W-W Chamber's Welcome Center now a Regional Visitor Information Center
By KIP BURKE

The Welcome Center of the Washington Wilkes Chamber of Commerce has earned the long-awaited designation as an official Georgia Regional Visitor Information Center, Tourism Director Ashley Turner Barnett announced recently.

"This really puts Washington- Wilkes on the Georgia state tourism map," said Chamber Executive Director Donna Hardy. "The state designation gives us some recognition that other cities don't get - it puts us in the Georgia Travel Guide, the Georgia tourism web site, and makes us eligible for state funding and more GDOT signs to bring folks into the area."

The designation was the result of years of work by Washington- Wilkes Chamber of Commerce board members and leaders, Hardy said. "Our predecessors really did a lot to get this Welcome Center concept going. We just brought it all together, and with the help of our legislators in Atlanta, it's finally a reality."

State Rep. Mickey Channell wrote letters of recommendation to his fellow legislators and the state Department of Economic Development in support of the Chamber of Comjustice, merce application. The Washington- Wilkes Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Director "do an incredible job of promoting tourism and encouraging tourism development with very limited resources," Channell wrote. "The city and county leaders believe that tourism is the number-one growth strategy for this community."

Wilkes County's legislators are critical to the success of the Regional Visitor Information Center in that they obtain the center's funding during the state budget process, Hardy said. "Senator [Jim] Whitehead, Representative [Barry] Fleming, and of course Representative [Mickey] Channell have always been enthusiastic supporters of the tourism industry here, and this could not have happened without our legislators' help."

The state sets strict annual requirements for a visitors center to become and stay a Regional Visitor Information Center. It must have a full-time tourism position, and that tourism director attend regular and extensive cross-training at other state tourism facilities, and attend state tourism events.

The Visitor Information Center must be open at least 35 hours a week, and have handicapped accessible restrooms, be located near a state highway, have the appropriate signs posted, and must prominently display Georgia tourism materials.

The designation will allow the Visitor Information Center to display the highly identifiable Georgia peach logo on window stickers and banners. The state also requests that the Georgia Department of Transportation to "provide the best highway signage placement for attracting motorists to the local tourism information center."

"We've really seen tourism in Washington-Wilkes just take off in the last year," Barnett said, "and this official designation will bring us even more attention and visitors."

She pointed out that 2006 hotelmotel tax revenues were up by more than 30 percent over 2005, and that the one-percent SPLOST that goes to the Wilkes County school system has gone up dramatically in the past year. "For two years, the SPLOST brought in about $85,000 a month, showing that both locals and visitors were spending about $850,000 a month in Wilkes County. Now those revenues show that people are spending well over a million dollars every month here - and that can't all be local people. Tourists, visitors, are coming here and pumping money into the economy and the tax base, and that benefits everybody."

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