NEWS

Last week, members of Visit Savannah’s senior staff gave a presentation on Savannah’s tourism industry to a class of 22 Georgia Southern University students of professor James Bigley, Ph.D, of GSU’s Recreation & Tourism Management program. Visit Savannah President Joseph Marinelli, Senior Vice President Jeff Hewitt and Vice President of Marketing & Communications Jeremy Harvey led a discussion on Visit Savannah’s role in the management of tourism in the Savannah area, including an overview of the destination as a tourism product, the economic impact of tourism, the makeup of Savannah’s visitation, the seasonality of tourism on the calendar, the development of the destination and forecast for the destination over the next several years.
Each staff member also presented an overview of his respective department and how they work within the structure of the whole, showed examples of marketing videos, and discussed tourism-related employment opportunities in Savannah.

After the presentation, the class spent the day visiting River Street, City Market, Colonial Park Cemetery, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and the official Visitor Information Center on MLK.