McMinnville Hires New Tourism, Marketing Manager

McMinnville has hired Jordan Pupols to serve in an all-new position as the city’s tourism and marketing manager.

Pupols said her goal is to put the wide variety of tourist offerings in Warren County into a cohesive strategic plan to get those attractions to a target market. Pupols said the city needed someone to fill this role after its tourism development board was dissolved due to issues with how it was structured.

“We’re really anticipating that those inefficiencies are going to be eliminated,” Pupols said. “And we’re going to create a really amazing new dynamic that’s going to allow us much more efficient and effective utilization of those occupancy tax revenues to increase tourism in the area.”

Pupols said she will be building her department up using a solid foundation of tools and resources left for her by the old tourism board. Pupols said she plans to spend her first month or so getting familiar with community leaders and small business owners in the area.

“I’m also reading a lot,” Pupols said. “I’m reading to learn. The former tourism development board, the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development, our current city departments, the Upper Cumberland Development District, and there are several past city-hired agencies that have all left me with this just unbelievable wealth of resources and groundwork for this department.”

Pupols said her higher-level objectives include reviewing the department’s budget and the tourism assets already present in the city and county. Pupols said she will also help identify candidates to complete the tourism advisory committee and develop a request for proposal for a tourism strategic plan for the area.

“(The tourism development board) used the hotel and motel, also referred to as occupancy tax revenues from Warren County to spur tourism in our communities,” Pupols said. “I’ll be working with that same occupancy tax revenue for my department as well.”

Pupols said she will work with local officials and business owners to help guide her department over time.