NEW PARTNERS & What's Next
We are thrilled to welcome you as an Association Partner of the South Central Tennessee Tourism Association. Our mission is to strengthen the tourism industry and drive quality visitation to your community and your organization. Below you will find the next steps to activate your partnership. Along the way, we will continue to share helpful tips to ensure you receive the greatest possible value from your investment.
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Strong partnerships are built on collaboration and shared commitment. We are excited to fully support you and deliver on our promises.
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To get started, here is my first tip. Use the monthly Tourism Ready newsletter as your built-in reminder. We all get busy, but this newsletter provides a simple and effective way to reset each month and make sure you are maximizing your benefits. Submit that blog topic, review the media pitches currently in development, and stay informed about what Experience Tennessee and your local DMO are working on.
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We are excited to partner with you and look forward to the impact we will make together.
Step 1: Fill out the Business Information Form
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Please complete the Business Information Form. This information will be used to build your Experience Tennessee profile, your TNVacation.com listing card, and your placement on the Tennessee River Valley Geotourism website in partnership with National Geographic.
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We will also use these details to create “Experience Tennessee Business Briefs” for distribution to state, regional, and local welcome centers. These briefs help travel advisors confidently share accurate information about your business and recommend it to visitors with authority.
Step 2: Sign up for the Tourism Ready Industry Newsletter​
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Sign up for the monthly Tourism Ready Newsletter. We will automatically add you using the information from your Business Information Form, but we also encourage you to sign up your employees and management team. We welcome you to share the sign-up opportunity with other businesses in your area as well.
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This monthly newsletter delivers valuable industry data, practical tips, and important tourism news. It also serves as a helpful monthly reminder to stay engaged and take full advantage of your partnership benefits. This is also the first place you will learn about upcoming networking events and workshops.
Step 3: Equip Your Business and Team for Success​
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Businesses provide staff with the Tourism Ready Community Rack Card and display the Experience Tennessee Virtual Brochure Rack Poster on-site. These tools help staff confidently answer common visitor questions—where to go, what to do, where to eat, stay, and find information—while keeping recommendations local. The virtual brochure poster offers scannable access to Experience Tennessee’s digital guides, giving staff enhanced resources to better serve guests.
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Our Visitor Experience team will be in the area to bring these materials to your business in the coming weeks. Go ahead and make plans for installation. Once we have scheduled a date,, we will send out a note to everyone so they know what day to expect us.
Step 4: Submit your first Blog for ExperienceTN.com​
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Submit your first blog. This is one of the most exciting parts of our partnership, and we are always glad to feature content from our partners. Partner blogs are published directly on ExperienceTN.com and may also be shared through regional and local social media channels.
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These blogs are also valuable tools when we are researching and developing media pitches, as they help us better understand what makes your business and community unique.
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Please keep in mind that your submission does not need to be perfect. That is exactly why we are here. Simply provide the basic concept and the key information you want to share, and our team will craft a polished, visitor-focused blog from your content.
Step 5: Explore our Websites and Socials​
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As a partner, one of the best things you can do is stay connected with what we are doing across our platforms. We encourage you to explore our key links, and we have compiled them all in one place so you can review them easily.
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SCTTA.org and the South Central Tennessee Tourism Association provides a behind-the-scenes look at our work from an industry standpoint. This is where we develop strategy, share updates, and collaborate with local businesses, our DMO partners, and state and local governments to support and strengthen the hospitality and tourism industry across the region.
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Experience Tennessee is our primary forward-facing brand. This platform represents the entire South Central Tennessee region and showcases our campaigns, programming, and visitor-focused marketing in action.
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The Tennessee Whiskey Trailhead and Welcome Center is our regional welcome center located on the campus of the Jack Daniel Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Each year, we welcome more than 200,000 guests and help them navigate what to do next and where to go throughout the region. This is also where we distribute the After Jack program, which provides route-specific recommendations for visitors traveling toward Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga, and North Alabama.
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Nashville’s Big Back Yard is a movement focused on reconnecting people with the land, and it has grown into a powerful tourism and placemaking initiative. Through this program, we celebrate small communities of fewer than 5,000 residents, many of which are located along the backbone of the region, the Natchez Trace Parkway.
You're all set for now, but a follow up will follow​
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Once you have completed Steps 1 through 5, you are all set for now.
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Our Director of Operations, Amanda McGowan, will follow up with you soon. She will finalize your enhanced listings on ExperienceTN.com, TNVacation.com, and the Tennessee River Valley Geotourism website. Amanda will also ensure that your business is properly set up in our system and that your information is shared with our Visitor Experience Team and our Experience Tennessee Ambassadors, Hey Y’all.
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If you have any questions at any time, please feel free to reach out to Amanda directly at Amanda@ExperienceTN.com. We are excited to get everything in place and officially launch your partnership.