He didn't know it at the time, but 1984 was a big year in the life of Alex Michaels. That was when he started down a path that eventually would lead him to the top job at Discover Lehigh Valley (which, coincidentally, was founded that same year). It was also the year that introduced him to pierogis and polka, courtesy of Musikfest (also founded in 1984).
It all began with a move to the Lehigh Valley—a move the then-teenaged Michaels freely admits he didn't want to make. “I kind of came here kicking and screaming,” he says.
His parents, employees of the now-defunct Lucent Technologies, which operated a facility in Allentown, relocated the family from northern New Jersey to Whitehall. “Going up MacArthur Road back then, it was all cornfields,” Michaels recalls. “I really thought we were living in the country.” He says the change of scenery took some getting used to, but eventually he made friends and became acquainted with some very Lehigh Valley happenings, including that inaugural Musikfest. “I can remember going to the German tent or the polka tent or whatever it was and seeing people do the Chicken Dance,” he says. “I'd never seen anything like that.”
Michaels graduated from Whitehall High School in 1987 and moved on to East Stroudsburg University, where he met his now-wife, Tara, a Salisbury High School alumna. He studied exercise physiology and toyed with the idea of opening his own gym someday, until Mickey Mouse threw him a curveball; he and Tara relocated to Orlando, Florida, for a college internship program through The Walt Disney Company. “That's where I got the hospitality bug,” he says. It was a hands-on crash course in how Disney does business. “It's like being on a college campus without the books.”
Fast-forward to 1997: two years after tying the knot, the couple was expecting a child (daughter Madison), and Tara was missing her old stomping grounds. “She started getting homesick for the Lehigh Valley,” Michaels says. He took a job with a wholesale travel company based in Scranton that kept him on the road for some 30 weeks a year. When that company closed in 2001, he was at a crossroads. “I really didn't know what to do with my career at the time,” he says. “Then I got this harebrained idea that I wanted to be in the military.” Michaels jokingly refers to it as his “midlife crisis”; he was 32 years old at the time. His enlistment date with the U.S. Navy was September 11, 2001.
That morning, Michaels was in Harrisburg, undergoing a final physical before being sent to boot camp alongside his fellow recruits when news broke about the terror attacks. He says there was pandemonium in the room when the second plane struck the World Trade Center in New York City: “It was like something out of a movie.” The officer who was supposed to swear them in gave them the option to back out at the last minute. Recalls Michaels: “I thought about it multiple times. But we all stayed in the room. It was surreal. We didn't know what we were getting into.”
Michaels completed his stint with the Navy in 2005 and then dove back into the hospitality industry, first with the Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau in Florida, and later with Visit Jacksonville (also in Florida) and Visit Virginia's Blue Ridge. In 2018 he was in the process of interviewing for a handful of CEO jobs around the country when he learned that Michael Stershic, president of Discover Lehigh Valley, was retiring. Michaels says his wife encouraged him to throw his hat into the ring. “We got really excited to come back to the Lehigh Valley,” he says. “You come back with different eyes and see all of the beauty and opportunity. There's so much new development.”
And certainly, the Lehigh Valley that Michaels had left in 2001 was not the same Lehigh Valley that he returned to 17 years later, this time as the head of an agency in charge of promoting the region's amenities and tourist attractions. He says he was pleased to see that Allentown's downtown had blossomed into a destination for young professionals to live and socialize. Bethlehem had added the SteelStacks campus and Wind Creek (formerly Sands) casino to its stable of entertainment offerings, and Easton was welcoming a resurgence on its restaurant scene.
Michaels was on the job with Discover Lehigh Valley for just over a year when COVID-19 landed its sucker punch to the heart of tourism bureaus everywhere. “The last year was incredibly stressful and incredibly reflective for everyone, but especially the hospitality industry,” he says. “For six months of the pandemic, we were really concerned that life would not evolve back to the way it was.”
So what does an agency do when there's a collective “closed” sign on the places it prides itself on promoting throughout the year? Regroup, and plan for better days ahead. “We realized how we really have to hone in on what makes the Lehigh Valley special,” Michaels says. “Destinations are going to be chomping at the bit to bring people in, so we really have to step up our game.” That means reintroducing the region to those who live here, and doubling down on efforts to brand it as a must-visit destination for out-of-towners. And so Discover Lehigh Valley is branching out in several new ways, including revamping its website, expanding its marketing efforts, launching a tourism ambassador program and even moving into new digs at Easton's Simon Silk Mill complex.
Already, there are reasons to hope that the pandemic's stain on the local tourism industry won't be indelible. Michaels says May's hotel occupancy numbers in the Lehigh Valley were very good—equal to pre-pandemic levels. “We're cautiously optimistic,” he says. “I know there's a lot of pent-up energy to get out and live life again.” The option to work remotely, which became a reality for many during the pandemic, also has helped; it's easier for visitors to decide to extend their weekend stay if they don't have to worry about reporting to an office come Monday morning.
While Michaels may know the ins and outs of all the Lehigh Valley has to offer, when asked about his favorite local destination, he keeps it simple: Allentown's Trexler Park. It was a popular hangout spot during his courtship with Tara, and it was one of the first places they visited when they moved back to the area for good. “There's not a lot of Trexler Parks around the country. It's one of those amenities you take for granted,” says Michaels. And he should know. He's lived in 11 different cities in eight different states. But somehow, all roads seemed to lead back to the Lehigh Valley. “This is the first time in my life where I actually feel at home,” Michaels says.
