Published Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Travel writers visit Coweta County sites
The Newnan Times-Herald
A team of travel writers visited Coweta County last week, and local tourism boosters hope their visit will lead to stories that will bring visitors.
Janet Groene, Rhonda Pipkin, Keith Sisson and Veronica Sliva traveled to several places in Georgia during their stay. Each night found them at a Coweta County motel. They also ate in local restaurants, toured Newnan and Senoia, and visited Oak Grove Plantation and Dunaway Gardens.
An impromptu stop was at Barbie Beach, the popular roadside display in Turin.
"They love getting a hands-on experience so they can write about it," said Pam Mayer, director of the Coweta Convention and Visitors Bureau. "When we, the consumer (tourist), read the articles, it makes us feel that experience. Then we want to visit the attraction or area they wrote about."
Sisson is with Ya'll Magazine, and Silva writes for Canadian Gardening and East of the City. Pipkin's work appears in five Texas newspapers, and Groene writes for Family Motor Coaching, Camping Life, Houseboat, South Florida Parenting and Trailblazer.
Mayer said having travel writers visit Coweta County can pay dividends immediately -- and in the future. "We not only get great stories and articles from travel writers -- we create a lasting friendship with the writer and are able to send them more information about events," she said. "They remember us and their experience here and write more."
The breadth of circulation for stories by writers today -- with print, Internet and magazines -- "gives us a much broader marketing range when it comes to promoting our county and reaching the tourists," Mayer said.
"The tourists will read about us, come and visit our attractions, shop in our stores, eat in our restaurants and stay in our hotels and motels. This now becomes economic development for our area," she added.
Outside Coweta County, the writers visited Stately Oaks Plantation in Jonesboro, where they were greeted by Scarlett O'Hara -- also known as Melly Meadows McCutcheon.
Also on their itinerary were the Road To Tara Museum, Atlanta Botanical Gardens, the Fox Theatre, the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Stone Mountain, a Gwinnett Braves baseball game, antiques and food in Sandy Springs and tours of historical sites in Jonesboro and Morrow.
Their overall tour was arranged by Melanie Beauchamp, vice president of Georgia Turner Group. Brittney Gray, Atlanta Metro regional tourism representative with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, was their driver as they explored the region.
"The travel writers commented that they loved the genuine Southern hospitality they received while they were visiting -- and they felt it at every stop they made," Mayer said.
