Lehigh Valley officials announced a new name for the region's tourism agency today: "Discover Lehigh Valley."

Lehigh Valley officials announced a new name for the region's tourism agency today: "Discover Lehigh Valley."

Michael Stershic, head of the agency formerly known as the Lehigh Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the old name sounded overly "bureaucratic."

The new name is meant to convey "that there is more to (the) Lehigh Valley than meets the eye," he said.

Many other regions use the term "visit" to promote their tourism efforts -- such as "Visit Pittsburgh." But Stershic said Discover Lehigh Valley sounds more dynamic and could encourage tourists to do more here.

"Visits end," he said. "The discovery process does not end."

The branding campaign will rely heavily on the word-of-mouth power of such social media platforms as Facebook and Twitter, because the agency lacks the budget for the expensive magazine advertising it has used in the past.

Discover Lehigh Valley's revenue is down 13 percent so far this year due to a drop in hotel taxes.

To help the social media campaign, it is offering $200 gift cards to three people who submit stories of their own local discoveries. Local celebrities -- including Marty Nothstein, who won an Olympic gold medal in cycling and graduated from Emmaus High School -- will also share their accounts, Stershic said.

The Lehigh Valley economy depends on tourism, which employs 26,000 people and has been a recent job generator.

There are 5,299 hotel rooms in Lehigh and Northampton counties, Stershic said. That does not include 108 rooms under construction on Route 100 and an additional 300 rooms at the hotel being built at the Bethlehem casino.

There were 1,060,000 overnight stays in 2009, down from 1,119,000 in 2008, Stershic said. The drop was more attributable to rainy summer weather than the economy, he said.

FROM THE MORNING CALL