The Liberty County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau was the focus of the latest Progress Through People Luncheon.

Business leaders and local officials gathered at the Performing Arts Center Oct. 12 and heard from Julie Ford Musselman, executive director of the Georgia Association of Conventions and Visitors Bureaus.

The Liberty County CVB sponsored lunch the and Leah Poole, executive director of the Liberty County Chamber of Commerce and CVB, talked about efforts to promote the county.

Twice this year Southern Living Magazine shared a photo from the CVB’s Instagram page on its Instagram page.

"They have over 900,000 followers (on Instagram) at this point," Poole said. "That’s not something we can pay for. They’ve picked up our photos and they’ve run with them. One of those photos was taken by Katrina Barrow, Matthew Barrow’s wife, of P.C. Simonton and Associates, and it was a picture of our office and it got over 19,000 likes on Southern Living’s Instagram feed."

Poole said it was one of their highest liked photos which prompted Southern Living to reach out to the CVB about featuring them in an edition of the magazine next year.

Coastal Living Magazine named Sunbury Crab Co. as one of the Top 20 Best Seafood Dives in the country, and South Magazine named local chefs, Joe Maley of the Sunbury Crab Co. and Jonathan Garett of ShoNuff Smokin’ Good BBQ, as two of the South’s top chefs.

Musselman talked about the role of the Georgia Association of CVBs. She said her organization is the voice for all the CVBs, also called destination marketing organizations, and provides industry education and professional development opportunities to staff.

The organization is also trying to position the tourism industry as an economic generator throughout the state.

"We want to increase the investment in Georgia’s tourism marketing, unfortunately Georgia ranks dead last in the amount of money our state spends promoting tourism statewide, out of all the Southeastern states and unfortunately that has not changed in 15 years," she said. "We also want to protect our hotel/motel tax from being diverted from purposes other than promoting tourism in our local communities."

Musselman said $61 billion was generated in business sales for the state in 2016 and the tourism industry provides 450,000 jobs, making it the fifth largest employer in Georgia.

"We’ve collected $3 billion in state and local tax annually and every household in Georgia pays $800 less in tax because of the money that visitors spend in Georgia," she said. "Liberty County generated over $107 million in direct travel spending, which is up $20 million since 2009. Almost 600 jobs in this community are supported by tourism. Each household in Liberty County pays $327 less in taxes because of tourism spending in your community."

Musselman talked about the different ways to form a CVB, how they are funded and the wide range of CVB budgets.

Liberty County’s CVB is one of 28 in the state, with budgets between $100,000 and $250,000, Musselman said. Chickamauga’s CVB has an annual budget of $12,000 and Atlanta has the largest at $27 million.

"A lot of times, the tourism folks are viewed as the fluffy people. They’re the ones with the cute bags of tea and honey, giving them out. They’re like the window dressing for the ‘real’ business in town," she said. "That’s not exactly true. Every community’s success, especially Liberty County success, is dependent upon the collaboration of the leadership of the community. The importance of destination promotion to the visitor economy, everybody recognizes that, but destination promotion also acts a catalyst of economic development more broadly."

She commended the Liberty CVB for its efforts, such as being featured in Southern Living and said "it looks like your voice is being heard well outside the compounds of this county."

Musselman then took questions from the audience.

Hasit Patel, of La Quinta Inn and Suites, asked if the Georgia Association CVB could lobby to get a portion of funds from the $5 hotel/motel tax that goes toward funding state transportation. Patel said he believes the state has surpassed what it needs for transportation and suggested the association lobby for at least $1 to generate funds for tourism.

Musselman thought it was a good idea and said the problem is that legislators have not come up with a formula to fund tourism. She said they will have to wait for the right time to address the issue.

The Liberty County Chamber of Commerce hosted the event and lunch was catered by the Farmhouse in Glennville.