Tifton awarded one of seven tourism development grants

ATLANTA – Explore Georgia, the state tourism office within the Georgia Department of Economic Development, announced recently that it has awarded more than $64,000 in tourism product development grants to seven new and expanding projects across the state. One of the recipients is the city of Tifton’s Southern Drawl Cotton Georgia Grown Retail Experiment.

“The addition of new tourism product can completely transform a community and create lasting economic growth by spurring job creation, attracting new investment and providing residents with an improved quality of life,” Pat Wilson, commissioner for GDECD, said in a news release announcing the grant recipients. “I applaud each of these projects and community leaders for seeing the value that tourism can bring not only to their local communities but to the state as a whole.”

In an effort to support and encourage Georgia’s tourism entities to create new tourism product, Explore Georgia offers this grant to communities who participated in the department’s Tourism Product Development Resource Team program. The program works to evaluate a community’s potential for tourism growth and development through innovative and unique experiences based on a community’s local culture and heritage.

“The creation of new tourism product is essential to increasing travel throughout the state by attracting new visitors and encouraging locals to see all that Georgia has to offer, and this year’s awardees showcase the state’s incredible assets that are waiting to be explored,” Lisa Love, interim deputy commissioner for Explore Georgia, said. “Funding is the greatest need for these projects to get off the ground, and we are proud to have this program to assist communities with implementing new product that will drive visitors and expand their local tourism industry.”

The Tourism Product Development Resource Team Community Funding Program allows the communities served to build new product from the recommendations made by the Tourism Product Development Resource Team members or supports projects the community has developed as an expansion of the resource team’s recommendations. The recommendations and financial support provided through this funding program are designed to spur tourism development activities at the local level that maintain and create jobs, attract tourists, and enhance the visitor experience.

Other recipients of the 2020 Tourism Product Development Funding Program are:

♦ Athens DDA, Athens Music Walk of Fame;

♦ Conyers DDA, Grey Ghost Brewing Company;

♦ Putnam County DA, Georgia’s Writers Museum;

♦ City of Norcross, Historic Downtown Norcross Tour Project;

♦ DA of McDuffie County, Historic Pews & Pulpits Self-Guided Tour Brochure;

♦ City of Calhoun DDA, Freight & Rail Brewing Company.

The grant’s review panel consists of members from the public and private sector as well as fellow professionals who are experienced in the tourism industry or the type of grant being reviewed.

The Georgia Department of Economic Development is the state’s sales and marketing arm, the lead agency for attracting new business investment, encouraging the expansion of existing industry and small businesses, aligning work force education and training with in-demand jobs, locating new markets for Georgia products, attracting tourists to Georgia, and promoting the state as a destination for arts and location for film, music and digital entertainment projects, as well as planning and mobilizing state resources for economic development. Visit www.georgia.org.

Herald File Photo