Etown Tourism's Krysta Souleyrette on Hardin Local

Key Takeaways

• Krysta Souleyrette became executive director of Elizabethtown Tourism on September 4th after serving as interim since May; she has been with the bureau for eight years
• Tourism pays for quality-of-life projects locals use, like paving the Buffalo Lake trail connector, which the city now manages
• Your Gear Is Here lets anyone 17 or older borrow sports equipment for free at the Freeman Lake and American Legion park offices, with a license
• Per Krysta, visitors spent $376.7 million in Hardin County in 2025, and tourism accounted for 2,647 jobs
• Her children's book, Betty Visits the David May House, is free from Elizabethtown Tourism

Summary

Elizabethtown Tourism had never been on Hardin Local before this week. Its brand new executive director, Krysta Souleyrette, joined Rachel Brantingham for the whole episode, in four parts woven between the host segments: who she is and what tourism actually does for residents, the "there's nothing to do here" myth and the numbers behind the visitor economy, her can't-miss fall picks, and the free children's book she wrote.

It matters because most of what tourism does is invisible if you live here. The money that visitors leave behind, the trails and park upgrades it helps pay for, and the free gear sitting in the park offices all land on residents, whether or not they ever think of Etown as a destination.

Full Article

Rachel set it up with a line about the thing you cannot put in a real estate listing: how welcoming people are here. Then she brought in the person who, in her words, "gets paid to make people feel that way about this place."

Krysta picked the thread right up. "Whenever I host a writer or influencer, that is the first thing they talk about, how friendly our community is," she said. "I wish I could bottle that up and just market it somehow."

A transplant who stayed

Krysta asked to keep the biography short, so here it is short. She grew up in southeast Missouri, in the Bootheel, studied marketing, and moved to Elizabethtown in 2018 for a job at the tourism bureau after seeing the listing online. She did not know a soul when she arrived. She has been with Elizabethtown Tourism ever since, served as interim director starting in May, and officially became executive director on September 4th.

"I'm not from Elizabethtown, but I got here as quickly as I could," she said.

What tourism does for you

Rachel asked the question a neighbor would ask: what does the tourism office actually do for me?

"We really focus on quality of place," Krysta said, "and bringing in visitors, obviously, but we've helped make our town a place people want to visit, and a place people want to live."

She gave two examples. Tourism paid to pave the Buffalo Lake trail connector, and the city manages it. And before her time, tourism partnered on the American Legion water park renovation; she believes it was the lazy river that tourism added, and she sees kids packed into it every time she goes.

Then there is the program most people have never heard of. Your Gear Is Here, a partnership with Elizabethtown Parks and Recreation, lets visitors and locals alike borrow sports equipment for free. At Freeman Lake Park that means tennis rackets, pickleball paddles, disc golf gear, and fishing poles with a tackle box (you still need your fishing license). At American Legion Park you can borrow golf clubs and balls for the par 3 course, which has its own small fee to play. You need to be 17 or older and leave your license at the park office.

"Just a great opportunity at no cost to locals or visitors," Krysta said.

"There's nothing to do here"

After Nate Bryan's Business Buzz, Rachel came back to Krysta with the complaint every local has heard. Nate had one of his own to share: he once brought a family from North Carolina to play the county's miniature golf courses, and they could not believe a town this size had them.

Krysta credited the people behind it. "Elizabethtown is full of wonderful people that are so innovative," she said, and business owners here are willing to take the risk of opening something new. Part of her job is making sure people can find it all: itineraries on the tourism website, the Betty Blog, and fall guides on tourism's social channels.

The numbers

Every year, Kentucky Tourism studies the economic impact of tourism by county. Hardin County has two tourism organizations, Elizabethtown Tourism and Radcliff/Fort Knox Tourism, and Krysta shared the county figure: in 2025, visitor spending in Hardin County reached $376.7 million, and tourism accounted for 2,647 jobs.

She explained why the spending number matters with a local example. When a local business has a great year and takes the team out to dinner, the server's tip gets spent at a local boutique, and the boutique owner eventually buys a house from a local agent. It is the same dollar passing around. A visitor breaks that circle. They spend here, usually a little more freely than at home, and then they leave, which means that money is new to the local economy.

"That 376.7 million that I've been talking about is money that wouldn't have been generated otherwise," she said.

SteelGrove Amphitheater

The biggest thing on the horizon is SteelGrove Amphitheater, set to open next spring. Krysta described it as 10,000 capacity: about 4,000 seats and 6,000 on the lawn. She could not announce acts yet, but she said it will bring quality of life, more visitors and more jobs, the way the Elizabethtown Sports Park did.

Her fall picks and her podcast

Asked for her can't-miss fall picks, Krysta named the spooky movies at the Historic State Theater (she goes to Hocus Pocus every year) and the Ghost Walk, for the history as much as the chills.

Tourism also has a podcast of its own. Meet Me in Elizabethtown launched last year with short episodes, and season two is recording now. It interviews local business owners and attractions and digs into Elizabethtown history. It is audio only, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Betty, and how you can help

About a year ago, Elizabethtown Tourism moved its offices downtown to the David May House, and it gives tours there. That gave Krysta the idea for a children's book about Betty, the character behind the Betty Blog, visiting the house. The books are free from tourism. "We didn't want cost to be an inhibitor to anybody," she said.

Her answer to how residents can help was simple. With the holidays coming and so many transplants in the county, invite your family to visit, and let tourism help plan it. They will build an itinerary, and for family reunions they sometimes make welcome bags. The restaurants, events and blog ideas are all on the tourism website. And if you see someone downtown who looks like a visitor, offer to help.

"Just continue to be the friendly community that we are," she said.

Rachel closed by congratulating her on the new role and inviting her back as SteelGrove gets closer to opening.

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