By Karen Snelling, Post-Tribune staff writer
HOBART -- When the Brickworks Brewing Co. opens in downtown Hobart this summer, it could become a featured stop for culinary tours, regional promoter Speros Batistatos said Thursday.
"It's not just selling Hobart, it's selling Northwest Indiana as a micro-brewery center," said Batistatos, president and chief executive officer of the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority.
Batistatos, guest speaker at the Hobart Chamber of Commerce meeting Thursday, said the Brickworks and other local attractions -- like the city's annual Duck Race -- can help spur the regional economy.
He said regional leaders, meanwhile, have to expand their vision beyond municipal borders.
"We just have to break down walls and get away from parochial thinking," he said.
Batistatos said a new sports stadium, a new convention center and a new regional tourism bureau would help boost the local economy by creating new jobs and new sources of revenue for the region.
Youth sports, he said, are "recession-proof." A new sports facility, meanwhile, would help attract amateur tournaments that would fill local hotel rooms, he said.
Batistatos also urged county leaders to create a regional convention and visitor center to serve Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.
"Visitors from Chicago don't know county names and don't care about county lines," he said. "And we don't need three convention and visitors centers in a 36-mile area."