Tourism

Case Study
campbell county 

Challenge

Campbell County, another of the depleted coal industry areas, was in the midst of a suffering economy with extremely high unemployment levels.

 

Plan

Utilizing Ackermann PR’s brand development process, we began by conducting our “define and discover” phase:

 

  • A series of focus groups were conducted with a variety of community participants.
  • The input from community focus groups pinpointed the most critical need was creating new jobs and increasing county tax revenues.
  • Based on those needs, we developed a strategic economic and tourism development plan that included:
    • Establishment of both a brick-and-mortar and virtual business incubators. Partnerships with both Roane State Community College and Tech 2020 were established to support the incubator initiative.
    • Creation of an economic and tourism development board comprised of county leaders.
    • Development of a partnership with surrounding counties to establish the Cumberland Regional Business and Agribusiness Marketing Authority.
    • Initial development of a county marketing program.

Impact

In the first twelve (12) months of the Campbell County program, the following was accomplished:

  • Significant new economic and tourism initiatives were underway:
    • Established full-time economic/tourism development director
    • Began formulizing artist’s colony
    • New/expanded tourist attractions
    • Two new bed and breakfast resorts
    • Zipline attraction
    • Outdoor music/performing arts amphitheater
    • Generated $400,000 grant for beautification projects
  • The business incubators’ results:
    • 36 total client companies served
    • Of these, ten (10) were new starts
    • Total number of jobs created or maintained = 190
    • Number of new jobs added in the first year = 118
    • Total annual revenue of client companies = $6.6M
    • Total funding raised by clients (debt or equity) = $620K