Innovation & Celebration

Innovation & Celebration Tourism:

Accolades for the Statesboro Convention and Visitors Bureau just keep coming this year as President & CEO Becky Sanders and VP of Marketing & Operations Justin Samples develop new tourism products, host groups of travel writers and create new marketing campaigns, garnering state recognition along the way from the Department of Economic Development and honors from Georgia Trend Magazine for their efforts to brand Statesboro as an inviting destination.

Even through all the massive upheavals and changes of the last few years, the creativity of the local tourism bureau could not be curbed. In 2020, while hotel occupancy was dropping due to COVID, and the local Welcome Center –Visit Statesboro – had to close, Sanders, Samples and their local board of directors took advantage of the down time to reinvest in an old motel warehouse located behind the Welcome Center

on South Main Street. There was a dual purpose in mind in renovating the building: 1) Create a permanent location for the Statesboro Main Street Farmers Market, and 2) Create a multi-purpose venue that could be rented by the public for special occasions and events.

“The warehouse was purchased in December of 2018, and the request for RFQs started,” said Sanders. “It took one year to cleanout the warehouse, which was packed with hotel furniture, framed prints and bedding. We donated some items to Habitat for Humanity, and finally the remainder of the contents were given away to clear the building.”

Local builder Jamie Cartee of St. Andrews Builders won the contract for the 7,000 sq. ft. building’s renovation. Samples designed the building with the Farmers Market in mind including rolling doors, large outdoor patios and pads for food trucks, along with restrooms, a catering kitchen, bar, walk-in fridge and freezer, office space and air conditioning. Cartee executed the renovation to match the craftsman feel of the Visitors Center, another building purchased and renovated by the SCVB on the Blue Mile in 2013.

Going even further, in February of this year, Visit Statesboro opened a boardwalk and bridge connecting the new Market on Main venue with the Blind Willie McTell Trail, in partnership with the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority, which donated the surrounding green space, and the City of Statesboro, which helped with funding and incentives. „

This investment in what the professionals call “creative product development” along with cooperation from community partners, is exactly what the Trailblazer Award was created to recognize. Visit Statesboro won the Georgia Trend Trailblazer Award at this year’s Georgia Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus annual awards luncheon in Albany, Georgia. Sanders, Samples and Visit Statesboro board president Barry Turner were on hand to receive the honor. A first for Statesboro! The award was followed by an article in Georgia Trend magazine, (July/2023).

Speaking of magazines, a travel article “How to Spend a Day in Statesboro, Georgia” was recently featured in the August 2023 issue of Southern Living magazine. That kind of recognition doesn’t just happen. Visit Statesboro contracted with a media company, which hosts a press room where they display all the Visit Statesboro landing pages to travel writers for possible story ideas. In addition, Visit Statesboro hosts groups of travel writers for a few days of exploring all the local attractions, restaurants and events.

“We take the travel writers all over Statesboro and Bulloch County to showcase the unique things we have here for visitors to enjoy,” said Sanders. “We recently hosted a group that kayaked at Black Water Preserve, toured the Botanic Garden, Museum and the Wildlife Center at Georgia Southern, and shopped downtown. They really loved Charlie’s Funky Junk shop! We visited the Farmers Market. They explored Splash in the Boro and Camp Lawton, through the Museum on Main. We enjoyed local dining at Dolan’s, Beaver House, Uncle Shug’s, Tandoor & Tap, Cool Beans, Vino and Eagle Creek Brewery. Barry suggested that everyone should ride together to our destinations in a limousine, which added a touch of elegance to the tours and facilitated discussions and questions on the many local attractions we have.”

In the tourism industry today, “attraction” is the buzzword. Convention Bureaus no longer advertise or promote hotels and motels, instead they promote the destination, (hopefully, in partnership with the hotels), to showcase what the city has to offer visitors.

One of the newest attractions proposed for Bulloch County is a significant portion of the Georgia Hi-Lo Trail, 221 miles of paved biking trail connecting Athens to Savannah, currently in the discovery phases of development. A comprehensive master plan for the project is also currently being designed. This is another example of creative product development that will depend on community partnerships with Visit Statesboro, the City of Statesboro and Bulloch County to complete.

The most innovative tourism marketing campaigns don’t just succeed in selling tickets to one particular attraction, venue or event, however. They set the tone for the future of the town’s entire industry. Visit Statesboro is currently working with Justin Peay of Paros Films in developing a new marketing initiative to be used for the next 2-3 years.

“Today, a logo isn’t as important for a town,” said Sanders. “Instead, we use what is called ‘light branding.’ We choose the type of voice we want to use based on our target markets. To create a connection with visitors, we take advantage of visual content, video and photography, to showcase who we are and to extend an invitation for visitors to come enjoy our way of life.”

That ties into another key factor in a tourism campaign’s success: its authenticity. By showcasing what travelers actually experience in the „

community, Visit Statesboro is connecting with those who actually want to explore and experience it like a local, rather than a tourist. The best tourism marketing campaigns help turn travelers’ indecision into action, showing off the beauty of a destination or showcasing the legacy of the local culture. It’s all about the personality of a place. And, Statesboro has plenty of personality.

You can see it on display at the Visit Statesboro welcome center in some of the distinctive items created by local artisans. Visitors can also purchase Statesboro swag including t-shirts, glassware, magnets, keychains, postcards, ceramic replicas of local buildings, coffee mugs and Christmas ornaments.

“We’re also open to local artists who paint or draw historic

"buildings in Statesboro,” said Sanders. “We love to sell the prints in our local gift shop.” The gift shop also includes locally produced food items such as honey, pecans, Cork’s Kettle Corn and Braswell’s products.

Demand for Statesboro products is almost as popular with visitors as the demand for hotel rooms.

“The city as a whole is currently experiencing around an 80% occupancy rate,” said Sanders. “That means an increase in local tourism dollars for all agencies that benefit from funding supplied by the tax: Downtown Statesboro, the Averitt Center for the Arts, and us. We now also benefit from a law passed in 2021 that provides for the collection of lodging taxes on Airbnbs.”

On Sanders’ wish list is a new full-service hotel to accommodate the many calls she receives for mid-sized conventions of 500-800 people.

The rebound in tourism is coming just in time to take advantage of Visit Statesboro’s Market on Main and the other great area attractions, restaurants and event venues that keep articles about Statesboro in all the best magazines.

“We’re excited about our new tourism products, and honored to have been acknowledged for all the board’s, and staff’s hard work in bringing these projects to life,” said Sanders. “We enjoy so much promoting them as part of our way of life and part of what we have to offer future visitors.”