Albany Convention and Visitors Bureau releases new visitors guide

ALBANY — With tourism continuing to be a major driver for the area’s economy, the Albany Convention and Visitors Bureau has released the latest Discover Albany visitors guide, showcasing everything the Good Life City has to offer.

Released every two years, the Discover Albany guide provides potential visitors with a listing of the city’s many hotels, restaurants, churches, meeting facilities, attractions and more, all in an effort to draw tourists to the community.

“Tourism is very important for Albany,” said Albany CVB Executive Director Rashelle Beasley. “The visitors guide provides travelers with all of our accommodations, all of our attractions and organizations, anything that has to do with what people want to do.”

Although it still includes all of the regular items one would expect to find in an Albany visitors guide, this year’s guide, of which the CVB has printed 100,000 copies, has a few changes since the previous edition.

Following the advice of tourism marketing consultant Judy Randall of Randall Travel Marketing Inc., Beasley said the 2016 visitors guide has an extra companion guide that gives readers a listing of local restaurants and shopping destinations, since those two areas of the guide are always very popular.

“One of the things Judy recommended was coming up with a way to make the cash registers in town ring,” Beasley said. “We thought pulling out the dining and shopping portion of the guide would give it more presence in the hands of the hotel front desk personnel and make it easier for them to give recommendations.”

Beasley said the additional dining and sho

pping guide focuses on locally-owned and -operated businesses to help make them and the community more distinct to tourists.

“It’s all local shops and restaurants,” she said. “If (visitors) want a chain restaurant, they’ll find that regardless. It’s more important to us that they get that local flavor and that they get a different treat as it relates to shopping and eating. We want people to think local and shop local.”

Another change to the new guide is a comprehensive listing of all of the area’s meeting and convention spaces, which is focused on drawing in different types of travelers, including those visiting for pleasure or business.

“The other thing Judy recommended was including our meeting facilities,” Beasley explained. “All of our facilities that are rentable are listed in the back. And not just for conventions and meetings, but weddings, class reunions and family reunions.”

Although it’s not exactly new to have Albany attractions on the cover of the guide, Beasley said the images on the front of the latest edition focus heavily on promoting the outdoors, especially the area’s waterways.

There is a picture of a dive exhibition at the Flint RiverQuarium, a picture of a kayaker paddling down the Flint, and a picture of Radium Springs, all of which tie back to aquatic and outdoor recreation. The cover of the guide also features a picture of Ray Charles at the top, something that, like the other photos, was strategically done.

“We really concentrated on the water aspects of Albany and the outdoors,” said Beasley. “We focused on that based on the research we did. We get feedback and we get Google analytics, and Radium, Ray Charles and the river are our three top draws. Radium is the top draw.

“We put Ray Charles at the top of the guide to draw people’s eye. You only have the top third of the guide showing in visitors centers and in racks, so we wanted to make sure that we had something that would attract attention.”

While popular, Albany attractions like Radium, Ray Charles Plaza, the RiverQuarium, the Albany Civil Rights Institute, Thronateeska Heritage Center, Chehaw, Riverfront Park and the Albany Museum of Art, are all given a prominent location within the new guide. The Discover Albany guide also includes a section titled Day Trippin’, which showcases regional attractions outside of the city limits.

Three of the 33 pages of the visitors guide are devoted to attractions elsewhere in Southwest Georgia, including Still Pond Vineyard, Richland Rum, Wild Adventures, Providence Canyon, White Oak Pastures, the Andersonville Historic Site, Kolomoki Indian Mounds, the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, and many more.

“We also include day trips to help get us a longer st

ay,” explained Beasley. “It helps to include places around us and the attractions they have. We definitely want to be regional. We have the most hotels and the most flag properties of any of the attractions and towns around us, so this gives us the opportunity to have people stay longer if they have somewhere else to go.”

Beasley said the latest figures indicate that total tourism spending in Albany is well above $221 million annually, which translates to considerable economic impact for the community. This year the community is expected to net more than $2 million in hotel/motel tax, which translates to a tax savings of roughly $403 for every Dougherty County household.

“If we get over $2 million that would be a record,” said Beasley. “That’s very good for us locally. Tourism spending also helps to maintain and grow our attractions, too, which is important. With things like Chehaw being on the SPLOST list, it’s very important that the visitors not only give back in the way of hotel/motel tax, but in the way of sales tax, which helps continue to build us up.”

In order to draw more out-of-town guests to Albany, the Discover Albany visitors guide is found at various locations across the state.

“It’s all over Georgia,” Beasley said. “We send them to all the Georgia visitors centers, all of the convention and visitors bureaus, all the chambers, the attractions, the Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield Jackson. We send them to anyone who will take them. We want peop

le to know about Albany Georgia.”

The new visitors guide can also be found locally at the Welcome Center on Front Street and the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce building on Broad Avenue. Copies are also located at area hotels, restaurants and attractions. Or download a copy below.