Chesapeake Bay Magazine: Onancock is ‘Shangri-La’

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Image courtesy of Onancock Main Street.

By Carol Vaughn —

A 10-page feature about Onancock in Chesapeake Bay Magazine’s 2021 Weekends on the Water publication calls the town “a Shangri-La, if Shangri-La were flat, watery, and featured crabs on the menu.”
The special edition is available in print and online. Onancock is featured in this year’s edition of the publication along with Baltimore, Kent Narrows, Cambridge, Irvington/Kilmarnock, and Yorktown.
Cape Charles was featured in last year’s Weekends on the Water.
The section on Onancock includes information about accommodations, dining, activities, and points of interest, including the movie theater, North Street Playhouse, and art galleries, among others. It also give a brief history of the town, founded in 1680.
“(The) management of Onancock has worked diligently to use the existing budget to draw more attention to the town as a charming, walkable waterside town with a fantastic food, art, shopping and historical scene,” said Town Manager Matt Spuck in an email.
“Our new logo, tag lines, and the consistent effort of management has Onancock appearing in several regional magazines like Northern Virginia, Virginia Living, Prop Talk and Spin Sheet, and has dedicated significant resources toward” the Chesapeake Bay Magazine feature, he said.
In addition to advertising, the town has invested in plantings, street cleaning, and amenities at the wharf and marina, including golf carts and a courtesy car available to visiting boaters.
“Onancock serves as an ideal destination for visitors to the Shore,” Spuck said, adding, “We have a quaint and uncrowded feel and we are central to the many experiences found only on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.”
The town’s partnership with the Onancock Main Street organization “provides leverage that never existed before,” Spuck said.
Onancock Main Street program manager Jenny Gehman also commented on the town being featured in the publication, saying, “There is a revitalized pride and energy in Onancock. New businesses have opened, and current ones stayed afloat during a very challenging year thanks to the incredibly strong sense of community among residents to, more than ever,  shop and dine locally.”
Gehman also noted the town’s investments in infrastructure including a new boat ramp, “as well as a renewed focus on the beauty of the town with plantings throughout downtown and historic houses getting fresh coats of paint.”
Additionally, the town through Onancock Main Street’s efforts recently launched new branding and a website, experienceonancock.com
“All of this is working together to capture and highlight for everyone else what residents already know is so special about Onancock,” Gehman said.
The printed Chesapeake Bay Magazine Weekends on the Water reaches more than 25,000 readers and the electronic version is sent to more than 26,000 subscribers.
The magazine targets readers in markets from where many visitors to the Eastern Shore come, including the Chesapeake Bay region states of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and the metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia, among others.

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