Tourism Development

Tourism projects provide immediate, positive returns for residents, businesses, and governments via new jobs, increased sales, additional tax revenue and higher quality of life. Tourism has also been identified by state leaders as a strategic industry for Georgia’s economic growth. Yet Georgia risks losing ground to competing states that have established dedicated incentives for developing/sustaining tourism projects.

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce supports:

• adoption of incentives such as a partial sales tax refund on qualified tourism projects to stimulate private investment in major tourism assets, including hotels, convention/meeting facilities, and tourist attractions;
• incentives such as the income tax credit to stimulate private investment in film, television, video, animation, visual effects, music, gaming and interactive productions, projects, facilities and personnel; and
• authorization of local funding mechanisms such as a fractional penny sales tax to support museums, zoos, aquariums, gardens, parks, centers for the visual or performing arts, and other cultural institutions