|
Georgia’s Newly Designated “Hospitality Highway” Offers Travelers Everything from Trinkets to Treasures to Truly Wondrous Topography
Mile for mile, Georgia 400 from Sandy Springs to Dahlonega offers the best of scenery, shopping, attractions, historic sites, and much more
For Immediate Release – July 2007 From Sandy Springs in North Fulton County to the mountain town of Dahlonega in North Georgia’s Lumpkin County, Georgia 400, one of the state’s best known and well-traveled highways, offers a virtual showcase of towns brimming with restaurants, shops, boutiques, lodging from bed-and-breakfast inns to sparkling hotel resorts, historical sites, scads of events and festivals, and perhaps best of all, incredible scenery found nowhere else in the South. Recently designated as Georgia’s “Hospitality Highway” by the state legislature, in part because of the incredible array of activities to see and do, Georgia 400 is all about welcoming visitors with genuine warmth and southern hospitality along this incredible stretch of road. For more information and to download the Hospitality Highway’s aptly-described brochures entitled “From Metro to Mountains: Magnolias … Moonshine … Merlot” and “Where Mother Nature is at Home,” visit www.hospitalityhighway.com .
The Hospitality Highway is a cooperative marketing program consisting of the Alpharetta Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Roswell Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Cumming/Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce, the Dawsonville Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Dahlonega Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Sandy Springs Hospitality & Tourism, and is funded by grants from the Georgia Department of Economic Development/Tourism Foundation. The Hospitality Highway is not only simply a great, relaxing drive for an afternoon or even for a few days to explore in its entirety, but it’s also a tool for drawing visitors off the significantly less scenic and far more congested north/south arteries of Interstates 75 and 85.
“I think the Hospitality Highway is just the grandest idea,” says Mary Ann Anderson, an internationally syndicated travel writer with McClatchy-Tribune Information Services and more locally with Georgia Backroads Magazine. “Every time I visit the mountains or anywhere north of Atlanta, for that matter, I take Georgia 400. Without fail, I’m always amazed at tourism opportunities that are available within a short drive of one another. This is truly where Georgia’s hospitality industry begins.”
Each community along the Hospitality Highway has been afforded eye-catching and attention-getting signs that display the quite appropriate Georgia peach logo for the state’s most famous crop, as well as the wording “A Hospitality Highway Community.” And the best part is that these towns offer something wonderful and unique for the leisure tourist and the intrepid traveler. If visitors begin their journey along Georgia 400 in Sandy Springs, for example, they’ll find the heartbeat of the city is the mighty Chattahoochee River that brings plenty of outdoors opportunities. Dahlonega, at the other end of the Hospitality Highway, offers all the wonders of a mountain town, including Appalachian music, arts and crafts, haunting beauty, and even chances to pan for gold. The spectacular North Georgia Premium Outlet Mall is located in Dawsonville, while Roswell has history and charm galore. Alpharetta is chockfull of parks and green space (and plenty of shopping, too!), while Lake Lanier in Cumming/Forsyth County awaits boaters, swimmers, and anglers of all ages.
During the past several years, several states officially and unofficially adopted their own “hospitality highways,” – Highway 90 along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast is but one illustration – but Georgia, already resplendent with fittingly-named roads like the Golden Isles Highway, the Wine Highway, and the Wiregrass Trail, hadn’t yet made such a designation. Georgia 400, with its exceptionally varied and almost infinite amenities, seemed the perfect choice. Originally initiated as a partnership between the Georgia 400 communities of Alpharetta and Roswell, the idea gained in popularity to include most of the towns along Georgia 400. With marketing support from Georgia’s Tourism Foundation and the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the Hospitality Highway has been an incredible success. Indeed, every single state lawmaker from the area strongly supported the plan and easily passed legislation recognizing Georgia 400 as the newly christened “Hospitality Highway.”
Future marketing efforts for the Hospitality Highway may include an arts trail, history tours, and more focus on outdoor activities. More information will be added to www.hospitalityhighway.com as it becomes available.
Georgia’s Hospitality Highway, a stretch of Georgia 400, that meanders from Fulton County to Lumpkin County and includes the communities of Alpharetta, Roswell, Cumming, Dawsonville, Dahlonega, and Sandy Springs, contains a fusion of restaurants, shopping, historic sites, outdoor activities, and much more, all amidst some of the most dazzling scenery in all of the state. For more information, including links to additional websites and photography, visit www.hospitalityhighway.com .
END
Media Contact:
Dotty Etris
Historic Roswell CVB
Info@cvb.roswell.ga.us
Local: 770-640-3253; Toll-Free: 800-776-7935
|
