Blogs › Innovate Anderson

Catch & Release, now come back!!

Posted February 27, 2008

The fishing world’s spotlight illuminated Anderson County and Lake Hartwell during the 2008 Bassmaster Classic, February 22-24.

The $1.2 million purse the 50 professional anglers competed for was big. Even more impressive was the money spent by the tens of thousands of fans who traveled to our area. An economic impact study on the 2006 Bassmaster Classic in Orlando showed visitors spent $23,459,000.

One Anderson County hotel was sold out five consecutive nights due to the tournament, the first time in the hotel’s history that’s happened. Seven of the anglers, including the eventual champion, stayed at an Anderson County campground, which was also sold out. Another campground hosted Bass clubs from Ohio and Georgia and ran out of space to park their bass boats.

Those who came to our county will be much more likely to make return visits. As with all other businesses, in tourism, it’s easier to sell a repeat customer and this event generated thousands of them.

The long-term payoff will be even bigger. The 13 ½ hours of ESPN TV coverage was a commercial for Lake Hartwell, Anderson County and the Upstate. The graphics on TV frequently read “Lake Hartwell, Anderson, South Carolina.” Millions of viewers were exposed to our great lake and area. The pictures they saw will lead more than a few of them to plan vacations to our destination. Simply put, we could not afford to buy exposure like this. The exposure didn’t end with TV. Dozens of newspaper and magazine writers covered the event and wrote about it for their readers. Plus, Internet sites spread the word throughout the cyber-world.

Already, our county is benefiting from the event. Here at the Anderson Convention & Visitors Bureau, we’re using the Bassmaster Classic spotlight to reach out to other fishing tournaments. This June, we’ll host 200-300 anglers competing in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Weekend Series. We’re currently talking with several other tournaments about 2009 and 2010 events in Anderson County.

This event was like a late Christmas present for Anderson County’s tourism industry, an industry that’s a lot bigger than most people think. Ask local residents about tourism hot spots in the Palmetto state and their first answer is the beach. Yet, tourism spending in Anderson County is the 11th highest among our state’s 46 counties. A study by the Travel Industry Association showed in 2006 visitors spent $125.2 million in our county, an 11% increase from 2005. It also showed tourism here generated 1,300 jobs with a $20 million annual payroll. State and local tax receipts from tourism in Anderson County totaled $11.1 million in ’06.

By Glenn Brill, Executive Director, Anderson Convention & Visitors Bureau