Program of Work
Tourism is an export industry. Every dollar a visitor spends at a marina, a campground, a restaurant, a gas pump, or a shop on the square is outside money entering the Overton County economy, supporting payroll and public services that residents alone could not sustain. This program of work treats destination marketing and destination development as economic development functions with measurable returns, not as promotional activity.
The program operates under the multi-party tourism development agreement, is funded through a dedicated tourism development fund, and is guided by the Overton County Tourism Advisory Board with staff direction from the Tourism and Main Street Director.
How the Program Is Funded and Governed
Tourism in Overton County is paid for primarily by the people who visit. When a guest stays overnight here, they pay a local hotel/motel occupancy tax on that stay, and those collections are the foundation of the tourism development fund that supports this program. The more visitors we bring, the more the fund grows, which means the program is built to pay for itself through the activity it creates rather than through the household budgets of the people who live here.
The program operates under a four-party tourism development agreement among Overton County, the City of Livingston, the Livingston/Overton County Chamber of Commerce, and Main Street Livingston. The agreement commits each partner to a single, coordinated tourism effort for the whole county in place of four separate ones.
How the money is handled: Tourism dollars are held in a segregated tourism account, separate from the Chamber's operating funds, so that tourism revenue is visibly spent on tourism. The Chamber serves as fiscal agent for the fund and reports on it to the partners. Tourism funds do not pay for Chamber member services or for the Chamber's economic development work, each of which is funded separately.
What the fund pays for: The fund supports the Tourism and Main Street Director, a position shared with Main Street Livingston, along with destination marketing and advertising, the county visitor website and digital campaigns, the visitor guide and other printed materials, event promotion, tourism research and data, and participation in state and regional tourism programs.
Who decides: The Overton County Tourism Advisory Board, made up of representatives of the City, the County, the Chamber, and community and tourism partners, reviews and approves the annual tourism budget, sets priorities under this program of work, and receives regular reports on spending and results.
Our Goals
Everything in this program works toward one outcome, which is more visitors staying longer and spending more in Overton County, with the results reported openly to the partners who fund the work. The priorities below are parts of that single effort, and each one depends on the others.
Establish and Build the Destination Brand
Objective: Move Overton County from a place people pass through or visit for one specific asset to a destination people can name, picture, and plan a trip around.
Strategies and actions:
- Complete rollout of Visit Historic Livingston Square, the countywide visitor brand, across all channels, ensuring consistent use by the Chamber, the City, the County, and tourism partners
- Maintain and grow the county visitor website as the authoritative trip-planning resource, with current lodging, dining, recreation, and event content
- Build and execute a paid and organic digital campaign targeting the drive markets that already supply our visitors, with Nashville, Knoxville, Bowling Green, and northern Kentucky as primary targets
- Participate in Tennessee Department of Tourist Development cooperative marketing programs to extend reach beyond what the local budget alone can buy
- Develop a photo and video asset library owned by the county, so that every partner has professional imagery available without licensing cost
- Produce and distribute the annual visitor guide, in print for regional welcome centers and lodging properties and digitally for trip planning
- Pursue earned media through travel writers, regional outlets, and Tennessee tourism publications
Measures: Website sessions and time on site, visitor guide distribution, social following and engagement, earned media placements, campaign reach and cost per engagement.
Grow Overnight Stays
Objective:Â Capture more of the visitor spending that currently happens here during the day and gets spent on a hotel room in another county at night.
This is the single largest structural gap in the Overton County visitor economy. Day visitors spend a fraction of what overnight visitors spend, and the county's lodging inventory currently caps how much of the Dale Hollow and Standing Stone traffic we can convert.
Strategies and actions:
- Complete and act on the hotel market feasibility study, using it as the evidentiary basis for developer recruitment rather than as a document that sits on a shelf
- Actively recruit hotel developers and franchise groups, taking the study directly to prospects rather than waiting for inquiry
- Identify and prepare candidate sites, including utility capacity, access, and any incentive tools that improve project feasibility
- Support the growth of alternative lodging, including cabins, short-term rentals, glamping, and RV capacity, which can add inventory faster than a hotel can be built
- Work with existing lodging, marina, and campground operators on occupancy, seasonality, and shoulder-season demand
- Pursue state and federal tools that make rural lodging development financeable
Measures:Â Room and site inventory countywide, occupancy where reportable, lodging tax collections, developer prospects engaged, project announcements.
Develop the Product
Objective:Â Marketing only works when there is something to market and when visitors can find it once they arrive. This goal builds the physical destination.
Strategies and actions:
- Complete installation and close out the Tourism Enhancement Grant wayfinding program, including gateway, multidirectional, kiosk, and historical signage directing visitors to the historic downtown square and other tourism assets countywide
- Develop outdoor recreation product around Dale Hollow Lake, Standing Stone State Park, and the Cumberland Plateau, including trails, access points, water access, and the amenities that turn a visit into a stay
- Build heritage tourism interpretation, including historic markers, walking tour content, and the story of the courthouse square, the county's founding, and the industries that built it
- Support downtown as a visitor destination in coordination with Main Street Livingston, since a walkable square with occupied storefronts is itself a tourism asset
- Identify and pursue the next round of grant funding for destination development, including Tourism Enhancement Grants, recreational trails funding, and federal rural development programs
- Improve the visitor experience at the assets we already have, including signage, parking, restrooms, and information availability
Measures:Â Projects completed, grant dollars secured, new or improved visitor amenities, trail and access mileage.
Strengthen the Tourism Industry
Objective:Â The businesses that serve visitors are the delivery system for everything above. A destination is only as good as the operators in it.
Strategies and actions:
- Build and maintain a current inventory of tourism partners, including lodging, marinas, outfitters, guides, restaurants, retail, and attractions
- Convene tourism partners regularly so that operators know one another, cross-refer, and understand the countywide strategy they are part of
- Deliver hospitality and customer service training, and connect operators to state resources and cooperative marketing opportunities
- Recruit the businesses the visitor economy is missing, including outfitters, guide services, dining, and experience-based operators
- Provide partners with brand assets, imagery, and content they can use in their own marketing
Measures:Â Partner inventory count, participation in convenings and training, partner-initiated cooperative marketing, new tourism business openings.
Events That Draw
Objective:Â Distinguish between events that serve residents, which have real community value, and events that draw visitors from outside the county, which generate economic impact. Grow the second category deliberately.
Strategies and actions:
- Continue and grow the Live in Livingston concert series, with attention to whether programming is pulling from outside the county
- Evaluate the existing county event calendar against a visitor-draw standard, and concentrate resources where the draw is real
- Pursue sporting, outdoor recreation, and tournament events that fill lodging on weekends the county would otherwise be empty
- Develop or recruit at least one signature annual event with genuine regional draw
- Support partner events with marketing reach rather than trying to produce everything in-house
Measures:Â Attendance, visitor origin where measurable, lodging occupancy on event weekends, partner event support provided.
Visitor Services
Objective:Â Be findable and useful at the moment someone decides to come here.
Strategies and actions:
- Serve as the front door for trip planning inquiries by phone, email, and web
- Maintain accurate listings across the platforms visitors actually use, including the state tourism site, mapping services, and travel review platforms
- Place visitor information at the points of entry and at the assets themselves, including kiosks installed under the wayfinding program
- Distribute county visitor materials through regional welcome centers, state parks, and lodging properties across the Upper Cumberland
Measures:Â Inquiries fielded, materials distributed, listing accuracy audits.
Measurement and Accountability
Objective:Â Report on this program honestly to the Tourism Advisory Board, to the funding partners, and to the public.
Strategies and actions:
- Track and report the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development annual direct visitor spending figure for Overton County as the headline measure
- Track lodging tax collections as the closest real-time indicator of overnight visitation
- Report to the Tourism Advisory Board at each meeting on progress against this program of work
- Maintain segregated accounting for the tourism development fund, so that tourism revenue is visibly spent on tourism
- Publish an annual tourism report summarizing performance, investment, and results
Measures:Â Direct visitor spending, lodging tax collections, state and local tax revenue generated by tourism, tourism-supported employment.
Contact
Morgan White, Tourism and Main Street Director
(931) 823-6421 | tourism@overtonco.com