Helen Fincher of the Gainesville-Hall County Convention and Visitors Bureau said she is pleased with the numbers.
"We're being compared to other places like us, and a lot more of them, so it's a much better comparison of where we are," Fincher said.
The Travel Industry of America released its findings Tuesday and Hall County was ranked 11th in Georgia in tourism dollars brought in with $175 million - the highest ranking ever for the county.
"That's just excellent," Fincher said. "We've worked hard to bring in money and things that would generate money, so we're pleased."
Could Hall County climb any higher?
"It's hard to say because all of the areas ahead of us are larger, higher profile metropolitan areas like Atlanta, Augusta, the Georgia coast," Fincher said. "Macon and Bibb County is right above us and we might be able to pass them but that would take a tremendous amount of work. To be as high as we are means we're already ahead of places like Athens and we're the highest county in north Georgia."
Fincher said the driving force behind Hall's tourism in motorsports.
"Whenever Road Atlanta has a big event, every hotel room in Hall County is filled so if we could get them to hold more events that would certainly have an impact," Fincher said. "But sports has overtaken meetings as the biggest dollar generator for Hall County."
Fincher said she expected the 2003 numbers to be even better, buoyed by the recent Lanier Canoe World Championships.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/10/171616