 Greetings
everyone,
As we enter the week of Thanksgiving, I would like to thank
all of you for your support of the
Tourism
Development Alliance. I feel
blessed to represent an industry that creates a positive
impact on Georgia's economy and enhances the quality of life
for all Georgia residents. More importantly, I am thankful
for each of you. Your talent, creativity and passion for
Georgia remind me everyday why this is noble work. Thank you
all for your input on our policy priorities over the last
few months.
Per our discussion at our annual meeting in
August, the main focus for our Public Policy Committee,
chaired by Andrew Ward, has been simplification of the hotel
tax code. A Lodging Tax Task Force was appointed and they met
frequently over the last few months in order
to prepare recommendations. We would like to thank them
for their leadership.
Members of the
TDAG Lodging Tax Task
Force are: Andrew Ward (Cuscowilla); Peter Bowden (Columbus
CVB); Janice Marshall (Macon CVB); Steven Nicholas (Noble
Investment Group); Ginger Taylor (GDEcD); Joy Walstrum (TDAG);
and, Barry White (Augusta CVB). The
TDAG
board has voted to move forward with their recommendations,
and our members will be receiving a summary for approval next week.
Members, please take the time to review this
information and as always, we welcome your input. Once the
TDAG members have voted, we will distribute a summary via
the December newsletter.
Tourism Day at the Capitol
We invite you to
join us for
Tourism Day at the Capitol, as we tell the
legislators the "Good News" of tourism in our state.
On January 29, 2008, the
Tourism
Development Alliance of Georgia and
Georgia Association of
Convention & Visitors Bureaus will set up a
"Newsstand" complete with a "Tourism Is Good News" newspaper
highlighting the economic impact and importance of each
region.
The TDAG/GACVB Newspaper booth will be set up in a central
area and we are inviting each Regional Travel Association to
sponsor Tourism Day by having its own booth - each
with its own design and focus - to showcase the region's
collateral materials, giveaways and their "Good News."
The booth sponsorship is only for Georgia Travel Regions.
It is important that we come together as an industry to
"tell the story of Georgia Tourism". Good News is hard to
resist! Let's all show up and show off as we encourage our
legislators to continue strong support for Georgia Tourism.
Highlights:
- Half page coverage of each region in the Tourism
Good News newspaper
- Each region's economic impact research data - in the newspaper
- Capitol steps photo opportunity, documenting the
importance of Tourism in Georgia
- The oversized Tourism
impact check to the Governor
- The Georgia Travel Guide will be unveiled at the
event
Here are some links for your information:
Parking at the Capitol
Complete details on hotel information (You will need to
download Adobe Acrobat to view the hotel information. You
can download it for free at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)
Newsletter Information
In this newsletter you will find
information on Oprah Winfrey's Macon Visit (be sure to check
out the video link), Tourism Day 2008
save the date reminder
and
past alliance news. Please
take time to peruse the information in the right column.
TDAG
wants to continue updating you on all the great tourism news
that is happening in Georgia. As always, we welcome your
input and your ideas. Please let us know if you have any
questions. Thanks for your commitment to Georgia and for
your support of the Tourism Development Alliance.
Best Regards,
Joy Spears Walstrum
Tourism Development Alliance of
Georgia
404-223-2471
(w)
404-358-5634
(m)
404-223-2290
(fax)
joy@tourismdevelopmentalliance.org |
