Little Known Facts about Tourism in Liberty County
This week is National Travel & Tourism Week sponsored by the U.S. Travel Association, and we’re celebrating full force! We’ve welcomed German travel writers for a tour of historic sites, presented Pineapple Awards (pineapples are the sign of southern hospitality!) to those who really welcome our guests into the community, we’re having a blast still with our Liberty Then and Now scavenger hunt and so much more! In the spirit of celebration of travel to our community, we thought we’d share a few fun facts about the tourism industry in Georgia and Liberty County specifically!
- Tourism attributes to our community because we receive tax dollars from hotel/motel taxes paid by guests to hotels in Liberty County. The municipality the hotel is in receives the money and gives a portion of it to the destination marketing organization for that county. Each county can only have, and the Liberty County CVB is the recognized organization!
- Travel expenditures in our county totaled $111.6 million in 2016. Travel expenditures include anything a traveler buys while visiting the community, like meals, gas, activities etc. These figures are compiled by the U.S. Travel Association for the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
- The amount of travel spending in our community has increased by almost $25 million dollars since 2010, that’s an increase of 29%!
- We have a total of 15 hotels or bed & breakfasts in Liberty County and 7 are located in the City of Flemington.
- Liberty County is number 31 in the state of Georgia and 3rdon the coast for travel expenditures! This puts us in the top 20% of travel destinations in Georgia!
- The Liberty County tourism industry supported 593 jobs in 2016.
- Because of the tourism industry in Liberty County, each household was able to save $360 in 2016.
- The most common reason people travel is to visit friends and family, about 15% of travel is to visit historic sites & national parks. In-state travel is also more common that out-of-state travel.
- Fall is quickly becoming the most popular time of year for non- residents to visit Georgia. Spring & summer are most common for Georgia residents.
- Along with the tourism industry in Georgia is the film industry. That’s right, we have a film industry right here in Liberty County! Because of the tax credits, Georgia has become the top filming location in the world. American Grit with John Cena, award-winning film Ben & Ara and VH1’s Scared Famous were all filmed in Liberty County! This industry is fantastic for our community because the film projects spend time & money in our community. It’s more than just hotels! They’re using local caterers & laundromats and buying from our retail stores in their off time! What they don’t often end up using are our schools, hospitals, and jails- thus funding the tax base without drawing from it!
One more fact about tourism in our community is that the marketing for Liberty County is done by us, the Liberty County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Together with the Liberty Chamber, we’re an office of six! We appreciate our community for entrusting us with such a special job, telling the tale of Liberty County is a true joy for us, and we love this place called home!
-Erin Johnson, Creative & Content Manager for the Liberty County CVB
The Right Blend Blog is written by two different authors employed by the Liberty County Chamber/CVB. As we are able, we rotate weeks and each writes about our individual experiences, opinions and let our writing reflect our personalities and creativity. All content provided on The Right Blend blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site.
