of the county.

Instead, they will attempt to show a Lancaster that is high tech and luxurious.

"High Style. Small City. Big Surprises," is the headline on two of the proposed ads.

That line appears under an illustration depicting a spacious, furnished convention center lobby and a photo of a table set with china and crystal for a catered luncheon meeting.

With the planned opening of the convention center and hotel a year from now, Lancaster County is entering a new market, Barrett said.

And, center promoters need to show meeting planners that Lancaster will be ready with the amenities that conventioneers expect.

"I had one meeting planner ask 'Do you have wireless?'" Barrett said, referring to the now commonly available Internet access.

Barrett had to assure the planner that the $170 million center and hotel project would have wireless service and a host of other high-tech amenities.

The ads were presented Thursday to the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority's Public Relations. Marketing & Hospitality Committee.

Barrett and Josh Nowak, Interstate Hotels' sales and marketing director, said initial reaction to the center from meeting planners has been encouraging.

Nowak announced the booking of a one-day, automotive-related consumer show for 2009. Such shows typically attract 1,500 to 2,500 people, Nowak said. The show brings to seven the number of events booked at the center.

Barrett said exhibition booths at meeting industry events have produced 34 solid leads and negotiations with another four groups for multi-day, multi-year meeting contracts.

Barrett said that if those contracts were to be completed, it could lead to the renting of 38,000 room nights at local hotels and motels and $34.1 million in "economic value," or anticipated spending on lodging, meals and shopping.

State Rep. P. Michael Sturla, a long-time supporter of the center project, questioned the ads.

"When I look at these three photos, they are all nice, state-of-the-art facilities, but that state-of-the-art facility could be in Omaha or St. Louis, or anywhere else," Sturla said.

He asked when they would show something unique about Lancaster County — or more specifically — Lancaster City.

Barrett said the first task was to assure meeting professionals that the amenities would be here that they would expect in a meeting destination.

Doing so, coupled with Lancaster County's reputation as a tourist destination, would go far in selling the new center, he said.

"People know Lancaster County. There is no doubt about it. So we're already half-way there," he said.

The Convention Center Authority's partners in the project are the Lancaster City Redevelopment Authority, which owns the hotel site, and hotel developer Penn Square Partners.

The limited partnership consists of general partners Penn Square General Corp., a High Industries affiliate, and Penn Square Ltd. LLC, an affiliate of Lancaster Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Lancaster New Era, Intelligencer Journal and Sunday News.

CONTACT US: bharris@LNPnews.com or 481-6022