November 21, 2019

The Athens Welcome Center Committee & The Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau

Re: Athens Welcome Center October Visitation Report

Dear Friends,

October at the Athens Welcome Center saw our overall visitation slightly higher for the month, and a bit lower year-to-date from 2018. International visitation, heritage travelers, and music related visitors were higher both for the month and year-to-date. This is excellent news because these groups are known to stay longer and spend more money! We are super excited to find that our year-to-date Gift Shop sales are nearly 70% higher compared to October of 2018. With our space being small, maintaining well-curated local items is critical, amidst the trend of robust online sales.

Despite the UGA Football weekends, Classic City Tours had an especially busy month. The number of year-to- date tours and participants were higher for both Heritage and Museum Mile Tours. We hosted two well- attended Music History Tours for OLLI groups, a special Heritage Tour for Planning Association Conference VIP’s for A-CC Planning Director, Brad Griffin, and two Museum Mile tours for the Atlanta Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. October is always the time for our Haunted History Tours, which was revamped with a new moniker – The Athens Eerie Evenings Tour. This year, we weeded out erroneous fictional tales that ‘crept’ in, while adding new stories from local newspaper archives in a restructured driving and walking format covering Cobbham, Prince and Milledge Avenues, and South Campus. We typically see an uptick in attendance nearing Halloween, however Historic Athens’ free Haunted History Tour took a bite out of our late October attendance. Regardless, Sage Hooten did an excellent job collaborating on the research and hosting the revamped Eerie Evenings Tours, which were very well received by tour participants!

Later in the month, I participated in hosting a familiarization tour for the Columbia Theological Seminary from Decatur. Among the group were administrative deans, archivists, faculty, and alumni traversing historic sites affiliated with the seminary’s early history. They first visited the birthplace of the seminary in Lexington, then the Church-Waddel-Brumby House – home of , who founded Athens First Presbyterian Church, and lastly the UGA Special Collections Library. While at Special Collections, they deposited the newly digitized ‘lost’ diaries of Moses Waddel, which were recently found in the Seminary’s archives. The FAM tour was one of many events leading up to the Seminary’s Bicentennial which will happen next year. We are very honored to have their interest in our common histories dating to the early 19th century!

There were several important meetings in October. I participated in the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business & Community Expo at the Classic Center. With just two weeks to go until the November vote, it was an opportunity to showcase our Welcome Center SPLOST proposal for access improvements to a large cross-section of the community. I appreciated the opportunity not only to share, but to learn more about Athens’ businesses and community-based SPLOST projects that will make Athens-Clarke County an even more special place! Also in October, I attended the Annual CVB Citizen’s Advisory Board Meeting. It was probably the largest attendance I have seen, and I was excited to see the latest economic impact statistics for tourism. In 2018, $8.28 million in tax revenue was generated for Athens-Clarke County through direct visitor spending, along with 2,973 jobs to support the that industry!

After several years of dormancy, we are delighted that Historic Athens has appointed a Welcome Center Committee Chair. In late October, we welcomed Missy Brandt Wilson as the board member to serve in the Committee Chair capacity. With that, the Committee has reformed just in time to help prepare for the SPLOST 2020 Athens Welcome Center Access Improvements Plan.

As always, please reach out if you have any questions about our ongoing initiatives.

Sincerely,

Evelyn Reece, Director 1 ATHENS WELCOME CENTER VISITATION REPORT: October 2019

ATHENS WELCOME CENTER VISITATION: October 2019 YTD 19-20 October 2018 YTD 18-19 Visitors 849 3769 811 4345 International Visitors: Countries 34:9 133:18 26:6 165:20 Lodging 113 706 166 805 Historic 395 1620 390 1618 Potential Resident 8 54 12 61 Music Related 127 160 13 56

ATHENS WELCOME CENTER GIFT SHOP:

October 2019 YTD 19-20 October 2018 YTD 18-19 Gross Sales $580.52 $2413.24 $455.87 $1432.93 Relocation Packs 2 21 4 25

CLASSIC CITY TOURS: October 2019 YTD 19-20 October 2018 YTD 18-19 Heritage Tour (HT) 8 34 4 26 HT Participants 61 185 27 165 Museum Mile Tour (MMT) 2 8 3 6 MMT Participants 18 44 9 21 Special & Custom Tours 7 14 10 25 Special Tour Participants 67 121 111 323 Step-On Tours 0 0 0 1 Step-On Tour Participants 0 0 0 27 Shuttles 1 5 1 9 Coupons** 2 7 4 7 Internet Coupons*** 0 0 0 0 **Coupon from CVB Visitors Guide // ***Coupon from www.visitathensga.com

INCOMING PHONE CALLS REPORT: October 2019 YTD 19-20 October 2018 YTD 18-19

Accommodations 0 1 0 3 Administration 21 75 32 101 African-Am. Heritage 0 0 0 2 Arts/Museums 0 0 0 1 Calendar/Events 2 6 0 12 Christmas Events 0 0 0 1 Directions 2 6 6 18 Gardens 0 1 0 3 Heritage 2 32 46 92 Miscellaneous 107 338 70 233 Music 3 5 2 2 Outdoor Recreation 0 1 0 0 Relocation 2 4 4 7 Restaurants/Dining 0 0 0 0 Sports 0 0 0 1 Tours 28 103 50 118 Transportation 2 7 5 24 Weddings 1 4 1 13 TOTAL 170 583 216 631

2 ATHENS WELCOME CENTER VISITATION REPORT: October 2019

TOTAL VOLUNTEER HOURS: 12

HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT ATHENS?

University related: 52 Family or Friends: 10 Print Media: 6 Online: 4 Advertisements: 0

INTERNATIONAL VISITORS: Newly added country*

Argentina: 0 England: 2 Poland: 0 Australia: 2 France: 0 Scotland: 0 Austria: 0 Germany: 8 S. Korea*: 2 Belgium: 1 Israel*: 1 Spain: 0 Canada: 13 Netherlands: 4 Switzerland*: 1 China: 0 Norway: 0 Uganda: 0

UNITED STATES VISITORS

3 0 0 2 0 Alabama Hawaii Massachusetts New Mexico South Dakota 0 2 2 11 4 Alaska Idaho Michigan New York Tennessee 0 3 3 3 12 Arizona Illinois Minnesota Texas 2 0 4 0 0 Arkansas Indiana Mississippi North Dakota Utah 2 0 4 3 0 California Iowa Missouri Ohio Vermont 0 0 0 2 5 Colorado Kansas Montana Oklahoma Virginia 2 2 2 0 7 Connecticut Kentucky Nebraska Oregon Washington 1 0 1 3 1 Delaware Louisiana Nevada Pennsylvania Washington DC 47 2 0 0 0 Florida Maine New Hampshire Rhode Island West Virginia 340 0 0 6 12 Georgia Maryland New Jersey Wisconsin 0 Wyoming

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