Tourism

B2B Stories

Local CVB director discusses paddling, glamping and attracting visitors

Kayaking to an island of goats and donkeys and camping in an air-conditioned tent with a coffeemaker sound like exotic destination spots. But both can be found within Columbia County. Shelly Blackburn, executive director of the Columbia County Convention and Visitors Bureau, the county’s destination marketing agency, spoke to a group of local real estate agents and home services professionals at a CSRA Home Connections meeting on Wednesday about those and other attractions that draw visitors to the county. It’s an important economic venture – in 2019, Columbia County tourism

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southern living
B2B Stories

Aiken is one of the South’s top towns according to Southern Living

Whether you were born and raised in Aiken or you’re a transplant, Southern Living magazine has just put a big feather in your cap. In the March issue, Aiken was named as one of the Top 10 Best Small Towns in the South. This is Southern Living editors’ description of Aiken: This equestrian town looks like something from a postcard. Home to the Aiken Horse Show, which has been running for over a century, it’s a place where you can saddle up and go for a trail ride, get cozy

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B2B Stories

Retracing Masters Footsteps

  Don MacNeil is the former Marketing Director of Windsor Jewelers and long-time on-air radio professional.   Is it just me, or… Retracing Masters Footsteps When I was young, my dad made a habit of pulling off the highway if a Civil War battlefield were anywhere around. It’s not that I wasn’t interested, it was more that I couldn’t see the point. There was no way, I thought, that any of this looked the way it did a hundred years earlier, so why bother? Still, I could tell that Dad

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B2B Stories

Destination Augusta CEO shares strategies for engaging Masters’ guests

When it comes to engaging Masters’ guests, sometimes the little things local businesses do can create memorable experiences for those guests, according to Bennish Brown. Brown, President, and CEO of Destination Augusta presented creative strategies businesses can use to attract out-of-town customers for tournament week at the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce. Simple, cost-effective strategies businesses can implement include changing their signs to welcome guests to Augusta or providing unique Masters Week sales offers. “Take the golf theme to the next level, and have some fun,” he said. “Tap into

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B2B Stories

Local CVB leader to discuss tourism and destination marketing

Columbia County tourism has a major economic impact not only on the CSRA, but also on the state of Georgia, according to Shelly Blackburn. Blackburn, Executive Director of the Columbia County Convention and Visitors Bureau, will serve as a guest speaker at the next CSRA Home Connections Networking Breakfast on Wednesday, April 13 at 8:30 a.m. at the Snelling Conference Center, next to Edgar’s Grille at the corner of Washington and Furys Ferry roads. “Columbia County is growing and prospering, and Visit Columbia County plays a key role in that

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B2B Stories

The historic North Augusta building will become part of the new Gateway Development

North Augusta will be rolling out the red carpet for visitors by converting the old carpet building next to the city’s Municipal Building into a Gateway Development. Brett Brannon, President of Palmetto Peach Development Company, announced his plans to refurbish the former North Augusta Carpet & Wallpaper Shop, located at 210 Georgia Ave. at a news conference on Wednesday. The building is one of the first sights travelers from Augusta, via the 13th Street bridge, see of North Augusta. He said the 12,000-square-foot building, originally a skating rink, will be

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B2B Stories

Local podcasters go behind the scenes to promote CSRA with the Masters Week show

Next week, you can watch Masters coverage on CBS or ESPN, but David Bash and Chris Nabholz, want to show you what’s happening behind the scenes in the CSRA during tournament week. Bash and Nabholz, owners of GetUp Productions, will produce the second annual Bobby Jones Invitational Show, a watch-along party, from Wednesday, April 6 to Sunday, April 10 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The show will be live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube, among other platforms. “The concept of the show is you still watch the tournament, mute

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B2B Stories

Simon Says: Hotel and Tourism industries try to dig out from covid

We all know the leisure and hospitality sector has been hardest hit by the pandemic. Leisure and hospitality employment in the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has fallen from more than 28,000 pre-pandemic to 24,000 in December 2021. The leisure and hospitality sector includes hotels and restaurants as well as arts, entertainment and recreation. However, there is some good news from the hotel section of the industry as reported by Smith Travel Research. In Richmond County, both occupancy rates and revenues per available room (RevPAR) were generally higher in 2021

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