After more than six years as the tourism director in Cumberland, Kim Collier is coming to Harlan.

Monday is Collier's first day on the job as director of the Harlan Tourist and Convention Commission, and she's looking forward to "a new adventure."

Her approach, and vision, is broad.

Tourism in Harlan County and eastern Kentucky "can make all the difference in the world to our local economy," Collier said.

Cumberland Mayor Jeff Harrison said Collier's move is a major loss for the Tri-Cities.

"She'll be sorely missed," Harrison said. "It will be very hard to fill those shoes."

But Collier says her approach to tourism development will be county- and region-wide.

"(We) have to work together as a team and sell ourselves as a package to tourists," she said. "We have a whole lot more when we do it that way."

The Harlan Center, for Collier, is the most exciting part of her new position. Her goal for the building is high: to turn a profit.

"It's a valuable asset to our county," Collier said. "It's such a new facility. The main challenge is getting it up and running profitably."

Collier doesn't have any blinders on when it comes to the obstacles Harlan County will have to overcome in order to find itself booming with tourism.

The county's infrastructure needs building, she said, and it won't be easy.

"We definitely need more hotel rooms," said Collier. "We need our cities to have the capacity to service more people than we do now. We need more restaurants, more hotels, gift shops, craft shops. ... There's a lot of room to grow."

But the county is in a challenging transitional period when it comes to growing the service-sector industries, Collier said.

That is, it takes tourists to attract vendors, and it takes vendors to attract tourists.

"Right now the economy may not be good enough yet that people feel that it's profitable to come in and put in a hotel or a couple more restaurants, until they start seeing more people coming in."

"We're kind of in the middle," she said. "We're on the verge of really increasing our tourism industry."

Collier's solution to the challenges is simple: teamwork, teamwork, teamwork.

That, and knowing Harlan County's niche.

"The biggest selling point, I think, is that it's off the beaten path," she said. "It's a special, unique place that you can get away to. The scenic beauty is incredible.

"I think people are always pleasantly surprised when they come here. But we don't want to be a secret anymore. We want everyone to know about us."