ON THE ROAD: Investments in Valdosta's downtown helps with area tourism

• Downtown Valdosta's tourism generated over $380 million in economic impact, including a 16% increase in lodging revenue from 2021.
• Tourism in Valdosta supports 5,100 jobs, with visitors contributing $32.8 million on top of local tax dollars.
• Watch the video to hear from locals about what makes downtown stant out.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT

"What would you say to somebody who lives out of town that would like to visit Valdosta?

What spots would you direct them to go to for the best experience? We have a lot of Airbnbs and we have the Mackie Building. You just can walk all over downtown."

This is Susan Mullins; she's been the owner of The Flower Gallery here for over 25 years.

"We take individual attention to every order so we can make sure everything is just personalized and we try to be as creative as we can."

She tells me her shop is unique... like the rest of our downtown. It's what keeps the tourists coming.

"We have a lot of out of town visitors where we have been mailing things people have been ordering stuff off our our social media and we've been shipping things to all over the different place different states."

So much so that according to Visit Valdosta, lodging increased nearly 16% from 2021 with $90.3 million and $32.8 million is generated by visitors coming here on top of our local tax dollars, with the overall economic impact totaling over $380 million.

"People who might be coming to go to Wild Adventures or to go to Recoil or something else, now they've got a place to come eat, maybe to get some ice cream one night."

Christie Moore, our Chamber's president, tells me while the big parks and entertainment areas are essential, the unique offerings of a city's downtown are what really sets them apart and makes people come and visit.

Who Susan welcomes on top of her regulars.

"We love our locals. And we appreciate them. I don't know what we would do without them, but we do have a lot of out of towners that come off the Interstate that are walking around downtown.

On top of the multimillion dollar economic impact, tourism in Valdosta provides 5,100 jobs. In Valdosta, I'm Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.