The Upper Cumberland Tourism Association has completed its new tourism branding plan designed to better market the region.
Upper Cumberland Tourism Association Executive Director Billie Davis said the new plan is more of a rethinking on how to better market the Upper Cumberland as a tourist attraction. Davis said the branding plan will highlight outdoor assets and local businesses across the 14-county region.
“They are gonna look at us as a whole and say, oh my goodness, there’s 12 incredible waterfalls within an hour drive of each other, they have three lakes that I can get to within an hour,” Davis said. “It’s really about packaging us as one region as a destination.”
Davis said the marketing aspect of the plan includes a website, a magazine, online advertising, and using billboards along I-40. Davis said now that the plan is complete, the next step is implementation.
“Now that we have a brand and we have an identity, that we know what we are promoting and we know what story we are telling to our visitors, we are getting the website, the new website, just in line with that,” Davis said. “That’s gonna be ready, I would think, they pushed it off a little bit, and when I say they I mean the web developers, it’s gonna be hopefully ready at the end of July, maybe August and that’s the perfect time to roll out the new brand for everyone.”
Davis said she expects the branding plan to give an economic boost to the entire Upper Cumberland.
“Where it’s really gonna be impactful is some of our more rural areas that maybe people don’t know about that has really wonderful places to eat, and great shops, and beautiful waterfalls, and scenery, and things to do there,” Davis said. “But they just don’t know to get off the interstate and drive that hour drive.”
Davis said the branding plan was a long in in-depth process because the tourism association wanted to do a deep dive into all 14 counties. Davis said the tourism association still has a lot of moving pieces, but is looking forward to launching the branding plan.
