On Wednesday, Feb. 21 and Thursday, Feb. 22, the City of Douglas and community members welcomed a 10 member Georgia Tourism Product Development (TPD) Team to Douglas for a roundtable lunch and discussion of Douglas and Coffee County’s tourism assets focusing on local history, community leadership, education, sports/recreation, downtown, culinary, agriculture/nature and retail tourism.
The TPD team listened to key community stakeholders, which helped to identify current and future tourism product development to increase tourism and economic development in Douglas and Coffee County. Following the roundtable discussion, the TPD team toured Douglas, Broxton, Ambrose, West Green and Nicholls to look at each community and discuss ways to improve areas and create more tourist destinations for our county.
The TPD team will re-visit Douglas/Coffee County in approximately 6 months to present their report to community members. This visit will also allow Douglas and Coffee County tourism to apply for state grant funds to help make the TPD reported suggestions come to life for our community. Special thanks to everyone who attended and helped make this visit a success for our community!
Roundtable discussion with community members held at the Youth Center.
TPD team with Parks & Recreation Director, Stevie Young touring future site of Sports Complex.
Daniel Warren (SGSC Facility Director) and Paul Scheeser (SGSC Lead Recruiter) give a brief history of South Georgia State College and campus tour to the TPD group.
Kayla Sellers shares plans for micro-shops that will be located downtown.
Group learns about WWII Aircraft restoration efforts and the WWII Flight Training Airbase & Museum from Don Brooks, Jim Rimes, and Tom Riley.
Last stop, the Broxton Rocks Preserve, where the TPD team learned about the Nature Conservancy efforts and the natural wonder of the Rocks from tour leaders, Jim Cottingham, Tyler Lott, and Chris Adams.