RSS Feed
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hotel-motel tax receipts show increase in tourism-related visitors to Wilkes Co.
In just one year, from March 2006 to March 2007, the number of visitors staying in Wilkes County hotels, motels, and bed-and-breakfast inns increased by more than one-third. "Hotel-motel tax revenue has increased by 35 percent from last March to this March," said Tourism Director Ashley Barnett. "That means a third more people visited here during what is often a slow month." The tax receipts from April 2007 alone were more than $6,500, up from $5,400 the previous April, which is always a good month with Masters Week and the Spring Tour of Homes. "There's been a big increase in just the last three years," said Wilkes County Commission Chairman Sam Moore. "It's gone from barely $25,000 three years ago to nearly $40,000 this year ending in July." The fivepercent hotel-motel tax revenues are put directly back into tourism, to advertise and reach out and bring more visitors to the area. "Every visitor - and it doesn't matter whether they're hunters, history buffs, dirt-bike riders, or business travelers," Barnett said, "- every visitor spends money here on lodging, gas, shopping, and eating. And that money goes into Wilkes County paychecks, and those checks are spent here. That's why the experts say that tourism is economic development - money comes in from outside the county and gets spent here over and over." Local leaders attribute the some of the tourism increase to the creative and dedicated efforts of Wilkes County people to draw business in. "Look at Perry Gunter, for instance," Moore said. "His Aonia Pass Motocross track, and the tractor pull facility, too, bring people here from all over the country, all year round. Those people spend lots and lots of money here." Moore also sees the impact of a full-time tourism director who is advertising in targeted publications, TV, and online. "Ashley Barnett has been outstanding. She's really gotten out and met all the folks at the state and regional level to bring Washington to their attention. Plus she's done some smart advertising, and I think we're seeing results from that." The rapid increase in tourism has also gotten a boost from the fact that Washington Wilkes Chamber of Commerce' Welcome Center has earned the long-awaited designation as an officialGeorgia Regional Visitor Information Center. "It really put 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."
Barnett expects the increase in visitors - and the economic impact they bring - will continue. "People are just now discovering Washington Wilkes, and it's only going to get better. Next year, we'll have the Pope Center reopened as a stateof the-art conference center, and that will be an outstanding venue for small-group meetings, conventions, and special events. I expect it to really help bring in that Monday through Thursday business that we need so much."
|
for larger version       |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
)
