Tourism is already big business in Warren County.

The county’s share of tourism dollars has already been increasing at a faster rate than its neighboring counties, as we reported earlier this year. Overall tourism spending in the Pennsylvania Wilds increased 5.32% from 2023 to 2024. Warren County’s total tourism spending grew by 13.36% from $190.8 million in 2023 to $216.3 million in 2024.

Local officials hope the recent addition of Pennsylvania Route 6 in Warren, McKean, Potter and Tioga counties as an official Pennsylvania Scenic Byway will unlock even more potential help for the region’s tourism economy.

County Commissioner Dan Glotz, who is also president of the Route 6 Alliance board, said the inclusion of Route 6 through the city of Warren and old Route 6 from Irvine through Youngsville along Main Street was intentionally included in the application area.

“The City of Warren has a lot to offer to visitors, both along the route and along its intersecting roadways,” Glotz told the Times Observer. “For instance, there is a Railroad Museum in Sheffield, Chapman State Park, Kinzua Dam, Allegheny National Forest, Historic Downtown Warren, Wilder Museum, the Winery in Youngsville, camping and hiking opportunities, to name just a few. There are tourists who intentionally look for and travel byways nationwide.”

Designating Route 6 as a scenic byway also opens the area up to additional opportunities for grant funding and inclusion on state-produced byway maps and publications.

But it’s important to remember the designation opens doors. We collectively have to walk through those open doors. Designations like this don’t mean much if we aren’t actively applying for funding when it’s available, if we aren’t using the designation to its fullest potential in our own marketing efforts or if we simply expect tourists to find their way to us because of our inclusion in state-produced resources.

The Route 6 designation is the result of years of work by the PA Route 6 Alliance. The organization should be commended for its work. Now, a new type of work begins, because the work can’t be done now if the Route 6 scenic byway designation is to have the type of impact the Route 6 Alliance intends it to have.