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Tourism
B2B Stories

Augusta chosen over 350+ cities for tourism honor

Lindsay Fruchtl of Destination Augusta, just gave a 30-minute audio tour of the Garden City and area businesses and community activities. The CBS affiliate in Atlanta chose Augusta as the first city to be profiled. This podcast is expected to create economic impact for the CSRA, because Atlantans like to take the few hour drive to Augusta to showcase our community’s unique local restaurants, small shops, and fun things to do. The photo is a view from the Hyatt House in downtown Augusta.        

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Neil Gordon February 4, 2022 No Comments
B2B Stories

Film business booming in Augusta as partnership is formed

Because Augusta’s film industry has experienced explosive growth in recent years, Augusta Technical College wants to prepare people to work in that industry. The college has partnered with the Georgia Film Academy and a local company called Indiegrip.com LLC (see photo above story) to begin offering an 18-hour non-credit film production certification program in January 2022. Classes will meet on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the cost will be $750. Rick Kelly – Indiegrip.com’s owner/operator, is excited to be involved in the program. “Our mission has always

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Josh Heath December 22, 2021 No Comments
Consumer Stories

Local tourism marketing agency celebrates milestone

Destination Augusta, which helps the local tourism and hospitality industries by attracting visitors and promoting the CSRA, celebrated its 25th anniversary in December. Each year, these industries generate more than $1 billion in revenue and support over 20,000 jobs in the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area. Much of that revenue comes from visitor spending. “We have achieved this milestone through creativity, perseverance, and the hard work and determination of so many professional staff members, the many leaders on our Board of Directors, and committed partners and stakeholders,” says Bennish Brown, Destination

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Josh Heath December 22, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

Local tourism agency recognized for city’s superior meeting sites

Augusta is universally known as the Home of the Masters, but a major publication has recognized the city for a different reason. For the sixth time, Destination Augusta has won Convention South’s Readers’ Choice Award for having some of the best meeting sites in the South. (Above photo of “The Oglethorpe Ballroom” at the Augusta Marriott and Convention Center). This year, meeting planners nominated their favorite event sites, and more than 8,000 readers and professionals participated in an online vote to select 415 of these sites in 15 states. “The

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Josh Heath October 25, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

Local tourism agency wins regional award for best marketing campaign

Last week, Augusta’s chief tourism agency won a regional award for best marketing campaign in its budget category. The agency receives funding from monies charged to visitors of dozens of local hotels and motels. It’s known as the hotel/motel tax. Destination Augusta received the Shining Example Award for its Come See Augusta campaign from the Southeast Tourism Society, which covers 13 states and the District of Columbia, on Wednesday, Sept. 29 in Spartanburg. The category was for budgets between $100,000 and $499,000. “Obviously, we were very excited,” says Lindsay Fruchtl,

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Josh Heath October 5, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

How we can help the CSRA hospitality industry in need

Editor’s Note: This story was first published on May 27th. With the emergence of the Delta Variant, not a lot has changed for the hospitality industry in the CSRA. On Tuesday morning the Starbucks Coffee Shop on Washington Road at I-20 CLOSED because there was not enough staff to service guests. They re-opened Wednesday morning after locating workers. On the same day, one of the Gary’s Hamburgers had to close at 3 pm—the stories go on and on.  As part of our weekly strategic alliance with AU’s Hull College of

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Marsha Loda, AU Hull College of Business August 26, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

Augusta ranks in national business publication’s Top 10 Millennial community

Augusta is one of the best cities for millennials to live and work, according to a national business publication. The July/August issue of Business Facilities magazine ranked Augusta number 10 on its list of Millennial Magnets. Other cities on the list include Providence, Rhode Island; Reno, Nevada; Tucson, Arizona; and Charleston, South Carolina. Kigwana Cherry – owner of Pop-Up Augusta! – loves the wide variety of things to do in this city. Cherry describes Augusta as “The little-big city where you can do beer yoga in the morning, eat local

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Josh Heath August 11, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

How we can help the CSRA hospitality industry in need

The Gary’s Hamburgers in West Augusta is being forced to close weekdays at 3pm for now. (Photo courtesy of Facebook) Editor’s Note: On Tuesday morning the Starbucks Coffee Shop on Washington Road at I-20 CLOSED because there was not enough staff to service guests. They re-opened Wednesday morning after locating workers. On the same day, one of the Gary’s Hamburgers had to close at 3 pm—the stories go on and on.  As part of our weekly strategic alliance with AU’s Hull College of Business, we asked associate professor Marsha Loda

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Marsha Loda, AU Hull College of Business May 27, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

Augusta Tourism and Sports Organizations re-brand to highlight national travel and tourism week

From left to right, executives proudly stand in front of the new brand. Brian Graham, CEO Augusta Sports Council, Hardie Davis, Jr, Augusta Mayor, Brandon Haddock, Board Chairman Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau and Bennish Brown, CEO Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau (Photo by Neil Gordon) The big reveal took place Thursday afternoon May 6th in downtown Augusta that further tied together the Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau and The Augusta Sports Council together. Money raised through the ACVB’s efforts to increase the hotel\motel tax in the CSRA helps to partially

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Neil Gordon May 7, 2021 No Comments
B2B Stories

Georgia/Carolina hospitality experts optimistic about the future of the tourism industry

Business is starting to come back at the Augusta Marriott at the Convention Center (photo courtesy Marriott.com) Local hotels are seeing a rebound and steady increase in business over last year. That’s been the case for the Augusta Marriott at the Convention Center in downtown Augusta, according to Darryl Leech, the hotel’s vice president and general manager. “We have seen a nice uptick in transient business and conventions are starting to rebook,” says Leech. Leech doesn’t disclose occupancy rates for competitive reasons, but that transient business for Augusta area hotels

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Neil Gordon and Josh Heath May 3, 2021 No Comments
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