Georgia Tourism Debuts New Experts Program

Georgia state logo ATLANTA, March 3, 2015 – The Georgia Department of Economic Development's Tourism division announced the launch of its newest travel planning tool, the Georgia Explorers experts program. This innovative content-driven resource provides visitors with fresh and unique travel destinations, as well as vacation planning tips on www.ExploreGeorgia.org from five Georgia Explorers. The first group of Georgia Explorers announced cover popular travel interests including culinary, family travel, smart travel, outdoors and festivals. 'The inspirational, informative and personalized experiences that are shared by our Georgia Explorers will help visitors during every stage of the trip planning process,' said Kevin Langston, deputy commissioner of tourism for the Georgia Department of Economic Development. 'Our explorers will share their travel experiences showcasing Georgia's unique tourism destinations to visitors and locals.' The program is the first of its kind from Georgia Tourism and offers travelers first-hand insight into what to see and do across the state. The explorer's information is shared on www.ExploreGeorgia.org as well as @ExploreGeorgia social media channels. Visitors to the new section will find regular blog posts, original articles, itineraries, videos and more. The Georgia Explorers were chosen because of their in-depth knowledge of Georgia through personal travels.

  • Culinary Explorer – Kate Parham-Kordsmeier  Kate is a freelance food and travel writer for more than 100 publications, including USA Today and Travel + Leisure. After stints in Los Angeles, Italy, Dallas, and Washington, D.C., Kate returned to her hometown of Atlanta, where she also reports on wine and spirits, health and other lifestyle topics, and develops recipes for publications.
  • Family Explorer – Lesli Peterson  Lesli is the owner of 365AtlantaFamily, which offers a daily dose of inspiration for metro-area families. She is also a freelance writer for several online and print-based publications. From her home base of Atlanta, Lesli spends her time life-learning with the kids one adventure at a time, and sharing her experiences along the way.
  • Outdoor Explorer – Candy Cook Candy is the author of the blog "Happy Trails Wild Tales" and a contributor to several travel and outdoor publications. Working as a freelance writer and photographer, she has trail blazed in the company of her two sons while camping, biking, hiking, paddling and climbing all over Georgia.
  • Festival Explorer – Eileen Falkenberg-HullEileen is the editor of Occupy My Family, a comprehensive resource for family fun; Southern Beauty Blog; and Drive My Family, an online hub of family-centric vehicle news and reviews. When she's not working, Eileen enjoys planning her next travel adventure, exploring Georgia and beyond.
  • Smart Travel Explorer – Sue Rodman  Sue is editor and publisher of the award-winning family travel blog 'Field Trips with Sue,' as well as the author of '100+ Free Things to do in Atlanta.' Sue produced a regular 'Field Trips with Sue' segment on Atlanta's WGCL Channel 46 and has appeared on local and national news talking about family travel.

ExploreGeorgia.org is Georgia Tourism's primary marketing tool in distributing travel and vacation information to visitors throughout the world and receives more than 2.5 million unique views annually. Its advanced, user-friendly functionality and design incorporates inspirational content encouraging visitors to plan their next vacation in Georgia. To find out more about the Georgia Explorers and to follow along on their journey, visit www.ExploreGeorgia.org/georgia-explorers. About GDEcD The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) is the state's sales and marketing arm, the lead agency for attracting new business investment, encouraging the expansion of existing industry and small businesses, locating new markets for Georgia products, attracting tourists to Georgia, and promoting the state as a destination for arts events and location for film, music and digital entertainment projects, as well as planning and mobilizing state resources for economic development. www.georgia.org