By Linda Erbele
White County News
Helen City Commissioners, at their regular meeting Sept. 16, heard from Convention and Visitor’s Bureau that travel to the
city was down in July and August over last year by about 7 percent, as measured by walk-in visitors to the Welcome Center.
Commissioner Steve Fowler pointed out that hotel/motel taxes were down from last year. Helen Finance Director Mona Wood said
the collection was down 7 percent in August and 9.
Brown attended a meeting of the Southeast Tourism Society in Louisiana last month.
“The consensus was that most locations (that are not travel destinations) are down 20 percent,” he said. “It is due to concerns about the
economy and that many places that people haven’t been able to go for the last five years are now open.”
In contrast, Wood said that sales tax and SPLOST collections are up slightly over 12 months ago. “Hopefully (the hotel/ motel) will come back
up,” she said.