Tourism brings millions of dollars to city of Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Arts in the Heart of Augusta just wrapped up.

Last year, Destination Augusta said the event brought in more than $3 million in tourism dollars. With more big events coming up, like Iron Man next weekend, we checked in to see how much the city of Augusta will benefit this year.

Since June, Destination Augusta says they’re estimating an economic impact of more than $19 million for the Garden City. This includes Augusta Pride, summer expos, and Peach Jam.

The foot traffic brought in is more than 143,000, with about 100,000 of that being from Arts in the Heart over the weekend.

We caught up with the owner of Psychotronic Records who says his wife was a jewelry vendor this year.

“A lot of people were here from out of town, and there were a few times I had to ask people to leave because it’s a small store and there were too many in here. I had a sign-up for a while, ‘No more than 10 people at a time.’ But that’s a welcome problem,” said Michael Weldon.

Destination Augusta says that September estimates show the Greater Augusta Arts Council brought more than $1.5 million from this past weekend.

Augusta’s next big event to hit downtown will be the Ironman on Sept. 30.

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