Tourism should be second nature to Karen S. Justice, who began work last month as the Howard County Tourism Council's executive director.
Ms. Justice is the daughter of a traveled telephone company manager and has lived in 11 states and two foreign countries. With her husband of 24 years -- a military man -- she's moved more than a dozen times.
"Tourism was fun as an avocation," she said. "So I made it a vocation."
Ms. Justice, 46, was selected from more than 100 applicants. She will work at the tourism council's rather inconspicuous offices in a former courthouse behind Ellicott City's Thomas Isaac Log Cabin, near Main Street and Ellicott Mills Drive.
Her primary job is bringing tourists to Howard County -- which few consider a tourist mecca.
Nonetheless, the county is the site for several annual events that draw vacationers, including the Columbia Festival of the Arts, Columbia Grand Prix, Wine in the Woods and the Sheep and Wool Festival.
State records for the second quarter of this year show that each visitor to Maryland stays an average of 2.1 nights and spends $259.
"Tourism is part of economic development," Ms. Justice said. "It's money generated outside and spent inside your community. It's like unearned income, like winning the lottery."
As executive director, Ms. Justice plans to stress product partnerships that would link Howard County businesses. One example is a partnership between Nixon's Farm in West Friendship and the Columbia Inn, which provides lodging for events at the farm.
"That makes it easy for me to sell it at convention trade shows because it makes it easier for the customer to buy," she said.
She sees one advantage for Howard County in its proximity to major tourist sites such as Baltimore, Washington, Annapolis and Gettysburg, but with lower hotel rates.
"More tourists from the South are coming to Maryland," Ms. Justice said, noting that "historical tourism" is popular.
But Ms. Justice also sees problems that the county needs to solve.
"We would like to have more [signs] on the major thoroughfares to catch a tourist's attention at attractions we've told them about," she said.
"[Ms. Justice] seems very able to express her ideas," said Jan Morrison, director of Oakland Manor in Columbia and vice president of the tourism council's board of directors.
"But she also listens to what others are saying. She's extremely articulate and well-versed in tourism."
Ms. Justice will direct the nonprofit tourism council, which has more than 100 members and an annual budget of $220,000. It is funded through county hotel and motel taxes and state tourism grants.
She succeeds Colleen Riley, who left the council after five years for a job at the National Security Agency. Ms. Justice will combine the previously separate jobs of executive director and marketing director, which was filled by Cindy Leitgeb for three years. Two assistants round out the council's staff.
In her new position, Ms. Justice can draw on globe-trotting experience begun during her childhood.
The Wabash, Ind., native remembers attending nine elementary schools. She continued to travel with her husband, Col. John Justice, who is at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., on a fellowship.
She's now settled gladly in Rockville.
Along with her travel experiences, Ms. Justice brings to Howard County a professional background in business and marketing from Texas and Norway.
She worked from 1988 to 1991 for the Greater Killeen (Texas) Chamber of Commerce, where she began in economic development and became executive vice president.
Ms. Justice lived near Oslo, Norway, from 1991 until this year. There, she worked on such projects for the Oslo Department of Business and Industrial Development as a business alliance among Japan, Norway and Russia.
Last year, she earned a master's degree at the Norwegian School of Management's Oslo campus. Her thesis, "Integrated Strategic Planning for Community Tourism," discussed the need to incorporate social, cultural and economic aspects of a community when planning tourism policy.
While she avoided Lillehammer during the Winter Olympics, toward the end of her stay in Norway, Ms. Justice got the chance to ski on the Olympic slopes -- just before the fortnight of competition.
"I warmed up the slopes," she said.