Tourism Product Development Grant Awarded

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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