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By Kelly B. Garrett

Eagle Staff Writer

Visitors to Butler County continue to grow every year.

Business, recreation, weddings, a weekend get away, the Butler Fair and Farm Show, graduations, the Bantam Heritage Jeep Festival, sports — all are reasons people come to the county, and that list seems to get longer annually.

Most of that credit falls directly on the doorstep of the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau, which is funded through a countywide 3-percent bed tax on every bed in every hotel, motel and bed and breakfast in the county.

Jack Cohen, the bureau’s executive director, noted earlier this year that the 2011-2012 bureau budget for the first time reached beyond the $1 million mark.

It helps having close to 2,000 hotel rooms in 13 hotels that are continuing to grow, with the June opening of the Hilton Garden Inn in Cranberry Township and the construction of a Courtyard by Marriott in Cranberry Woods Business Park.

Tiffany Jassel, general manager of the Hilton Garden Inn, and her regional manager, Michael Gulotty, both said owner, Vista Host, is excited about the continued development in Cranberry and southwestern Butler County.

“Even in the two months I have been living here, more development has been started or planned,” Jassel said.

Having lived in several different areas of the country for Hilton, Jassel said the growth in the region is not like anything she’s seen before.

“Its not just the business visitor or the weekend tourist,” she said. “We have been getting calls for weddings, bar mitzvahs, community events, and we’re not even open yet.”

Tammy Schaum, general manager of the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Slippery Rock, said her hotel has about eight months experience in dealing with guests.

“We haven’t been here long enough to say we’ve noticed any trends, but we have been booked almost every weekend since opening,” Schaum said.

The hotel’s first weekend open was a trial-by-fire because it corresponding with the Slippery Rock University’s homecoming.

She said the hotel, like its counterparts in Cranberry, is getting a smattering of all sorts of clientele — business, parents and students of SRU, Grove City College and Westminster College, as well as visitors who plan on kayaking Slippery Rock Creek, stopping by Moraine State Park or hiking the North Country Trail.

Could the Slippery Rock area use more hotels? Schaum said that would be nice, after the Fairfield Inn has a chance to establish itself as the first place guests call for rooms.

“I’d like a little more time before we got another hotel, but having someplace to send people when we are booked would be a nice thing to have,”she said.

Cohen said there is a need for additional hotel rooms across Butler County with a special need in Butler and Buffalo Township.

There has been talk of hotels in both areas, but neither has had a firm offer yet.

“As for more rooms, we do have a need and we (tourism bureau) can help fill them,” Cohen said.