Hospitality Highway Alliance Wins Partnership Champion Award

ALPHARETTA, GA — The Georgia Governor’s Tourism Conference recently named the Hospitality Highway tourism alliance as the winner of the Partnership Champion Award for its creation of the Hospitality Highway Farm Trail brochure.

The Hospitality Highway consists of the seven communities that extend the length of Ga. 400 just north of downtown Atlanta to the North Georgia Mountains, linking the seven communities of Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Alpharetta, Cumming-Forsyth County, Dawsonville and Dahlonega.

This unique partnership has fostered the creation of Georgia’s only Urban to Rural Trail featuring farm-to-table dining, agritourism destinations, wineries, breweries and farmers markets. The brochure allows each community to highlight their city’s offerings in those categories.

The Georgia Governor’s Tourism Conference Partnership Champion Award is given to an alliance that collaborates to increase visitation and tourism expenditures in Georgia. The conference was organized by the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the Georgia Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus.

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Hospitality Highway was officially formed in 2004 by Janet Rodgers, president and CEO of the Alpharetta Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Dotty Etris, executive director at the Roswell Convention & Visitors Bureau. Both women saw this partnership as an opportunity to collaborate, promote and establish GA-400 as the state's official Hospitality Highway. Over the next several years more communities joined the alliance eventually including all seven along GA-400.

“It is so exciting to have the Hospitality Highway alliance recognized by tourism industry professionals at the Georgia Governor’s Tourism Conference,” Rodgers said. “Our partners in the alliance work hard year-round to produce content that helps visitors know what the must-do’s in each city are from dining, shopping, attractions and everything in between. It is rewarding to see this kind of teamwork celebrated.”

Hospitality Highway partners manage aggressive marketing and advertising plans including print and digital media, social media channels, a blog, videos, and the website, www.hospitalityhighway.com. Two brochures have been created by the group: Hospitality Highway - City Streets to Mountain Retreats and the Hospitality Highway Farm Trail. These brochures are heavily distributed on a national level.

“It has been an incredible journey to watch how the Hospitality Highway alliance has grown over the years,” said Etris. “It started as just an idea between the Alpharetta and Roswell CVBs. However, we soon realized that to get GA 400 designated as the state’s official Hospitality Highway we needed to include all the GA 400 communities from Buckhead to Dahlonega. Now it has become an example of how when we team together as communities, we can make a significant impact on visitation to all of our cities. We were thrilled to receive the Partnership Champion award from our tourism industry peers.”

You can learn more about Hospitality Highway by visiting its website.

Image via Alpharetta Convention and Visitors Bureau