Our last program day for Coffee County Leadership took place on Wednesday. Our group focused on the "Tourism" theme and took a look at our county as visitors for the day.
The day began with a conversation with Denise Smith of the Celtic Cup. She shared the tourism impact a local coffee and tea house has on a community like Tullahoma.
We toured the local spirits distiller, Jack Daniel Distillery, enjoyed lunch at Miss Mary Bobo's and had discussions with Visitor Center Director, Erik Brown and Ryan French, South Central Tennessee Tourism Agency who shared the impact shared tourism has on Coffee County.
Millions of dollars flow through our community thanks to those traveling to neighboring destinations and area attractions, events, and local favorites.
Next, we checked out another local-favorited tourism destination, Old Stone Fort. There we listen to historical facts about the site and took a nature hike led by Park Manager, Keith Chumbley.
Our last stop of the day was Common John Brewery where we explored a newer destination type, grassroots breweries. There we heard from LeBron Haggard how simple format breweries can draw people from other areas. They also serve as great casual meet-up places for local people to find community and interact with visitors.
While there, we heard from the Director of the Manchester Coffee County Conference Center, Rebecca French, who shared facts about the center's direct impact on area meetings and event tourism. They host between 30-45 events each month that bring people from all over that will eat in our restaurants, shop in our stores, and put gas in their vehicles while here.
Tourism has many faces, we were glad to share that with the group. Next year our itinerary will change up, all featuring the impact of tourism in our Coffee County.
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