Nevada City earned a mention in a leading travel guide that calls out the Gold Country as one of the top 10 must-see destinations in the United States for 2012.

The Lonely Planet Guide creates the list of destinations that are “new, interesting, up-and-coming or likely to be missed in the following year,” said Mary Ann McAlea, president of the Gold Country Visitors Association, which markets the Gold Country region under the auspices of the California Travel and Tourism Commission.

The Gold Country made No. 6 on the list, behind the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Hudson River Valley in New York, Cincinnati, Ohio (which has “quietly transformed itself,” the guide says), the Four Corners region in the Southwest, and Culebra, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico.

“This is very big news for our area,” said Gold Miners Inn-Holiday Inn Express managing owner Nick Hayhurst, in Grass Valley.

While Nevada County is lumped anonymously into the region that spans several foothills counties, local people see it as a validation of several years of collaborative efforts to promote the area.

Nevada County and Grass Valley together spent roughly $260,000 on efforts to draw visitors to the western county in 2011.

Tourism accounts for about 16 percent of annual business conducted in the county, according to financial planner and Nevada County Regional Chambers of Commerce board member Eric Sams.

The Regional Chambers — made up of six chambers from the county's major population centers — belongs to the Gold Country Visitors Association

“The funds we receive from Nevada County are leveraged through our affiliation with this organization, making possible our participation in tourism promotion projects that would not be possible on our own,” Regional Chambers President Susan George said.

The county board of Supervisors awarded $50,000 to the Regional Chambers in October to promote the county.

Spreading the word

Getting onto the list means lots of free publicity: www.LonelyPlanet.com gets 10 million unique visitors each month, said McAlea, who also runs the Folsom Tourism Bureau in Folsom.

She and others already are looking for ways to use the designation to further their promotional efforts.

The news came in just before a print deadline for a brochure being created by the visitor association, McAlea said. That allowed for a last-minute inclusion of the designation and a small Lonely Planet logo to be included, she added.

She's working with counterparts at the state level “to push out through their social media channels,” McAlea added.

Next week, a representative from the association will incorporate the Lonely Planet kudos into pitches for the region at the Los Angeles Travel and Adventure Show.

In February, George will carry the message to the Bay Area Travel and Adventure Show, she said.

“A portion of the show is geared toward travel operators,” George said. “Gold Country Visitors Association takes an entire aisle. We will definitely be promoting (the designation) at that show.”

Strategizing on how to launch more efforts based on the designation will be taken up at the next meeting of the association, McAlea said.

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To contact Senior Staff Writer Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call (530) 477-4230.