New Tourism Expert Joins UCDD To Help County Work

The Upper Cumberland has a new tool to assist its counties with tourism efforts, Morgan White will serve the region as Tourism Recovery Coordinator.

The UCDD position funded by grants. White said she serves as a sort of marketing agency for the counties and chambers around the region who need assistance with projects in design, photography, or website development.

“Tourism is super important and vital to our Upper Cumberland region,” White said. “We consider ourselves the backyard of Nashville and Knoxville, and depending on where you’re coming from, almost like a halfway point to the Smokies. And so we’re really trying to make sure that we’re marketing ourselves to visitors and we’re capturing those tourism dollars when they come to stay.”

White said she currently is touring the region to talk with leaders about their needs and assess where they are with tourism efforts. She said each county has different people involved in tourism, and different assets to assist their work.

She said she’s already helped Clay County with the launch of its new festival, while helping Carthage on a new video project.

“We know that right now people are planning events through Instagram,” White said. “People are going to social media to decide what they want to do for their summer vacations. And so we want to make sure that each of the counties are active on those platforms. And so that’s our biggest thing right now, in terms like a biggest goal for me is making sure that the counties are easily searchable and are portraying their assets online, digitally, maybe in ways that haven’t been done before.”