Last Spring, I was asked to serve as Vice Chairman of the Highlands Tourism Development Commission. The TDC is responsible for the handling of occupancy tax dollars that come to Macon County. This money can only be used for the marketing of the area and is budgeted by the Visitor Center and approved/overseen by the TDC. In 2018, Highlands received well over $600,000 in occupancy tax revenue after the county takes their percentage. This allowed us to market Highlands is ways we never thought imaginable and we are able to reach more people in more areas.
When I was chairman of the Highlands Chamber of Commerce in 2012, we only saw about half this number. If anyone can't understand what Old Edwards has done for Highlands, this graph is telling. This graph shows three bars...one is gross occupancy tax revenue, the second is what the TDC received from the county and the third is how Old Edwards contributed to that total. This is phenomenal! As a full time resident, I am grateful for OEI and what they've done for the Highlands Community!
Of course, this isn't golf related but interesting community information!