{"id":148003,"date":"2026-03-09T22:01:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T02:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=148003"},"modified":"2026-03-09T22:01:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T02:01:01","slug":"bethlehems-main-street-nominated-as-americas-best-for-second-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=148003","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem\u2019s Main Street nominated as America\u2019s Best for second time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>New national campaign celebrates Bethlehem as a year round destination\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>USA Today nominated Bethlehem\u2019s Main Street as the best in America<\/li>\n<li>Vote daily through April 6 at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/votemainstreetbethlehem.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">votemainstreetbethlehem.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li>A new \u201cOur Star Shines All Year Round\u201d campaign will support Bethlehem tourism<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bethlehem, PA (March 9, 2026) &#8211; Downtown Bethlehem business owners are celebrating their Main Street\u2019s second USA Today nomination as one of America\u2019s Best Main Streets. USA Today made the announcement at noon on Monday. Main Street\u2019s newest business owner, Brianna Lasko of Lovely by Brianna, cast the first vote. She said, \u201cBethlehem is the best, no doubt about that. Our town won last year and with community support, we know we can win again.\u201d The public can vote daily through April 6 at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/votemainstreetbethlehem.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">votemainstreetbethlehem.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A new marketing initiative will support the Best Main Street Campaign<\/strong><br \/>\nJust before the USA Today announcement, Kelly Ronalds, the General Manager at Historic Hotel Bethlehem, Main Street\u2019s cornerstone property, announced the hotel\u2019s marketing team created a new national promotional campaign that will benefit the entire city. She said, \u201cWhile Bethlehem is well-known as \u2018The Christmas City,\u2019 we want the world to know that Historic Bethlehem has wonderful experiences to unwrap all year long.\u201d Potential visitors will see the slogan \u201cOur Star Shines All Year Round\u201d along with the official Visit Historic Bethlehem logo in digital and print marketing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cOur Star Shines All Year Round\u201d limited edition merchandise is available<\/strong><br \/>\nFor those who want to share their shining Bethlehem spirit, merchandise featuring the slogan will be available at the Schropp Dry Goods Shoppe on Main Street. Limited edition t-shirts feature gold print on a black background.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Historic Hotel Bethlehem leads Bethlehem\u2019s destination marketing efforts<\/strong><br \/>\nThis is the second year the Historic Hotel Bethlehem team is leading Best Main Street marketing outreach. In addition to creating the new campaign and merchandise, the hotel\u2019s marketing and PR teams are partnering with the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce to conduct digital outreach and a boots-on-the-ground effort to distribute voting marketing materials to local businesses. \u201cThe hotel was founded as a community hotel and community has always been central to our values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This new campaign builds on prior national destination marketing initiatives which the Historic Hotel Bethlehem team created. In 2019, the hotel branded Historic Bethlehem with a national campaign that focused on the city\u2019s rich history and charming Main Street. The campaign tagline, \u201cAuthentic colonial history on a top 10 Main Street\u201d generated millions of impressions and increased visitation.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to creating fresh destination marketing efforts that benefit the entire region, Historic Hotel Bethlehem also recently refreshed its own brand. In 2025, the hotel updated its marketing to encourage visitors to visit, \u201cA Luxury Historic Destination Hotel adjacent to America\u2019s 26th UNESCO World Heritage Site.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ronalds said, \u201cIt\u2019s important for us to not only promote the hotel but also to promote Historic Bethlehem as a destination. We want travelers from across the region and across the country to see that Bethlehem\u2019s star really does shine bright all year,\u201d said Ronalds.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New national campaign celebrates Bethlehem as a year round destination\u00a0 USA Today nominated Bethlehem\u2019s Main Street as the best in America Vote daily through April 6 at\u00a0votemainstreetbethlehem.com A new \u201cOur &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=148003\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Bethlehem\u2019s Main Street nominated as America\u2019s Best for second time<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vote-bethlehem.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148003"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/148004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}