Main Street Toccoa Awarded Georgia Tourism Product Development
Grant
New grant will provide
financial support for Historic Depot Railway Viewing Platform
ATLANTA, Feb. 19, 2018 – Main Street Toccoa announced
today that it has been awarded a Georgia Tourism Product Development Grant to
fund the construction of a railway viewing platform at the Downtown Historic
Train Depot. The grant awarded by the Georgia Department of Economic
Development is a new grant created to support the development of new tourism
product.
In 2017, the Georgia Department of Economic Development
sent a Tourism Product Development Resource Team to Toccoa to catalogue
existing and possible tourism resources in the city. This resource team
presented a report in August 2017, cataloguing Toccoa’s potential tourism
products. This report may be found at http://www.mainstreettoccoa.com/georgia-department-of-economic-development-resource-team.
Mayor David Austin, on the announcement of the receipt of
the Tourism Product Development Grant, said, “The construction of a railway
viewing platform at the downtown depot was recommended by the Georgia
Department of Economic Development as a potential tourism resource to increase
economic vitality in the region. We see its construction serving as a necessary
addition to develop the infrastructure of our historic depot and in Downtown
Toccoa.” Mayor Austin further added that the City of Toccoa appreciates the
support of the Georgia Department of Economic Development in realizing Toccoa’s
tourism vision.
In an effort to further tourism product development
within the state, Georgia Tourism offered this inaugural grant to communities
who have participated in a Tourism Product Development Resource Team program. This
program works to evaluate a community’s potential for tourism growth and
development through innovative, unique experiences based on a community’s local
culture and heritage.
“One of the greatest needs in creating new tourism product
is funding,” said Cindy Eidson, Director of Tourism Product Development with
the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “By assisting these projects
financially we have the opportunity to support the implementation of new
product and programs to bring more visitors to a community.”
Main Street Toccoa is one of 11 communities who was
awarded funding Tourism Product Development grant. This funding allows the
local community to build new product resulting from the recommendations made by
the Tourism Product Development Resource Team members or projects the community
has developed as an expansion of the original resource team report.
Main Street Toccoa is a municipal organization formed to
make the downtown district the economic and cultural center of the community.
The overall objective is to improve the viability and appearance of the
downtown district and to stimulate the long-term reinvestment through business
recruitment and retention, all within the context of historic preservation.
About GDEcD
The Georgia
Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) is the state’s sales and marketing
arm, the lead agency for attracting new business investment, encouraging the
expansion of existing industry and small businesses, aligning workforce
education and training with in-demand jobs, locating new markets for Georgia
products, attracting tourists to Georgia, and promoting the state as a destination
for arts and location for film, music and digital entertainment projects, as
well as planning and mobilizing state resources for economic development. www.georgia.org
For more information
regarding the awarding of this grant or the construction of the railway viewing
platform, please contact Main Street Manager Christian Hamilton by email at chamilton@cityoftoccoa.com or by phone at 706.898.5777.
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