Masters crowd is discovering the attractions of Washington-Wilkes
By KIP BURKE news editor

Cars lined from all over the country lined The Square at 7:30 Tuesday evening last week as visitors for the Masters in Augusta make Washington their home base for the week.

The number of visitors using Washington for their home base during Masters week is increasing, thanks to an advertising blitz in Augusta by Washington-Wilkes Tourism.

"Our Washington-Wilkes TV commercial aired on both the Golf Channel and the Weather Channel during Masters week in the Augusta Area," said Tourism Director Ashley Barnett, "and we had a five-day advertisement in the Augusta Chronicle's Masters insert. We've already had people coming to see us from that ad."

Barnett also took advantage of an opportunity to tell the story of Washington all day Friday at the Georgia State Welcome Center on I-20 in Augusta. Volunteer Elaine Filipiak assisted her dressed in an antebellum dress, and they spoke to and passed out literature to hundreds of visitors. "We have a big, beautiful new banner, and with Elaine in her dress, we attracted a lot of attention. I did my best to convince travelers to stay in Washington next year for the Masters."

Local Tourism Director Ashley Barnett (l) and Chamber of Commerce Director Donna Hardy show off the new plaque, sign, and banner that mark the new Washington-Wilkes Visitor Center as an official Georgia Regional Visitor Information Center.

Nearly every room in Washington - hotel, motels, and bed-and-breakfast inns - was full nearly every night for 10 days, the innkeepers said. "We had Masters guests solid all week," said Jeanne Davis Blair, owner of Southern Elegance, "and they were folks from Argentina, from Michigan, Texas, New Orleans."

Most innkeepers observed two groups of Masters visitors, those with practice tickets who came early in the week, and those with tournament tickets later in the week. Judging from the size of crowds in Washington restaurants, the early part of the week was busier.

"The Jockey Club and Fitzpatrick's restaurant were more full Monday and Tuesday than the rest of the week, it seemed," Barnett said. "And it seemed to be mostly folks from out of town."

Some were from way out. There were license tags from Iowa, Kansas and Alaska on The Square this week, and tags from distant places packed restaurant and lodging parking lots.

The crowds didn't bring an increase of business to the retail shops in town, however, merchants said, since the visitors left for the Masters early in the morning and generally returned just in time for dinner and a walk around town before retiring.

Barnett said she saw many couples and groups strolling around The Square, window shopping and enjoying the quiet small-town night. "Everybody I talked to said they wanted to come back when they could spend more time in Washington, and shop and see everything in daylight," Barnett said.

"That's when the payoff will come. These folks are going to go home and rave about how beautiful Washington is this week, and how quiet and friendly it was, and they're going to come back and bring their friends." Barnett said. "And they'll shop, eat, stay, and spend money in local businesses with hundreds of local people on their payrolls. That's why they say that tourism is economic development."

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