City & Decatur Tourism Bureau Creating “Decatur Welcome Center”
Decatur Metro | November 2, 2010Another item on last night’s Decatur City Commission unanimously approved by the commission: a management agreement between the City of Decatur and the Decatur Tourism Bureau to provide staff support for a “Decatur Welcome Center” at the Old Courthouse.
According to a letter to the commission by Linda Harris, the space will be provided rent-free by the DeKalb History Center and the funds to pay the one employee’s salary will come from the hotel/motel tax via the Decatur Tourism Bureau.
Both the salary and location arrangements have a two-year lifespan. At the end of the two years, the city and Tourism Board will “assess the effectiveness of this welcome center and work to identify additional partners to help cover the cost of its operation…”.
The City Manager is recommending that current PALS supervisor, Alta Fleetwood, be reassigned to fill this position. As for what is happening to her current position…that’s yet another post!
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I think that is a great local economic tool. I am seeing more and more tourists in downtown Decatur. Hopefully, we can rope in more downtown ATL convention goers to our town during their “down time”.
Alma Fleetwood would do an outstanding job in this position! I think this is a brilliant idea.
Alma is the perfect person to welcome tourists to Decatur ! She is an excellent choice for this job.
DM – love that teaser . Can’t wait to hear about changes to the PALS supervisory position. I hope this means reorganization to provide broader coverage for parking enforcement .
I take it on faith that a Decatur Tourism Bureau and a Welcome Center are good ideas economically. If they result attract wealthy foreign tourists to spend money in our restaurants, boutiques, bookstores, Dollar Generals, and trick-or-treat with our youth, I’m all for it. But I have to admit that the idea of a Decatur Tourism Bureau made me giggle a little. Will we get a write-up in the Lonely Planet soon? While I love hanging out in Decatur, I can’t imagine buying a plane ticket to come visit this “historic city of homes, schools and places of worship with a thriving business community located between downtown Atlanta and Stone Mountain, Georgia”, the way I might go visit Santa Fe, Seattle, or Savannah.
On the other hand, we don’t have that much competition in metro Atlanta (Don’t miss Dunwoody! Leave at least a full day to tour Lithonia!) so go for it, DTB….
P.S.: I can’t find the Decatur Tourist Bureau anywhere, not on the City website, not linked to the DeKalb Visitors and Convention Bureau, not anywhere. It definitely needs to raise its profile a little!
We are currently developing the Tourism website. If you have anything you want to include, feel free to send it to me. My email is .
whitewater rafting on peavine creek
It’d be cool to tie in a bike rentals opportunity along with a copy of Neil Norton’s terrific biking routes map.
Hey Karass,
The Decatur Tourism Board’s primary goal isn’t to say, “Forget Maui, Honeymoon in Decatur!”
It’s more about having a Smyrna couple say, “How about dinner over in Decatur tonight?”
It also advertises the city through rest stops and other mechanisms, and promotes the city as a destination to those that are already here at Atlanta Hotels. (Imagine yourself at a convention in Dallas, looking through the hotel directories and trying to find something to do at 7pm in an abandoned downtown.)
Other ways it promotes Decatur is through pursuing function business such as weddings, conventions and meetings at the Holiday Inn, etc.
I am on the Tourism Board. In fact, I had to learn how to smoke cigars so that I could help create one of those smoke-filled rooms everyone talks about.
The website is under development as we speak.
I hope that all is helpful.
Oooh, how does one get to be on the tourism board? That sounds like fun. I want in!!!
Just in time for the big February 2011 Travel South Showcase convention – which brings International travel writers to the area. Maybe Decatur can get a tour going for this.
And here’s the website http://www.travelsouthusa.org/showcase11/city_tours.html
Remember that the Brick Store Pub is a tourist destination for many people who pass through Atlanta for various reasons. I got into a conversation there one night with a fellow who was in town for a funeral and took MARTA to Decatur just to have a couple of pints at the world famous BSP.
The next obvious step after putting together a Welcome Center is to establish the Old Court House as a tourist destination by restoring the museum now that the Ann Frank exhibit has moved to Sandy Springs. The recent fun exhibits there such as the quilt show, the Carr family memorabilia, and the Mathis Dairy exhibit point to the enormous potential of the space as a showcase for DeKalb County and the county seat.
We have hotels and motels?
Thanks to all who have explained the Decatur Tourism Bureau concept to me. I’m all for the concept of attracting spenders to Decatur’s businesses. The DTB might eventually want to rethink its name since “Tourism” suggests to me a certain kind of non-business recreational traveler in a Hawaiian shirt or safari gear, with binoculars and cameras around neck, looking for colorful native culture. I like “Visitors and Convention Bureau” better but DeKalb already has that name and we wouldn’t want Decatur and DeKalb’s Bureaus to be confused.
Or maybe we will develop tourism, for real. There IS a lot of history in Decatur that got obscured in the post-MARTA 1970s-1980s makeover of downtown Decatur. Restoring that aspect of Decatur for the purpose of attracting tourists and framing our business district attractively sounds smart to me. The trick in the South is to do it in a way that is more than just a celebration of the Confederacy. But with all the interesting and quirky history in Decatur–e.g. Beacon Hill before urban renewal, history of our schools (including the Saturday school saga and desegregation order), Oakhurst mayoral murder, etc., not to mention the more conventional local heroes and characters,Civil War, and Civil Rights movement history, featuring Decatur’s history should be doable.
Karass, that might be just your mental image. It’s not mine (probably way too many business trips where I wedged in pockets of leisure exploration here and there). The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who “travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four (24) hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.” “UNWTO technical manual: Collection of Tourism Expenditure Statistics” (PDF). World Tourism Organization. 1995. p. 14. http://pub.unwto.org/WebRoot/Store/Shops/Infoshop/Products/1034/1034-1.pdf. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
I think this is a great initiative.
I am learning that tourism has an economic definition that is broader than my generic view of it. But even that definition makes me giggle a little: “….other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited”. Sounds like the language in the amendments we voted on yesterday! I guess my image of tourism is fun and leisure and the juxtaposition of the term with legalese seems inherently funny.
Having said that, if tourism dollars can be put towards some of the wish list we all generated during the strategic planning process, I’m willing to dress up now and then in local native dress and entertain the tourists!
I’m getting a giggle about how in the world Decatur-ites would ever agree on what constitutes “local native dress.”
It’s our DM tee shirts of course! :0)
Heh! What constitutes “native Decatur dress” should be its own topic on this blog!! (Uh, DM– whatcha think?)
Has anyone taken a tour of the cemetery? I have been meaning to but just haven’t gotten around to it. I walk my dog there almost everyday and always notice interesting things I hadn’t noticed before. I bet it’s great history lesson
By all means, do– it’s so very interesting (& educational, too)! I’m taking my sisters when they come visit next Spring.