UPDATED – At their end-of-fiscal-year June meeting, Tourism Development Authority (TDA) members received a FY-25 marketing report. Morgan Stewart with Stewart Communications provided highlights on the year that included the new marketing website, ExperienceFranklinNC.com, that currently boasts 32,000 active users. With more than 2,000 images embedded, it focuses on local attractions and community events for advertising Franklin tourism.
Compared with the former website that was in place for 12 years, engagement with the new one is up 83%. Thanks in part to the new marketing approach, December 2024 through April 2025 netted $61,221 in occupancy fees (lodging and hotel taxes). Both January and March saw their highest monthly totals on record.
The July 13 TDA meeting was Tim Crabtree’s first opportunity to chair the group after being selected in June. Crabtree replaces Connie Grubermann, who stepped down after eight years in the position.
At the meeting, the TDA unanimously approved $5,000 for the Macon County Farmers Market. The market is in its second year, runs from May through November, and is now situated in the Town Hall parking lot area.
“I would say moving [the market] to Town Hall has not lessened the number of attendees,” said Town Manager Amie Owens. “In fact, I think it has done a little bit better down here because they have got more room to spread out on both [parking lot] levels. I’ve heard nothing but good things.”
Funding for the 5th annual Come Together Recovery Festival was also approved for the amount of $1,000. The multi-purpose event is considered a “mental-health reset day for anyone struggling with addiction recovery and healing,” according to festival organizer Mary Guercio. The event is always held the last Friday in September, which this year is Sept. 26, in downtown Franklin.
Guercio is the outreach coordinator for All Saints Episcopal Church and the owner of Tribal Vibe Promotions, which oversees small events for different causes.
“We are hosting more local agencies – we’ll be working with both Mobilized Recovery, which is nationwide, and WNCW, [which is] Spindale, N.C.’s Isothermal Community College radio station. One of our artists who performs each year is Marshall Ballew and he is also one of their radio disc jockeys.”
Pictured top: TIM CRABTREE (center) oversees his first Tourism Development Authority meeting since being selected chairman last month.
Correction: The original printed version of this story quoted a statistic from Stewart Communications regarding the increased ExperienceFranklinNC.com website engagement. The reported 312% reflected a miscalculation in the original marketing report. The correct percentage is 83%. We regret the error.