Wilkes misses out on tourism money but it won't happen again, Turner says

The State of Georgia has awarded over a million dollars in tourism money to communities all around the state, and new WashingtonWilkes Tourism Director Ashley Turner says that it's the last time we're going to miss out on grant money.

"For the next round of grants," she said, "I'm already working on Wilkes County's application with a tourism grant expert, and it will be successful. There's no excuse not to tap into this state money - we need to do so much, and here's the money to do it."

The Wilkes County grant application was among the few turned down.

Some $1,250,000 in co-operative tourism marketing grants will be given to 74 communities, convention and visitor bureaus, regional travel associations, and other nonprofit tourism entities, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, through the Georgia Tourism Foundation, announced recently.

The Georgia Tourism Foundation allows for the creation of new public private partnerships that merge and strengthen Georgia's tourism marketing efforts, in order to attract more visitors and increase the industry's economic impact throughout the state.

This year, the Foundation had a significant increase in grant applications with total grant requests totaling more than $1.3 million. The program received an additional $250,000 from the Department of Economic Development to fund 74 of the 84 applicants. With the indicated private sector matches totaling $4.1 million, the grant program will support communities with marketing projects that they may not have been able to fund completely on their own, and will assist them in reaching a larger audience.

"The Co-op marketing grants program is an excellent outreach program

that supports our tourism partners in more effectively marketing Georgia as a tourist destination while adding value to our local communities," said Craig Lesser, GDEcD commissioner and Georgia Tourism Foundation chairman.

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