Overton Looking To Have a New Tourism Council In February

Overton County wants to increase branding and marketing with a new tourism council scheduled to be created in February.

Overton Chamber of Commerce President Shannon Cantrell said the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development recommended creating the council to take advantage of the county’s thriving tourism assets. Cantrell said the chamber wants more voices involved in tourism decisions.

“It’s pretty much a given that there are so many people coming in from other states right now just to experience rural Tennessee, and we don’t want to get left behind,” Cantrell said. “We want to capitalize on everything that we have here in Overton County.”

She said the county has been able to secure substantial grant money in recent years, and they hope to continue to do so. The council will decide where that money will go and develop strategies to bring travelers to the parks, lakes, and towns. She said the chamber will discuss who will be appointed to the council at their board meeting. In February, they will announce the members to the Livingston Board of Alderman and Overton County Commission.

“Maybe a County Commissioner and us have a Board of Alderman in there to just kind of level the playing field so everybody has a say in what’s going on, because the more people you have involved, the more ideas you get, and the more successful you’re going to be in the long run,” Cantrell said.

Cantrell said the chamber is currently in charge of tourism. The council will bring more voices to the table from different parts of the county government to share new views on ways to highlight all that Overton County has to offer. Cantrell mentioned Standing Stone State Park, Downtown Square, and Dale Hollow Lake as tourist attractions that could be even more heavily visited with more advertisements.

“It’s always better to have more input, because maybe what we’ve been doing, maybe it’s time for us to think outside the box a little more and just think on a grander scale,” Cantrell said.

She said she expects the council to get right to work on advertisements like billboards, newspaper advertisements, and television commercials to draw tourists to the region.