100 Million Tourists sets new Tennessee record
JACKSON, Tenn.–Last year Tennessee hosted 100 million visitors for BBQ, country music, and Smoky Mountain flavor, and the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development is wanting to increase that number this year by 10 million. Tourism Commissioner Keith Triplet has been leading the “Listening Tour” in an effort to hear from local people in the tourism industry on what they think will better serve our guests. “Knowing what people in the industry see and face, the challenges they have, the things that work well, that’s that’s part of the reason for the listening tour itself,” said Triplett. He said the 14 Welcome Centers are Tennessee’s front lines when it comes to keeping tourists coming back and one of the tours focused goals is to work on the Welcome Centers. The Volunteer State has a wide range of what it has to offer to tourists, Triplett said, “Competing with what other people consider the tourism states like California and Florida because our diversity in this state with all of the things we have to offer is incredible and we want to promote that.” Jackson has also seen results from the record setting tourism numbers with nearly a $1 million increase in hotel sales alone from 2013 to 2014.
