Greater Gadsden Area Tourism, new director, settling into downtown home

Greater Gadsden Area Tourism is settling into its new downtown home after a whirlwind move, and Tina Morrison is settling into her new role as the organization’s executive director after a hectic first couple of months on the job.

The organization’s headquarters and welcome center are now housed in the front lobby of the Downtown Civic Center, 623 Broad St., after trading places with Gadsden Parks and Recreation’s special events department, which has moved into Tourism’s former home at the Mort Glosser Amphitheatre.

Morrison is enthusiastic about the move, saying it will provide “an elevated visitor experience” for those who stop by looking for information about area attractions and the like.

“First of all, we’ll get more walk-in traffic,” she said. “More people will see us just by being downtown.”

The lobby is set up where promotional material and maps are available even if Morrison or her executive assistant, Cheryl Pate, should be away. Similar material will be available outside the front and rear entrances to the civic center for after-hours visitors, and there’ll be an information screen visible from the sidewalk with graphics and information about area activities.

“People can just look in the window in the evenings and see what’s going on,” Morrison said. “It really provides an element of information available 24/7.”

Visitors can park either on Broad Street or in the civic center’s rear parking lot, which is accessible from North Sixth Street. Morrison said the rear area should be able to accommodate people with boats, campers or RVs.

And once they get inside, there are maps on the wall where they can place a pin showing where they’re from.

Morrison has been on the job since Aug. 14. She replaced Tynette Lynch, who had served as interim director since March after the Etowah County Tourism Board fired former Executive Director Hugh Stump.

A native of Limestone County, she previously worked in tourism at Perdido Bay and Palm Coast, Florida, before returning home to Alabama.

She said she had to get a budget approved in her first few weeks on the job and faced a couple of other urgent issues. Then, city officials approached her about switching locations, since with an increased focus on events at the amphitheater, they thought housing the special events staff there was a better fit.

“It was quite a feat to us, trading places, literally moving the same day,” Morrison said. “It took a lot longer than we thought to get settled in. It’s a bigger place and we had to get the internet going.”

With that behind her, she’s focusing on promoting the area and building relationships with local officials and tourism stakeholders.

“There’s so much potential here,” Morrison said. “I’m honored and privileged to be able to promote tourism at such a pivotal time for Gadsden and Etowah County. You can just feel it, there’s a spirit of cooperation. Everybody is excited.”

She said city officials, the Etowah County Commission and the county’s mayors (she’s met with all of them) have all been supportive.

“The majority of our hotels are here in Gadsden,” Morrison said, “but our mission is to have all the towns in Etowah County reap the benefits of tourism. We want to make sure that while (people are) here, they go to Hokes Bluff, they go to Attalla, they go to Rainbow City and Glencoe, all the wonderful little towns we have that have so much to offer."

Her priorities include art; cultural and historic tourism; downtown Gadsden; economic development; events and festivals; film; food and drink; historical and educational tourism; meetings and conventions; outdoor tourism like fishing and kayaking; sports; and wineries.

However, the “anchor,” as she described it, is Noccalula Falls. "People are always going to want to come see that,” Morrison said. “There are so many amazing things up there. A family could really spend two or three days up there doing the petting zoo, minature golf, the campground and all that.”

Greater Gadsden Area Tourism has employed a new advertising agency to handle a rebranding campaign, which will seek to market Gadsden as a destination in a more cohesive way.

Morrison said she’s talked with Kay Moore, director of Downtown Gadsden Inc., about collaborating on some ads.

“Kay has been very supportive,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a great partnership with her. She’s the best neighbor we could ask for and has been very welcoming.”

Morrison said she’s reached out to multiple tourism stakeholders for their input, such as things they’ve seen in other towns that they’d like to see here, and will be compiling the responses to share.

She'd like to see businesses share promotional information and details on special events that visitors might find interesting, and start referring people to the tourism office or its website, https://greatergadsden.com. “If they don’t know what’s going on,” she said, “send them to us and we’ll let them know.”

On the agenda are new tourism brochures, including one with “the 101 greatest things to do in greater Gadsden”; a new vacation guide, pointing out pet-friendly and special needs suitable options; and a scavenger hunt, where visitors can stop by the tourism center, pick up the information and instructions, go out and check off the items, then return to the center and collect a prize.

“Once we get them here,” Morrison said of visitors to Gadsden, “we want to make sure there’s plenty for them to do, and create loyal returning visitors.”

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: A look at Greater Gadsden Area Tourism's move downtown