The city is seeking to add another trolley, and the ice rink will return in November.
♦ Smith is seeking to add another trolley, and the ice rink will return in November.
The economic impact of tourism on Rome and Floyd County was illustrated in several ways at the Office of Tourism board session on Wednesday.
Communications Director Kristi Kent said state numbers for 2017, which include ripple effect multipliers, totaled $158.85 million, up 5.96 percent from the previous year.
Kathy Mathis’ end-of-year report for 2018 showed a direct impact of $19.05 million, which does not take into account multipliers.
If the revenue tourism generated in Floyd County was taken away, residents would have to pay $311 more in property taxes each year to make up the loss.
Ann Hortman, director of the Rome Sports Commission, put it another way, explaining tourists contributed close to $30,000 a day in additional tax money to the state and local economies.
The 2018 data offered by Mathis was up about 6.9 percent over 2017. Special events accounted for more than $7.3 million in revenue, tennisrelated events contributed another $4.8 million, other sports tourism produced another $3.7 million while meetings and conventions added another $1.7 million.
Georgia’s Rome Office of Tourism Executive Director Lisa Smith briefed the board on plans to bring another trolley to Rome in lieu of another golf cart for the Roman Chariot program. Smith said city mechanics would be going to Baltimore to look over a 2015 model trolley with just 12,000 miles on it.
If the vehicle checks out and a sale price can be negotiated, Smith said she hopes to have it in Rome by spring.
“There is a need in the mar- ket that isn’t being served,” Smith said. “We feel like this is a great opportunity to add to our tourism assets a thing that is missing.”
Smith said the trolley would be available for rentals and could be used in the Roman Chariot downtown transportation program on particularly busy weekends.
Smith said the existing trolley is old and virtually impossible to get replacement parts for.
Thomas Kislat, an employee who is shared between the tourism office and Forum River Center, said the ice rink at the Forum brought in more than 17,000 skaters over a 50-day run. His conservative advance estimate for use of the rink was 6,000 skaters and his optimistic projection was for 10,000.
Board member Harry Brock said that could be the largest utilization of the Forum for any event since the facility was constructed.
Kislat said he’s already planning to add 10 days to the rink schedule for November 2019 into January of 2020, and that the annual Three Rivers Bull Riding Invitational would be moved to later in January to allow for skating throughout the entire Christmas break for schools.
He told the tourism board that he’s also looking at the feasibility of bringing in a slightly larger rink with a different layout.