The Importance Of Local Tourism

James invites on Jason Johnson, Director of Tourism in Wilson County Tennessee, where they discuss the importance of tourism even in a local market and the impact it can have positively or negatively on area businesses. They also address the marketing component (of course) for what tourism can organically do for the market it serves. If you never understood the place tourism has locally in your community... this may be a great episode to tune in to!

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:04):
Hey, welcome back to the marketing perspective. I'm
James dinella, CEO and owner ofMedia Vision advertising, but
we're not talking about mediavision today. Today we're
talking about tourism. Tourismis a huge topic, and why
tourism? Because it doesindirectly affect marketing, and
it's interesting, and we'll getinto that a little bit later.
Tourism greatly positively canaffect an economy and its

(00:28):
infrastructure and itscommunities, community by
community. It is a wonderfulthing when it's done well, local
government and tourism comingtogether, the concept of how the
monies come through to helptourism along, and how that
money gets utilized for thegreater good goes back into the

(00:48):
communities. It's a reallyeconomically speaking, it's a
cycle, and it's interestingwatching it happen. I only know
a little bit about it, but I'mbringing on somebody today who
knows a lot more about it. AndI'm bringing on Jason Johnson,
who is the CVD tourism directorat Wilson County, Tennessee.
For full disclosure, we serveWilson County. My business is in

(01:12):
Wilson County. I live in WilsonCounty in Tennessee. So in case
you're listening from around thecountry and you want to put a
hit out on me, this is where Ilive.
Jason is very good at his job,and I'm excited to have him on
today, because he's going toshed some light and relevance of
what tourism really does in ourbackyard. I've seen it in other

(01:34):
markets, and I've seen tourismsucceed. My background, some of
you know my past, good and bad.I used to produce the I Love New
York campaign for a while in NewYork, obviously, and the New
York State Lottery in New York,obviously, great campaigns. And

(01:54):
believe it or not, the lotterycommercials also bring in
tourism and revenue. How James,well, a lot of times, sometimes
somebody on the other side ofthe border of the state or
county or whatever will crossover into the other area just to
get tickets in that area. Andwhen they're there, usually
there's commerce occurring, andthey're utilizing local vendors

(02:17):
and all that kind of stuff. Soit's interesting how money goes
back and forth. But tourism is avery big part of that. And the
last thing I want to say beforeI bring Jason out, when you when
you think about So, Tennessee isknown for not having state tax,
right?
State tax, not having state tax,correct. I'm going to say that

(02:39):
again. Kinsey, is that okay topick it up from there? So one
last thing before we bring outJason, Tennessee is known for
not having a state tax. So oneof the things that I noticed
when I first moved here fiveyears ago, so my property tax is
really low, by the way, like Igave myself a raise when I left
the state of New York and cameto the great State of Tennessee,

(03:02):
big race, by the way. Oh, thetaxes are very different. So
they don't they try not toincrease property taxes. But
what the mayor of this countydid at the time is he increased
sales tax on on goods andservices. And I said, well,
well, that's higher than even inNew York. And for a split second
I was like, Oh my gosh, what arewe doing? But when you think

(03:22):
about it, he was dividing howthat money was coming in. It
wasn't the burden of theindividual home homeowner. It
was it was on everyone that wasdoing commerce in the county,
which I thought was reallysmart. So tourism is important
because it brings other peopleoutside of the area into the

(03:42):
area, and their money helps paythe taxes of the county. So so
if you see what I'm talkingabout, economic impact when it
comes to tourism is huge, andthat's just on a small scale.
It. I'm sure Jason's going toshed a little bit more light on
that, because he's really goodwith facts and figures and
stuff.
But let's, let's dive right in.And I'm excited for this one. So

(04:04):
let me bring out my friend JasonJohnson of Wilson County,
Tennessee, and it's Wilco. Istruggle with that because I
want to call it Wilson Countytourism, but it's Wilco,
correct. Either one's fine. Likesay Wilco. We use Wilco as our
little, you know, as our littletagline type situation. But you
know, the brand guy gets reallystressed. I understand,

(04:27):
you know, and it's always beenthat way for me since I've been
here. So welcome to the show,Jason. Thank you very much for
being on today. Man, I don'teven know where to dive in. I
know, first of all, saying thatI know a lot about tourism
marketing. I mean, I'm just,I've been in several years, I
will agree. But man, a lot everyday and every new thing that

(04:48):
comes out, it's just, you know,it's something new to learn.
We're finding out some greatways to go about marketing. Give
you a little background. Iinitially took this position.
Position
about three to four weeks beforeCOVID And the pandemic shut down
the world of tourism and travel.So that gave me a chance to, you

(05:13):
know, you go on, you go into aposition a lot of times that's
like, well, you're doing it thisway, but they did it this way or
later, are you sure you're doingnothing was ever done like I was
doing it, because nothing hadever happened like we were in
the middle of having thishappen. So it gave us an
opportunity to really thinkabout, you know, new ways of
marketing, new ways of, youknow, coming coming across to

(05:36):
our visitors, our prospectivevisitors, our soon to be
visitors, hopefully, and kind ofmarket in that way. So that gave
me a really good insight rightout of the gate in my job, as
stressful as it was, for sure,yeah, there was no playbook for
COVID. There was none. You know.
I know. I feel your pain when wefirst put our business here,

(05:59):
that big f4 tornado camethrough, and five minutes later,
COVID started. So and the numberone way we grow business is
speaking engagements.
So
I scratched my head a little, soyou're right. There was no
playbook. I empathize with that,but I think it probably really
let you cut your teeth a littlebit, you know. So you didn't

(06:22):
have to, you, knowing what Iknow about how business as usual
goes, you know, you didn't haveto fall into the trap of doing
what we've always done, and yougot to do it differently
Exactly. You know, for better orworse,
a lot of it, I think, was forbetter. I mean, I think we were
Wilson County as a whole. Youknow, we're we're right. We're

(06:43):
right east of Nashville. Youknow, our our main tagline for
the tourism department is nearNashville, miles from ordinary
so we're not kind of blind tothe fact that we do get overflow
Nashville, and a lot from that.So, you know, we were on the
cusp of basically taking thatnext step into the level of
tourism, of getting that nextstep of lodging tax, from

(07:04):
overnight stays and visitorspending and everything. So that
kind of gave us a fresh start tolook at these things to let's,
let's jump up to this nextlevel. Once we can get into it,
let's get up to it. You know,
well, you already paved the wayfor how you got into tourism.
How you how you got here. Let'sjust talk about for a second the
purpose of tourism, howbusinesses thrive when tourism

(07:28):
is successful.
You know, you you touched onwhen you talk about marketing.
You know, basically, for us,we've got to me, in my mind, and
the way I've talked to thepeople there's, two or three,
like main facets you can savetourism. And it kind of depends
on which one you're attacking atany given time. You know, first

(07:48):
and foremost, there's themarketing, you know, that's,
that's the obvious. One is yourmarketing. I am marketing Wilson
County, you know, just like, andyou understand this more than I
do 10 fold. Probably, you know,marketing is, is getting
consumers to buy into your goodsand services. Well, I'm just
getting visitors to buy into myattractions, dining, shopping,

(08:10):
lodging, same situation, youknow. How can I do that? How can
I go about attracting those,those folks to be here and, you
know? And then there's the otherpart of tourism that you know,
with it is the casual visitorthings like that. But there's
also the side that we're doing alot of helping with event
planning and things like that.You know, I work closely with
the National super speedway. Iwork closely with the Farm

(08:32):
Bureau EXO center, and in thataspect, we almost, I guess you
could almost call it like aconcierge type situation. Gail
Helen, who's the Director out atthe Expo Center and the mat at
the at the Nashville superspeedway, they might have an
event looking well, then I'musually that next step, or that
next contact, if they're lookingto come here. Well, let me tell

(08:55):
here's Jason. He's going to tellyou where you can stay, what
your you know attendees can dowhile they're here, and other
reasons to get them to come
here, right? Yeah, I so Gail'sbeen on the show before, so
listeners have gotten to hearGail and talk about event
planning. So if you've beenlistening, you follow the show.

(09:16):
Gail and Jason do work reallywell off each other, because
it's within the same county andthat, let's, let's, I'm going to
go off book on my on my planhere. Let's talk about that for
a second. Like your partner'srelationships. Obviously, that
is a good partner relationship.She's She runs an event
facility. You're drivingtourism. It's a natural fit.

(09:39):
What other natural partners doyou have when it comes to being
tourism director? Well, I sayobviously, the main ones are the
Nashville superspeedway in theExpo Center, obviously the Ag
Center, the James E Ward AgCenter, which is out there,
which is part of the expo. Andthe whole, you know, was kind of
fairground, kind of compound,more or less you.

(10:00):
Events there as well. Butthere's also the smaller things
I, you know, I work well withthe downtown Lebanon merchants,
historic Lebanon downtown,historic Watertown. We do
events, helping them out withjazz fests and things like that.
State Park, you know, cedar,cedars of Lebanon State Park.
Fantastic State Park. They seeover 3 million visitors yearly.

(10:22):
So we work with them on helpingand the good thing about helping
with like the state park or OldHickory lake and the stuff
there's there's also from thestate level, the Tennessee
Department of TourismDevelopment, there's state level
programs that we can kind ofpiggyback off of and kind of get
a little more bang for our buckon helping marketing those and
sharing of assets and things forthat.

(10:45):
But like, it's just, it's, it'sacross the board. I mean, even
down to, like, I say, themerchants and, you know,
different, you know, craftbreweries around and everything,
and then obviously, obviouslythe hotels, that kind of goes
without saying, Well, no, Ican't go for the purposes of our
listeners. It's got it. We haveto talk about it, and we'll go

(11:06):
there in a second. I thinkthat's a big conversation.
I want to back up just close thecircle on purpose of tourism.
Some of the obvious answers, ifyou look it up on Google, you
know, it does boost revenue,without a doubt, it can create
jobs. It's something that is issomething that's important it as
far as the economic structure ofany county or even a state. And

(11:29):
the one that I want to park on alittle bit is that it can create
cultural exchange, meaning sopeople from out of the area can
relate to the culture in thearea, and vice versa. So can you
speak into that a little bitsure, you know? And like you
said, you know, the I read astatement one time and said, the
first date of the marriage ofeconomic development is a visit,

(11:53):
and that visit is tourism. Sothere's that, you know, that
kind of brings the tourists andthe visitors in. But you know,
we have things, you know,Pickett's chapel, the Wilson
County Black History committeeand things like that. That
brings up. And we have theWilson County, the Wilco Pow
Wow, a Native American HeritageFestival. So as far as heritage

(12:14):
like that, the obvious ones,sure, but just in general,
which to me, is fantastic, ispeople getting to visit
somewhere and understanding howother people, how the makeup and
how they are, you know, you wecan see we can set back and not
to get necessarily politicalCoronavirus soapbox, so we can

(12:35):
sit back and say, Oh, we don't.We don't want anybody from
Illinois. We don't want anybodylike blah blah and all these
other states and all these otherthings. And why are they coming
here? But if they come here tovisit and understand what, what
is making Tennessee great rightnow? What is making Tennessee a
top 10 visitor spending stateand a top what top seven, you

(12:56):
know, moved to state in thecountry, or what, what is about
this state that is so great, youknow, it kind of, it kind of
opens up some eyes, opens upsome and vice versa, you know,
you can, you can sit and throwstones at somebody from five
states away saying you don'twant them. But when they come
here, you know, I've got somegreat friends in my in my own
neighborhood right here ingladosa County, that are from

(13:18):
California. And you know what?They're great people. I love
them to death. So, you know, theit kind of breaks down a lot of
the stereotypes, I guess youcould say, and kind of shares
life together.
I know, I know, moving here fromthe East Coast, you know, being
a Yankee, the former Yankee, Ihad to jump a couple of hurdles,

(13:38):
but I chose to be here and putmy family here because I like it
the way it is. I don't want tochange it. I did not like it the
way it was, where I came from,which is why I moved, you know,
but there are people that wantto change, and that's where
conflict happens. And I hearwhat you're saying. I just like
the cultural differences. I likeseeing,

(13:59):
like my first take when I firstgot here, I spoke at an event in
Mount Juliet, and I said, Well,hi. So nice to be in Mount
Juliet. Man. I thought I wasgoing to get
shot, and somebody in the backsaying, Juliet. Juliet, Juliet.
What do you say? Juliet?

(14:21):
There's Lebanon. It's Lebanon.Lebanon, right? Because it was
gracious. So I actually made thejoke about, well, I don't know
when y'all were in high school,didn't you hear? You know, you
read Romeo and Juliet?
You know, nobody laughed. So Isaid, Okay, note to self, moving
on. Learn the language. Youknow, I felt like I was in a

(14:44):
foreign country for a second,and it was fine. So I know
people that come and I findmyself doing it now. So I have
people that are new in the area,like business people that, hey,
I'm just here, and they startsaying, Juliet and Lebanon. I
said, Lebanon. Mm.
And I'm saying, like, why areyou saying it that way? I said
because if you don't, they'regoing to shoot you. Just just,

(15:07):
they're not. For those if you'relistening, out of state, they're
not. It's really nice, pleasantplace. People are very kind, but
they are pretty serious abouthow you say their town here,
just for the record. Okay, somoving on. When you talk about
come out of town, is coming in.I want to address destination
marketing. So

(15:28):
when people are like, forexample, I love New York
campaign, like I was talkingabout before it is a
destination. So those kind ofcampaigns would focus on certain
highlights from a tourismstandpoint, like the hiking,
like the one of the campaigns wehad done back in the day,
instead of everybody thinks NewYork, they think New York City,

(15:49):
you know, big Lights, Big CityTheater, all that kind of stuff,
murder,
you know, things like, sorry,New York State. But the Hudson
Valley is a whole nother world.Hudson Valley is kind of like
here. It's actually probably oneof the most beautiful places
I've
ever been, mountains, rollinghills, amazing hiking and
hunting, fishing and beautifulwaterfalls. So it was like a

(16:13):
whole nother life, and it's justan hour outside of the city. So
we parked one of the one of thecommercials we had done, we
parked on that as a destination,you know. And the only, the last
thing I'll say, because then I'mgoing to throw it back at you
and ask you a very hard
question. I remembered in partof Dawson Valley, like we had
West Point, we had WoodburyCommons, which is probably the

(16:35):
largest, I might misspeak here,but the largest outlet in the
world, or the the most, the mostshopped outlet in the world.
They they have some thing thatis like, they're like the best
at and it's gigantic. And itreally is. You save a ton of
money on big brands. If youhaven't gone, if you happen to
be there, highly recommend it.So you've got West Point, you've

(16:56):
got the woodwork Commons, andthen they put Legoland, which is
for little kids, 12 years andunder, it's a great destination,
high tourist attraction. Andthat triangle, that triad
created, and then they startedputting casinos, but we're not
going to talk about them,
just because of how I feel aboutwhat it does to an economy.

(17:19):
But those three things were verypowerful in that market. And
tourism did go up, and businessdid go up, and I know that
people were thriving a lot more.And for the most part, what
they'll say is they don't knowwhy. They just attribute it to
good economy, good politicians.You know, they don't understand
that tourism did that, thattourism brought all that in. Can

(17:39):
Can you speak to that? And whatthings would you want to see
here that aren't here yet?
Well,
touching back, you know how thetourism drove that? I was at a
conference with insight, it'smagazine downtown Nashville, and
the President of the Nationalpredators. She was speaking to

(18:00):
the fact of the mayor that wasthere at the time when they
started building Bridgestone,Bridgestone Arena. And it wasn't
Bridgestone at the time, but
downtown Nashville. I don't knowif that was, you know, before
that, she had moved here, and ofcourse, I've been, I've been
around this area for 30 yearsnow, so,
but downtown Nashville wasbasically a dying city. There

(18:23):
wasn't, there wasn't much to it.And what was down there was a
little bit seedy and everything.And there was, there was a
conscious effort
to bring visitors to, we need tobring something to gets the
visitors down here. We need toget, you know, the Bridgestone,
which was, it was the Gaylord atthe time, so they called it.
But, you know, we need to getsomething to get them down here.

(18:44):
The visitors
bring the economic change andthe economic development. You
can talk about revitalizationfor, you know, people on stuff
you can you can go down here todowntown Lebanon to where the
shops are and everything at anygiven day. And I promise you,

(19:05):
you will find almost as manyvisitors, if not more, than you
will locals.
And here, the sad fact is, ifsomething comes in like that as
a visitor, you're open to it.Hey, we're going somewhere new.
Let's go to some place new.Let's try this out as as a a

(19:26):
resident. There's hesitancythere, as as someone I've lived
here, I'm not sure about goingdown there. I've lived here my
whole life. I'm not sure aboutthat. So the residents, and
sometimes, unfortunately, thethe officials and the
commissioners of thoseresidencies and all are hesitant
about things the folks that wantto come in and revitalize the

(19:47):
change and bring
the things that will bring thetours that's that's where the
change really starts to happen.As far as what I would love to
see around here.
Sure. I mean, something like aLego Land. I think that, you
know, I think this is a primespot, you know, if you look at,

(20:08):
if you look at our geographiclocation, we're 30 minutes
outside of downtown Nashville.We are just as close to
Nashville International Airportis to Nashville is to Nashville
International Airport. I mean,it's, it's not hard, it's
outside of the city. So ourlocal location going direct
east, on 40, that's it. We'rejust sitting in a fantastic

(20:29):
location for growth. That way,if you look at the the traffic
patterns going out of Nashville,and we can look at different,
you know, programs, stuff thatshows traffic east. Especially
because we're in between hereand, you know, down the road,
there's Gatlinburg in the SmokyMountains. It's a highly
traveled corridor. I 40corridors, highly traveled,

(20:52):
highly traveled, and lesscongested for the most part. So
it's a fantastic spot to lookat, you know, hopefully courting
some of these, these biggerthings. I think, I think we
definitely have the space forit. I think, you know, looking
at costar and other programs,
you know, we're at 35 hotelproperties in the county right

(21:12):
now, and there's 10 more slatedin the next couple of years, I
think the growth is there forit.
You know, we're, we're just,we're just in a fantastic spot
right now for visitor spending,tourism wise,
yeah, that's just, and it's oneof those things that every,
every person that comes in thatspends the night, you think

(21:33):
about it this as a as a local,as a resident, as someone, every
person that comes and stops andspends the night that's A little
bit less that you pay onproperty taxes. Think about it.
That's right, because everyevery head in bed and spends a
night is a lodging tax. And ifthey spend the night, they're
probably going to get gas intheir car. That's a gas tax.

(21:55):
They're going to eat somewhere.They're going to buy something
that sales tax. All that stuffadds up, offsets your property
tax, right? And if they go intoCracker Barrel, they're they're
not getting out without spendingsome money.
I don't know what it is. I loveCracker Barrel. I always have
since I was a kid, and it, youknow, some of the things in

(22:17):
there, you like, it's nostalgic,but gosh, I ate that candy when
I was a kid. And
you talk about, I'm thinkingabout culture. When cultures you
come from someplace else, andsome places, believe it or not,
folks, some places don't have aCracker Barrel, or Chick fil A
or and I know I was so excited,there's one on every corner.

(22:38):
It's sad. And you may becauseyou've been here 30 years, you
may be used to it, and you'relike, What are you talking What
are you talking about, James?But in other markets, it doesn't
exist. So it's like, we wantwhat we don't have. You know,
people with straight hair wantcurly hair kind of thing. So
when you go someplace else, youwant to experience the culture
there. So to your point, peoplewill, even if they're just there

(22:58):
for the weekend, they're passingthrough, they spend money in a
new market. The best thingabout, you know, everyone who's
coming in, you know, we're,we're honestly, Wilson County is
one of the top growing countiesin the state
based on, you know, ourpopulation. And that's, you
know, we're in meetings, James,I've seen you in meetings before

(23:20):
about this, and it's theconstant fight of, you know, the
subdivisions and developmentsand this and that, and more
schools,
everything that that you'rehearing the complaints about
tourism, visitor spending, mydepartment's helping to push all
The positives and none of thenegative about that. We're

(23:43):
having people come in, spend thenight, eat, shop, buy some us
leave, temporary taxpayers.They're coming in, they're,
they're, they're increasing thepopulation for 36 hours, and
then they're leaving. So we're,we're not a strain on the roads
commission because they're usingthe roads every day, but yet our

(24:06):
visitors are buying gas andcontributing to the gas tax.
You know, we're not, we're not astrain on emergency services or
a strain on the school systemsfor overcrowding schools or a
strain on the jails. But yet ourvisitors are buying things and
contributing sales tax. They'respending night which contributes

(24:28):
to the hotel, motel tax, which aportion of that goes to the
general fund to help that. Soit's a win win to not fully
embrace tourism. Sometimes itjust baffles my mind it does.
I know it's I've seen, I've seenit go badly. I've actually so

(24:48):
I'm going to come out and say, Isaw, I watched Casino. I
mentioned casinos before, so I'mnot a fan,
but, but mostly because of theeconomic impact, because when
they come in with guns blazing,you.
They will market themselves aswe're going to increase
economics in this market. We'regoing to businesses are going to
thrive because the casinos here,casinos become self contained.

(25:10):
They want everybody to stay intheir world. They don't want
them to go to the local shops.They want them to shop inside.
They don't want them to go tothe hotels in the area. They
want it to stay inside. Andeventually it drives the wrong
element, which eventually bringsdown the area. Crime rate goes
up, all kinds of bad stuff goeson, and economies do not thrive

(25:32):
over a period of time. That isproven statistically. So I used
to be the guy in the back of theroom asking those questions, you
know? And there's always theanswer, well, yeah, but dot,
dot, dot. And I'm like, That'sjust an excuse, and that's not
true, because look at whathappened. I mean, I don't want
to say names, but famouscasinos, even in the east, on

(25:53):
the northeast, we'll just saynortheast area,
have negatively impactedeconomies, you know, so when
they bring in the new casinos,and yes, it brings in money, and
yes, it brings in taxes, withouta doubt, but it hurts. It hurts
areas, because crime goes up.When crime goes up, people want
to leave, and they move awayfrom where the crime is, which,

(26:14):
and then quality of schools godown, which is a big thing. We
haven't touched that yet,because I know that you and I
both in meetings, and we'resaying Wilson, one of the
reasons Wilson County is such ahigh destination point for
people wanting to move here isthe school systems. And the fear
is, well, people like Jason, whobrings in tourism, is going to
hurt that, because these peopleare going to come, they're going

(26:36):
to hurt our schools. And that'snot the truth, because, to your
point, people are coming,they're spending money, they're
leaving. You know, the idea is,it's it's boosting the economy,
which helps our infrastructure,it helps our economy, it helps
bring in more jobs. It's apositive impact. I mean, you
must come. I'm preaching to thechoir, I know, but you must come

(26:57):
across this all the time. Andhow do you navigate that? How do
you positively push back? Youknow, it's, it's funny, because
we do have, you know, theconstituents and some of my
stakeholders that have beenlifelong, second, third, fourth,
fifth generation, Wilson County,you know? So this is, this is
what it's been. This is whatalways is. And when you go

(27:19):
talking about tourism.
A lot of these folks tourism,you say the word tourism, they
immediately think Disney World.They immediately think
Gatlinburg strip. Theyimmediately think, you know,
Atlantic City boardwalk. Theyjust immediately it's, there's
no you know, their perception oftourism is such this way out

(27:42):
here, you know, over the topthing, you understand that. You
know, we understand, you know,talking to some of these, again,
some of the commissioners of Iget that at one time, you know,
there was a, there was a fieldright there that you deer hunted
in or something. Well, thatfield is now Fairfield in by
Marriott, and they do very well,and they stay at a pretty good

(28:04):
capacity, and they bring moneyto, you know, to the county. So
it's just, it's getting, gettingthe folks to just slowly, and
that's the key, I think, becausein anything, you know, counties
and governments, it's got to bea slow change. You can't, like
you said, Come in guns blazing.Use that term guns blazing, and
think to change the world, butto come in slowly and get folks

(28:28):
to realize that, you know, eveneven things like breedens
Orchard on the other side ofMount Juliet, as I say, places
like that, that picks, you know,your your apples and your peas,
that is a draw. That issomething that not everybody
sees where they're from. Andagain, goes back to culture, you
know, I can somebody comes infrom a large city and I say,

(28:50):
well, here you can go pickstrawberries right here, right
off the thing. You can pickpeaches right here. You can go
get fresh farm raised beef righthere. And things that's still
cultural thing. That's what'schanging, you know, and then
kind of adding to the thevisitor spending pot and, and
that is still tourism. That isstill visitor spending, you

(29:10):
know, it goes back, like I said,tourism is not, it doesn't have
to be to that level that you'retalking about, you know, that
everyone's worried about, youknow, we're they think it's
either nothing or it's downtownBroadway, Nashville for tourism.
No, there's, there's a fantasticsweet spot that 95%

(29:31):
of the 95 counties in Tennesseelive in, and that's what it is.
You know, you take DavidsonCounty out, you take Shelby
County out with Memphis, youtake Sevier County out with
Gatlinburg and maybe Knox Countyout with Knoxville, depending on
football season or not, and therest of us live in that great
shops to shop at, great placesto dine at, some outdoor

(29:54):
activities, some abovecommunity, local events going
on.
On brewers fest, things likethat, to go to. And that's,
that's the sweet spot that we'reliving in. And it's obviously
working. You know, we're, we'rethe 10th ranked state in the
country on visitor spending,right? So what? Again, shameless
marketing guy, what in youropinion, is Wilson County known

(30:18):
for, like, everybody becomesknown for something. So what are
we known for? You know, that's,I get asked that, and it's, and
it's so tough to hammer it downto a couple things, Wilson
County, you know, it's I, I amthe tourism right over Wilson
County. So in that, we haveMount Juliet, we have Lebanon
and Watertown are the three maincities.

(30:41):
And the best thing about that isit's almost if you didn't
realize that these three citieswere in the same county, you
would not even think they werein the same state. Sometimes,
this just what they offerLebanon. Lebanon is the historic
town. Lebanon has the historicdowntown area with all the
revitalization of the shops, youknow, you go into the boutiques,

(31:03):
you go into the brewery, therestaurants and shopping. It's,
you know, it's the exposedbrick, it's all the, you know,
it's the WoW kind of factor ofthat. You go into Mount you go
into Mount Juliet. And that'smore of the, the new growth,
some of the the nicer hotels arethere things like the Christmas
place, shopping, major shopping,things like that. And then

(31:26):
Watertown, you know, you do thewhole
comparing it to a Mayberry town.It's a, it's just a cool little
laid back town. It's, it'samazing, if you really start
doing research and look intoWatertown, the number of very
well known artists that livethere to this day, and the

(31:49):
amount of
film and television that is donein and around Watertown, it will
absolutely blow your
mind. We're work. We're workingon a dedicated page on our shop
that just on our website. Ratherthat this, it just shows the
music videos, the televisionshows and everything. So it's a
lot of, you know,

(32:09):
it's a cool point downtown, butyou can go in there, like, wait
a minute, that was where, youknow, I remember a Garth Brooks
video being shot right here.Under this, I see So, so as far
as what we're known for, I mean,all of that you know,
the the out, the outside thedowntown areas, the camping, the

(32:29):
hiking,
Nashville super speedway, youknow, it's a NASCAR weekend. We
now have Music City Grand Prix,which moved from downtown
Nashville out here, with theIndy car racing. So major motor
sports events out there,
did you brought up a point, andit gave me a

(32:50):
little brain I call it brainfarts. So I used to produce.
First half of my career. Iproduced commercials and film
and stuff like that. So I hadrelationships with a lot of the
film commissions around thecountry, closest with the one in
New York State, because I did somuch work with them, knowing
what I know, tourism worksalongside Film Commission. So I

(33:10):
imagine you do the same here.That's one of your partner
relationships. Yes, yes, yes.You know, I'll work with them.
You know, sometimes I'll beadmittedly, they kind of try to
sneak in and get stuff done,but, you know, we're, we're
definitely working on moreoutreach to get an idea of, and
I'm not even necessarily worriedabout when they're going to be

(33:31):
here, type situation. It's Hey,you know, we'd like to know
where you're shooting, whenyou're shooting, and then
afterwards, you know, kind of,you know, let the world know,
hey, you know you you like thisshow? Well, it was filmed right
here, and come see it. Thinglike that. Well, I can either
confirm or deny my followingstatement, but sometimes they

(33:52):
try to sneak in because they'llhave somebody a big name, and
they're trying to protect thatperson, and they don't want a
big crowd, because it's reallydifficult to actually get the
shooting done when you also haveto navigate the crowds. And it's
it becomes a real traffic issue.But the other side of it is
sometimes it just trying to getaround all the permit fees and
all that kind of stuff. Butagain, I can neither confirm nor

(34:14):
deny the phone so,
yeah, I get it. I totallyunderstand. Uh,
interesting. I did not know thatabout Watertown. Well, I just
saw there was, they wereshooting in downtown Lebanon
just last week. They were, itwas, they were the commercial. I
actually spoke with thatgentleman.

(34:34):
Yeah, we, I actually saw him indowntown Lebanon, and got to
talking to him when I was downthere. He was, they were
shooting a commercial, and it'sone of several that are planned
in the area coming up. They'removing this way from Williamson
County, Franklin area, and doingwe're out here now. Yeah,
gotcha. So just I was aroundthere a lot those few days.

(35:00):
And I have to say they did agreat job. I mean, I know people
were probably upset because theywere in the circle, and they
could, people couldn't park andstuff, but they really navigated
that very effectively, and themain traffic flow was still
functional, because I have seencrews literally shut down a town
like, no in, no out. You know,I've been the producer that did

(35:22):
that. I locked up Park Avenue atlunchtime one day.
Yeah, and if you were, if you'relistening and you happen to have
been in that mess, I'm sorry. Itwas a really big project,
though,
I know, and it happens, so it'sa lot easier now, because you
don't have to have people don'tshoot film anymore. They shoot
it's digital. So there's lesscrews, there's less people, but

(35:44):
you still need the shot to bewhat it needs to be. So I can't
imagine. I'm sure you get thephone calls once in a while,
because they assume it's atourism problem. Why are these
people here in my backyard?Jason, yeah, what's going on?
What's going on? That's, youknow, we get more of the
Facebook comments than the phonecalls anymore, because that's
kind of the that's kind of theage we're living in. It's like,
what's this all about?

(36:06):
Which is even worse, becauseit's much harder to navigate. I
don't like, honestly, yeah, evenfrom a PR perspective, it's
really difficult. Okay, so we'lljust get you back on track.
That's it's, that's my fault.
In the title, when I introducedyou, I said the term CVB, you
know, and I actually had to goand look it up, being quite

(36:26):
honest, I was, I thought it waslike an accreditation. And it
kind of is, it is it is definedas the Convention and Visitors
Bureau for the record. So whenI, when I looked up what that
really meant, one of the bigthings was talking about hotels.
So I know we kind of dancedaround hotels. You mentioned it
a few times, but I'd like you tospeak into it very
intentionally, because hotelsare a big part of tourism and

(36:50):
economic impact as well, forsure. I mean hotel, the hotel
motel tax that we get that's,that's what funds our
department, as well as helpingfund several other things in the
county, you know. So we get, weget a portion of the hotel,
motel tax that's collected.
Not like so with COVID chain andVisitors Bureau, and there are

(37:11):
some out there in the differentvariations of that, that it's,
it's almost like a chamber whereit's a membership driven kind of
thing. We there's no dues.There's no memberships for our
department in the way it's setup. So like I say, our, our
funding comes from hotel, moteltax. But in that, you know,
again, it goes back to what Isaid earlier, about working as

(37:33):
as a concierge for some of theseevent planners that are coming
in to find them the right fit onhotels, and speaking on hotels,
and then going out into
again, go back to Gail, GailHelen with the farm Bucha
center. Will we will go tobasically meeting planner
conventions or less, and it'swhere we will meet with folks,

(37:56):
and they may be with helmsBriscoe or something, and they
may have nine or 10 meetings inthe next three years. We need to
find a place for them and thingslike that. So we'll go and kind
of court them. She has thelocation. She has the fantastic
location. I have the catalog ofhotels to use. So it's a little
bit of trying to build thatrelationship and help bolster

(38:19):
the occupancy levels of ourhotels, which again, comes back
to us
on that
I know that when I first gothere,
when I first got here, well,COVID prevented me from really
being a tourist and goingdowntown and hanging out and
everything. But now I'm herelong enough that I don't want to

(38:42):
have to go downtown all the timejust because of traffic. You
know, it traffic is toughgetting downtown, just like in
any major city. So I would loveto see more entertainment in
Wilson County, in in areasoutside of just having to be
downtown. And I know that's apowder keg, but how cool would

(39:04):
it be if you could? And I'm nottalking about the really big
stuff, but I know that the mayorof this county and I were
talking one day about that, andhe's like, I said, Would it be
it'd be really cool to get like,some of these big comics, like,
I love Tim Hawkins, Christiancomedian, brings a great
audience. Does you know peoplelike that, certain, certain kind

(39:27):
of that it's not really thisgigantic, 30,000 capacity
stadium doesn't have to be. Itcould be 5000 you know, and
those kind of people would cometo that. And that's, it's
manageable. It helps trafficflows, not that impacted by it.
And one of the challenges, andof course, if you know Mayor
Hutto, he was like, Yeah, well,do you know him? Just bring
them. I'm like, that's great.And the challenge of that is, we

(39:49):
don't have the destination. Whatwe could, I mean, the Expo
Center could be converted to dosome of that stuff, but it
doesn't have the hotels are toofar away. They're, well, 10
minutes.
Or a five minute drive. Well,that's fine, but you want them
like on site. You want themright there, because anybody of
any kind of a name or stature,they need to get whisked away.
They need to be able to havetheir private time. They they

(40:12):
don't want to have to schleparound, you know, the way they
have so it would, it would standto have a hotel on those
grounds, if that was possible.And I know a lot of people
whisper about it and talk aboutit. I'm, I'm from New York. I
just speak more openly, youknow, so in your opinion,
forget, don't talk about thatissue, because I don't want you

(40:32):
to get in trouble. But do youthink that we need more hotels
within the county? You know,some people say we have too
many.
Well, I can tell you, based onour occupancy rates compared to
other counties, other areas,what we're looking at, we don't
have too many. Too many wouldmean too many. Would mean the
ones we have are struggling.None of them are struggling. You

(40:54):
know, there, there was, therewas a dip, a late summer dip.
You know, we're in a time wherethere's a little bit of consumer
confidence here and things. Sothere was a little bit of dip in
occupancy. Different occupancy.That was what that was, what it
was across the board, all acrossright, like this past so, so
that's what that is. So no, Idon't think we I don't think
it's a question of having toomany. I don't think we have. I

(41:17):
would like to see some morehigher end hotels. I would like
to see some more of the fourstar hotels. And I would
definitely like to see hotels insome more strategic locations
they're getting there. But, andlike you said, I don't care to
and I will definitely speak toit, as far as being out by the
Expo Center, you know, yes, thatthat would be beneficial in a

(41:40):
big way. It's just, I think it'sa matter of someone being the
first one out there and seeingthe success that you'll have
being being it out there,
right? I feel that way aboutrestaurants. I want to see
higher quality restaurants,higher end, you know, I'll pay
more if it's better food,nothing against the franchises

(42:03):
and some of the smaller placesthat are here, but I'm getting
tired of franchise food. I won'tI just I find myself spending
more money in supermarket andcooking a lot more often just
because or I have to travel togo to the restaurant I want to
go to, and that usually sends medowntown. And y'all know I feel
about that, and it's great. It'sa great destination. It's just,

(42:26):
you know, Well, Jake, I mean,here's, here's the deal. The
first date of economicdevelopment marriage is visitor.
So like I said before, we'rebringing the visitors. Those are
the ones that, as I said before,will will will take that initial
step to go to the the new higherend restaurant, because you know
how it is you when you're homeon a day to day basis and you go

(42:48):
out to eat, it's usually thesame old, same old. But if
you're on vacation, you're goingto go out to eat, I'm going to
go try that place. And those arethe places you try. And those
are the things that you know meas someone living here sees a
parking lot full well. That mustbe pretty good. Let's try it
out. And then it just snowballs.And now becomes everyone's

(43:09):
favorite place.
And then that place issuccessful, and there's another
place opening
up.
If you had your drawers, what wetalked about, you know, higher
quality hotels, morerestaurants. What else would you
want to see here, if, in theperfect scenario? Well, you
know, and I say there are some,some rumblings and talks of

(43:33):
things out there, I think if youlook at what we have as a whole
to offer for sports facilities.I would like to see more of
that. I think sports tourism issomething that we could
definitely dig in a littledeeper on. You know, we've we're

(43:53):
doing very well on the motorsports side of things, and we're
doing pretty well on the agritourism side of things, but our
sports tourism getting, gettingsome more playing fields of some
kind. And I know that, you know,11 and mayor, Mayor Rick Bell,
they're working on the sportsfacility with soccer. But
definitely see some more. Youknow, football, baseball, mixed

(44:14):
use fields,
because that it is, it is crazy.You put, you know, eight or 10
fields down, baseball orsoftball fields, and what that
brings in,
having, having twin 10 year oldboys, and kind of touching into
that whole travel baseball thinga little bit. There's a lot of

(44:35):
there's a lot of income to behad, lot of lot of tax dollars.
I'm so glad you brought that up,even when I first got here. That
was one of the challenge thechallenges I saw. So I coached
volleyball for years. I used toplay competitively. And
when you coach travel, you'realways traveling somewhere.
You're going to a destination.I've been all over the country

(44:56):
for travel, and here we don't.
Have anything that can hold thebigger events. We can't host a
50 court tournament, right, likesome cities can, and that would
be so you talked about a lotabout outdoor so the feels, even
getting the feels is achallenge. I can't imagine how
long it's going to take us toget something where we can host

(45:20):
50 volleyball courts orbasketball courts or things that
are indoor sports. But I knowwhen it comes hotels fill up. I
mean, in mass they people comein droves, because we're talking
about 1000s of people that thatjust come to watch. And then the
amount of teams that come,there's eight to 10 to 12 kids

(45:41):
on a team. So they all come inin droves. And the amount of
tourism dollars that increase inthat long weekend is really
impactful. And we just don'thave that here at all. No, well,
we get, no, we get right now wewill get overflow from
Rutherford County, Murfreesboro,on their sports tournaments. And
that's you're looking at, 32miles away,

(46:03):
right? Well, even that one thatthey were building, I think that
fell through because offinancing or something, there
was Yeah, which is terrible,because that would have really
been a game changer for them.
So that's really good stuff.What were your thoughts? You
didn't speak into entertainment.What did you think about that?
Are you shying away from thatquestion? No, no, I think it's

(46:24):
great. I think, you know, hereagain, it's the same as tourism
people, when you when you saythat they get they shun away
because you think we're going toput a tootsies right next to,
you know,
Honky Tonk right next tosomebody's church or school type
thing, and it's not going to bethat way. I think there's,
there's some, there's a fewfolks that are doing some great

(46:46):
things in Wilson County 11 to
hopefully, if things go well,get some more live stages in
that aspect. I think it'sdefinitely an untapped thing
that would help. I mean, let'sface it, you literally, you can
come to Nash, or you can come,say you're coming to Nashville,
but instead of turning left togo to Nashville to stay, you're

(47:09):
going to turn right and go toWilson County to stay. You're
going to pay a third of the costfor a hotel. You're not going to
pay for your parking, you know.So you can stay here, catch an
Uber there and back, and stillhave your extra money to buy
your $14 drink at tootsies orwhatever you want, you know? So,
I mean, there's still, you know,it financially, it makes more

(47:33):
sense. I understand you're notdown the hustle bustle. It's a
quick down. So to be able totake some of what folks are
going to Nashville for some letme say that again, some of what
they're going to Nashville for.I'm not I'm not expecting
bachelorette parties and pedaltaverns to happen in downtown
Lebanon, but I'm saying some ofthe music and some of that feel,

(47:54):
some of that Asheville and bringit out here absolutely. I think
it would be an absolute win.
I think there's a, there's areally beautiful town here, over
in Williamson County, if you'relistening, you don't know Cole
Franklin. It's real pretty. AndI think, I think they have that
figured out. They do a reallygood job at driving that kind of

(48:15):
traffic, of what you're talkingabout, and outside looking in.
Because I'm still, I'll be anoutsider for probably 50 years.
It looks like we're heading inthat direction. It looks like
that's what we're striving for.So I think the vision that
you're casting is probably spoton, and we just have to get
there. So it's good point
I have. I have a big burningquestion. We've covered most of

(48:37):
my hearts. I just
my if I, if I don't do acurveball, who would I be? Let's
talk about the challenges youface as a tourism director. What
are they?
Well, you know, I think I kindof touched on a little bit is,
is dealing with, I don't saydealing with, because that kind
of sounds derogatory, butworking with some of

(49:01):
some of the commissioners, someof the stakeholders, you know,
some of those decision makers,
and helping them to move alongon the vision
to getting them to go not fromzero to 60, but let's put our
foot on the gas a little bit.Let's, let's get up to about 35
you know, let's, let's see thatthere, there is movement

(49:23):
happening.
Nashville as a whole isexploding.
So do you want to be the onepart on the east that's not
exploding as well because it'sjust going to go
around. We're in a situationright now with Sumner County,
which is more Northwest, northnorthwest of us, Nashville,

(49:45):
where they're they're reallygetting conservative on their
spending, cutting back on a lotof stuff with tourism and things
like that. And you won't see ittoday and you won't see it
tomorrow, but five years fromnow.
There's going to be a stuntedgrowth in that aspect. And I
think, and I think we need tohave that five year, 10 year, 15

(50:10):
year vision looking at this, andthat starts with doing the
things we're doing today, anddoing the more and doing the
better. Don't, don't just havethe I'm going to bury the money
in the coffee can in the frontyard mentality, let's, let's
reinvest. You know, we're in a,we're in a fantastic situation

(50:31):
in this county with the growththat we're in to be able to
reinvest some of the money inplaces that we need to. And we
are, for the most part, ourschools building new schools,
building new firehouses, so theemergency services are getting
off. That also comes withbuilding tourism. That comes
with increasing your marketing,increasing your awareness of the

(50:52):
county, to get the word outabout that, because, again,
that's going to drive
the new hotels and the newrestaurants and the new
attractions and all the bigthings that come that make the
quality of life within thecounty fantastic.
You can grow and you can drop in2000 new homes in an area.

(51:17):
That's great, but eventuallythose folks that are living in
those 2000 new homes are goingto do exactly what you did and
what you're talking about. Iwant something nice to eat. I've
got to head to Nashville. I'vegot to head to Franklin, I've
got to head to Marvin. I've gotto go what, go somewhere else
and spend my money and give themtax money where we don't have it

(51:37):
in our own backyard.
So you're you're leaving yourcounty, you're going to spend
your money, and then you'recoming back into your county and
then saying, well, our we needthis for our schools, and those
roads are looking bad, and thisand there. So stay in your
county and enjoy it. And that'swhat we need, is to have things,
to have folks stay in theircounty for, right? That's and

(52:01):
that's what I would look forbeing newer here. I would love
to see certain things here thatare in here that make me have to
go out of county, you know,which keeps my money right in my
backyard. But I want toreiterate something you just
said, that if you're listeningand you're like, oh, he doesn't
know. That's just his opinion.It's really not because I see
the other side of the tableoutside in, like I've marketed

(52:22):
some of these companies thatwould want to be here or not
want to be here, and they lookfor certain key factors, you
know, as a destination. And someof the things that Jason is
speaking into are exactly thethings that they want. And if
they don't see that, they willnot put their entity here. They
pick another area, same reason.So I'm, I'm an Apple user from

(52:45):
way back, and no, they're notpaying me to say that. I mean,
I've been probably almost 40years,
and loyal to a fault. You know,really loyal. There is not I
can't throw a rock and hit anApple store anywhere near here,
I have to go, like, an houraway, and that's ridiculous.
Well, they're not coming herebecause they look at the

(53:06):
economic impact and they think,well, the money is just not
there, but it is there. It'sjust that they don't see it,
because statistics,statistically, they're not
seeing exactly what Jason istalking about. So it is a
problem, and if we don't addressthe problem to your point, like
you're talking about SumnerCounty, you're right. I agree
wholeheartedly. I mean, I'vebeen the one since I got here

(53:27):
saying there's a if you don'tknow the area, there's like a
loop around Wilson County called840 and you really don't have to
go through the county. If youdon't want to, you can go from
Rutherford County, which is eastof us, over to Williamson or
Davidson, which is west of us,and literally go right around
us. And that's what will happen.It's, I think it's already

(53:48):
happening. We're not adestination, and we need to be a
destination. And that's not toput it all on Jason,
but, but you know, I know youhave your own battles, and you
have you, and you're right.People have to, well, I don't
want tootsies next door, andthat's an excellent point. I
don't want tootsies next door meeither, you know, but that just

(54:11):
comes down to communication andeducating people. And this is
what it could look like. I thinkwe have a great opportunity to
hand pick what we want here andwhat we don't want here, you
know. And if you get people oflike mind to put them in the
same room, and yes, that'sawesome, as long as it's not
this, you know, and not that I'mI can do your job. I'm just

(54:33):
marketing, but I understand, ifyou put them here, I can
definitely market the snot outof it,
absolutely.
Alex, and there are a few placesthat are working towards it.
You know, even some of ourbreweries around and things like
that with music. And also, we'retiptoeing into it, for sure. You
know, I would think this timenext year, I would say we would

(54:57):
hopefully find at least a couplelocations for Tennessee. So.
On rider nights, things likethat. That would be very cool.
How long is the Ryman here? Imean, the ryman's history is
like a legacy, yeah, it, yeah,you know. And if you think, like
30 years ago in Nashville, itwas, wasn't what it is today.
But the Ryman was here a lotlonger than

(55:17):
that, even downtown Lebanon, theCapitol theater, beautiful
theater with a lot of history. Imean, it's not as big. It can't
handle the big crowds like we'retalking about, but, but the
intimacy there is just amazing,and the people that have come
through there over the years, Idon't know, I I think we have to
open our minds a little bit ifwe want to grow as a county. And

(55:38):
you know, speaking to that,James, you're talking about the
capital theater. I spoke withthe lady. She runs audience of
one. It's like the theater outthere.
It is. It will blow your mind,the number of folks that come
through there in some productionof something that you will see
them. I mean, it's like majorleague baseball. I contributed

(56:00):
that. It's the same way as maybethese folks are playing here.
You're going to see them offBroadway or Broadway. So
there's, there's, we've had TonyAward winners play out there
at the capital theater.
But here's the, here's thehere's the problem. James and
I'm, I'm as guilty of it I wasmore guilty of it before I got

(56:21):
on this road, when I first gotwhen I first took the road, I
put out an initiative to, like,say, the commissioners. And it
was kind of part of the hiringprocess of do a do a project or
some sort, and it was a touryour own backyard. That was the
whole initiative. The wholeproject, I said, was tour your
own backyard, because fromliving here. So we get so

(56:43):
blinded, we put our blinders on,and we drive past some of the
greatest things that people aredriving across the country to
come see. But we don't, we don'tthink about it's just, you know,
that's just the cedars oflavender park down there. It's,
you know, okay, well, it's justthe cedars. When was the last
time you were down there? I havecalled I have called folks out.
Oh, that's just serious. Whenwas the last time you were down

(57:04):
there? Oh, man, it's probablybeen 15 years.
Go see it. There's amazinghiking trails. There's amazing,
you know, a nature center.There's great camping. So we get
blind to what's in our ownbackyard. So we don't see, we
don't see the value in it, thatother people that are visiting
to come here see

(57:26):
that is an excellent point. AndI could, I'm victim of that too.
We become, we want, oh, it's,it's out there. That new shiny
thing is over there. It's nothere. You know, you're right,
we, we don't. You know thatthere's so much history here
too, the amount of, if you're ahistory buff with battles and
all that kind of thing. I mean,Tennessee is rich with there,

(57:48):
you can't walk up a road withoutfinding there was a battle
there. Some like, you know, someof it's pretty famous. Some of
it's not, but it's pretty cool,if you like that kind of stuff.
So we do have a lot of historyhere. You're right, we just, we
don't, we just need to, youknow, educate that we don't have
to go somewhere to go somewhere.That's, that's what it kind of

(58:11):
boils down to, all right, I'llgive you some my confession I
want. So I'm giving this one toyou. It's, it's my gift today. I
literally, every single daydrive by breeding orchard,
because you mentioned themearlier, every day to get to my
office, because it's a, it's a,
it's a, it's my, my shortcutdown Beckwith road. And I think

(58:34):
I've been there once in fiveyears.
So I'm going, I'm going, I'll bethere probably this weekend. So
if y'all, you'll see me at somepoint, call me out on it, if
you're not, if you don't see me.But I'm going probably go
Saturday, just for the record.
Well, if you go right, get mywife, Christie's there's some
oils over there. I think there'sa Tuscan oil that blend that she

(58:55):
really loves. She's getting low,so pick me up some, and I'll,
I'll Venmo you.
Okay? Is it type? Is it a blend,or is it there's name to it, or
wrong one? What is it? I can'tremember the the name. She's a
local, because they've got,like, they've got the orchard,
and then within it, they've got,like, a local, it's an indoor,

(59:15):
like, a building, a stand, andit's all southern Olive is the
brand. It's so it's just, it'sall kinds of things, local
honeys and local crafts andartisans.
They do soap as well, right?Yeah, because they just started
a brick and mortar not long agoover on Mount Juliet Road, which
you talk about commerce. Youtalk about how one thing can

(59:35):
grow to another. You know,they're, they're true
entrepreneurs. They also, Iwon't say it out loud because
they may not want me to, butthey own a popular comedy club
in Nashville that I found outabout, which I'm actually going
to ask them about, because inmy, my next life, I'm going to
be a stand up comic. I'm goingto start saying it out loud
because it's it will happen toexist. Speak it into existence.

(01:00:00):
On it. It's coming. If youwatch,
I don't care if I crash or butit'll be on my bucket list.
So I finished my coffee, and weare beyond time, but I just want
to make sure we covered the bigoverview picture of tourism. Is
there anything we did not talkabout today that you'd like to

(01:00:21):
address? Oh, I think we touchedit all you know, Commissioner is
out, which is our state tourismCommissioner, the Tennessee
Department of Tourism, about hishis mantra for the last several
years, and it's been one, Ithink we've all picked up and
kind of carried the torch on,is, tourism is real money.
It is a real industry. It makesa real economic impact on the

(01:00:42):
industry. And, you know, no, youdon't, you don't see the the
distribution centers, and youdon't see the 200 acre field of
corn. So you don't see thedistribution and you see the,
you know, the agriculture. Youdon't see tourism. But it's
there.
Side note, I'll give you a primeexample. There was hot rod Power

(01:01:05):
Tour came out to the nationalsuper speedway a couple months
ago. It was about, Gosh, I thinkit was about a week or two
before the NASCAR race. So aboutmid June
in the Hot Rod Power Tour, it'sall the the lowered, chopped C
10, oh, Chevrolets and the oldCamaros and just the rat rods.

(01:01:26):
So cars that you will recognizeas being out of the ordinary
cars, right? They were in townjust overnight, because it's a
Power Tour. They stop at BowlingGreen, they stop at 11, and here
they kind of tour through thenext morning that they were
here. They were here on aTuesday. So Wednesday morning I
was I was driving into work.

(01:01:47):
I drove past every restaurantthat was serving breakfast at
the time.
I drove by four or five hotels.You could look in the in the
parking lot, and you could seesix to eight of those cars in
every one of those visit places.So on a day to day basis, you

(01:02:08):
don't see the tourists. Youdon't see the visitors. They're
they're driving a ToyotaHighlander, they're driving and,
you know, whatever. So you don'tsee them. But if, if, if we
could tag tourists and tagvisitors like that, because they
were tagged in hot rods andspecific cars, you could
physically see the impact thatthey're making in an area. And I

(01:02:30):
thought that was that. Thoughtthat was a fantastic thing that
morning, because it's like,there's, there's my argument of
why this is something, becauseevery business had, you know, an
economic impact happening.
I tend to look at licenseplates. I watch. It's just a
thing I do. And I watch how manypeople are not from here, and

(01:02:52):
where they're coming from. Andyou can tell by the driving
usually, but
that's a good point.
Well, thank you so much, Jason,this was very insightful today.
I knew it would be if you'relistening. I hope it really
opened your eyes a little bit towhat tourism is really about.
Jason, is there a way, ifsomebody wanted to ask you

(01:03:12):
questions or find out moreinformation, what's the best way
to contact you? Matthew, justyou know, visit wilco.com is our
website.
Follow us on Facebook. WilsonCounty Convention and Visitors
Bureau.
You know, give me a call at theoffice. I don't care if I like
so all the contacts are on ourwebsite.
Reach out to us tourism atWilson County, tn.gov

(01:03:38):
gets it to us. So many avenuesto reach out to us. The amount
of things that are happeninghere that you don't know about
is is crazy. And I think do youlist all that on the site? I
don't even know. So we have themajor events listed on our
website, and that's updatedfrequently. But then Brittany,
she's my marketing specialist,every Monday, she'll do a what's

(01:03:59):
happening in Wilco thing onFacebook. And that's why I say,
if you go on Facebook and followus, that breaks it down to, you
know, there's a sip and strokespaint night somewhere, and
there's a comedy night at CedarCity Brewery Company and stuff.
So that breaks it down evenmore. And it's, it's amazing.
She fills up every week. Itsurprises me when I see it. When

(01:04:20):
she posted. I'm like, I didn'tknow all this was even going on,
right? Does Cedar City have anopen mic? I'm just asking for a
friend.
I'll check into that for you.I'll be sure to
it's just, it's interesting,like, if you live here, that my
point is, if you live here, howdo you get involved with here?

(01:04:42):
Because that's the thing I'mgoing to walk away with today is
like, that's a challenge is toexperience your own backyard,
like, be a part of, you know,the community, and get involved
in your right so thank you forsharing that well. Thank you
very much for being on today,Jason. I appreciate your time
greatly.
Uh, we're going to wrap up. AndI hope this was something that

(01:05:04):
was insightful to you, and youlearn a little something more
about tourism. You understandits impact.
Like Jason said, please reachout to Wilco. Ask questions,
find out more information. Youcan always use marketing
perspective. Ask some questionsthere. If you need it, we'll
make sure you get answers.
Please share the show if youlike listening, if you learn
something, if, if you're abusiness owner, which is most of

(01:05:27):
our listenership, uh, tourism isimportant, and I think you're
seeing that a little bit morenow, how it impacts you, and
because we are in a situation,Jason, the way you said, it was
loved, uh, consumer confidenceis down right this second, and
it's something that will comeback. It always does.
Historically, it's probablysooner than later this time. You

(01:05:50):
heard it here first, but we aregoing to go through something
right now. Most people are init. Just stay strong and make
sure you're marketing yourselfcorrectly, and please reach out
and ask,
not being, not soliciting. Justask questions. We're happy to
give answers. We're happy topoint you in the right direction
if you need it genuinely.Because if we work together, we

(01:06:12):
get through stuff when youisolate yourself. It's Biblical.
I don't want to preach, butanywhere two or more gathered,
right? You want to be able tocome together and work together.
Don't work in a silo on yourown. Make sure that you're
speaking to somebody elseprofessionally. Circle yourself
with consultants that can reallyspeak life into your business to
help you to get through thistime. I hate what I've been my

(01:06:35):
company's been around for 20years, and my biggest pet peeve
is watching people just I can doit myself. I can do it myself.
I'm going to save $5 it's amistake to do that, because you
will not navigate this kind ofeconomy on your own. You need
help. Put people around you thatare going to help you to be
better, and tourism is a bigpart of it. Ask questions. Ask
what? Maybe there's something inyour business that can help

(01:06:57):
maybe tourism can kind of helpyou. Maybe it's open a door.
Maybe you're not on their listof all destination places, and
you should be. It's a questionto ask. These are the kind of
things that I hope that themarketing perspective does for
you. Please keep listening. Keepkeep learning, keep growing your
business. Thanks so much forlistening today, and we will see
you next time you