During the past year, Enjoy Oxford switched its emphasis from offering guidance and good times to Oxford visitors to being a welcoming service that promotes all the events and good things the city has to offer to both visitors and full-time residents, Kim Daggy, executive director of Enjoy Oxford told city council Tuesday.

“We really try to focus hard on destination development, marketing, and promotion as well as visitor engagement,” Daggy said.

A popular weekly Pub Run event was one of the biggest accomplishments in destination development, Daggy said. The event saw more than 100 people sign up, and many continue to attend each week. The Pub Runs were kick-started this past summer and have carried on into the winter, with 10-15 residents participating each week.

The main goal of Enjoy Oxford’s destination development department is to transition uptown into the living room of Oxford, she said. Daggy noted that the activities it hosts uptown bring many students off of campus to engage with the community, and the activities also proved to help keep people uptown and involved for longer periods of time.

Oxford has much more going during the school year than during breaks, which brings slow periods for businesses uptown. Enjoy Oxford hosts events during the summer and winter seasons to bring locals out of their houses and uptown to engage with the community while the majority of Miami University students are home.

Conquer Cabin Fever, a four-day event that brings branded businesses together to generate more business uptown during Miami’s winter break, was hosted for the first time in Oxford this January. Daggy said it was successful in bringing families uptown to participate in the activities and that the event was a smashing success even though rain and cold interfered with some events.

Conquer Cabin Fever generated over 5,000 hits on the organization’s website, she said.

Another memorable event hosted by Enjoy Oxford this past year that drew many out-of-town visitors during the summer break was the Porsche show, which set a record with 178 registered Porsches in uptown Oxford in August.

Enjoy Oxford refreshed its website in 2019, adding a new blog feature to interact with the community and new tags for accessibility. The website gained almost 10,000 new users between 2018 and 2019, Daggy said.

Adding to its online presence, the organization began sending out a monthly newsletter, which details what has been happening and improving in the community. The newsletter has more than 2,200 subscribers, up from 1,900 in 2018, she said.

Another new addition to the website is the transportation page. This page on the website will help visitors get around Oxford, with helpful pages about local bus routes, car services, scooters and parking.

Although Enjoy Oxford has geared itself more towards the locals of Oxford over the past year, the organization still focuses heavily on visitor engagement. Its website and printed guides point visitors to the many restaurants, bars, events, and historical sites that make up the community.