Local Tourism Professionals to Represent Region at World Trade Show this Week

Media release: Georgia welcomes close to 650 delegates to the 29^th Annual Travel South USA Showcase, February 22-24, 2011 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.   The three-day conference brings domestic tour operators, receptive operators, select international tour operators and travel journalists together with more than 250 southern destinations, hotels, restaurants, attractions and travel service providers to increase tourism business and growing the region's market share of the tourist dollars spent.  

 

      "We are thrilled to welcome Travel South Showcase delegates to Georgia and eager to showcase our world-class attractions, history, culture and Southern hospitality," said Kevin Langston, Chairman of Travel South USA and Deputy Commissioner for Tourism for the Georgia Department of Economic Development.  "We have had tremendous support from the Georgia tourism industry in planning and hosting this prestigious conference."

 Cartersville tourism leaders are among those who are showcasing the state this week, as the Cartersville-Bartow County Convention & Visitors Bureau hosted a pre-familiarization tour of the community this past weekend.  Delegates from five tour companies and two freelance travel writers were the CVB's guests for an overnight stay and dinner, plus guided tours of Booth Western Art Museum, Barnsley Gardens Resort and Tellus Science Museum.  CVB Deputy Director Regina Wheeler, Group Tour Coordinator Louise Young Harris, and Executive Director Ellen Archer shared the hosting duties.  On Tuesday and Thursday of this week, Archer and Harris will also represent Cartersville and its neighbors in 17 northwest Georgia counties to those delegates visiting the trade booth hosted by the Historic High Country Travel Association.  Both Archer and Wheeler are past-Presidents of the association.

Travel South USA is America's oldest and largest regional travel promotion organization, formed in 1965 by resolution presented at the Southern Governor's Conference. The long-standing regional collaboration of the state tourism offices of  Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia provides a foundation to positively position tourism as a vital and dynamic element in the region's economic development.  Tourism ranks throughout the region as one of the top three industries, behind manufacturing and agriculture, and is responsible for $122.6 billion in spending by visitors, generating 1.37 million direct jobs, $29.7 billion in worker paychecks, and almost $16 billion in state and local taxes.  For more information, visit www.TravelSouthUSA.com for consumer information and for travel industry information, www.TravelSouthUSA.org.

 

PHOTO CAPTION:

Representatives from five motorcoach tour companies and two travel writers visited the Booth Western Art Museum on Saturday as part of a Travel South familiarization tour hosted by the Cartersville-Bartow County Convention & Visitors Bureau in conjunction with the Georgia Department of Economic Development and local tourism businesses.  Pictured left to right are:  Renee Gordon, Smooth Traveler columnist Philadelphia Sun Newspaper; Janet Cochran, regional representative for GDEcD; Edward Sturrup, president of Tour Trends, Ltd.; Tara Currier, marketing director Booth Western Art Museum; Gail Arndt, Tour Trends, Ltd; Donnis Lomonaco, JACO Tours; Sherry S. Johnson, owner of JACO Tours; Jay Kirkpatrick, sales director of Sweet Magnolia Tours – TN; Dale and David Particelli, travel consultant and tour escort, Millstream Travel; freelance writer Kevin Wierzbicki; Regina Wheeler, CVB deputy director; Louise Young Harris, CVB group tour coordinator; and Debbie and Alan Muir, Tally Ho Vacations.