Region's 'Road to Recovery' paved with tourism dollars
Frank Norton Jr. speaks to the group at North Georgia College and State University Wednesday DAHLONEGA - A group of more than 100 students, faculty, and business and civic leaders from around the region gathered at North Georgia College and State University Wednesday morning to hear an update on the region's economy.
"The Road to Recovery" was presented by Frank Norton Jr., president of The Norton Agency, a regional insurance and real estate firm based in Gainesville.
Over the last decade, a growing population and healthy economy pushed the housing and construction industry into the number one industry in much of the region, Norton said. But the recession caused the growth engine to stall and brought the housing market to a near stand-still.
"Now it's paused, so tourism is second and agribusiness would be third," he said. "That pause, because of the housing and second home market and the development and the lending component and the banking component and buying refrigerators all being interrelated … all of that is now paused."
Many communities in north Georgia already are well-poised to use the tourism and hospitality industries to bring in revenue and move forward into recovery, Norton said.
"The stay vacation that we're experiencing here is the new norm. … That is coming to the mountains and leaving some of your dollars here," Norton said. "This hospitality/tourism, I believe, in this age of austerity that we're all moving toward, is going to be a strong component of what we need to be doing in north Georgia for employment."
The tourism industry would benefit from unified marketing across the mountains region as well as more destination attractions in the area, Norton said. But the region as a whole needs to address certain areas to begin moving into recovery, he said, including:
· Transportation and accessibility to jobs for potential employees
· More education for residents, including high school, technical trades and recreational education
· Quality of life issues such as environment, health care and affordable housing at multiple price points
· Government infrastructure such as roads, recreation, welcome centers, parks and trails
Norton has been presenting the Native Intelligence forecast for more than 20 years and the 2011 forecast will feature input from an undergraduate class in the university's Mike Cottrell School of Business. As part of his forecast, Norton identifies 10 trends that bear watching in the coming year. In January, one of the trends will have been researched and presented by North Georgia students and faculty. The students already have begun working on the research for that presentation
