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Covington earns feature spot in 2025 State Travel Guide
Laura Sullivan
On Jan. 13, Laura Sullivan, the city of Covington’s tourism coordinator, was invited to the Capitol to represent Covington in a special unveiling presentation of the 2025 Georgia State Travel Guide. Pictured left to right: Mark Jaronski (Chief Marketing Officer, Georgia Department of Economic Development), First Lady Marty Kemp, Governor Brian Kemp, Laura Sullivan (Discover Covington Tourism Coordinator), Pat Wilson (Commissioner, Georgia Department of Economic Development), Jay Markwalter (Statewide Tourism Director, Georgia Department of Economic Development)

After a year of record tourism, the city of Covington was selected to be the cover of the small towns section of the 2025 Georgia State Travel Guide.

Each year, the governor receives the first copy of the State Travel Guide. On Jan. 13, Laura Sullivan, the city of Covington’s tourism coordinator, was invited to the Capitol to represent Covington in a special unveiling presentation of the guide. 

“It's such an honor that they chose us [Covington] to be one of their covers because they could pick any of the small towns in the state and they chose Covington because of all of the cool things that we have going on,” Sullivan said.

Explore Georgia is the tourism division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. It oversees tourism throughout the state and releases an official state travel guide every year. 

The guide highlights four locations in Georgia—one city, one small town, one mountain destination and one beach destination. Each year’s chosen locations are on the inside cover page of their respective sections.

Sullivan got to see all the cover art on display as the governor’s office recognized tourism efforts across the state. She also got to take photos with the artwork and Governor Brian Kemp.

“When we took our picture together, he [Kemp] said ‘If I can only tell you about how many times I've walked around the square’ and that just felt so cool to hear—the governor of the state knowing personally our city,” Sullivan said. “That's just incredible.”

The 2025 guide features a picture of Covington’s iconic clock tower as the small town attraction alongside Columbus, Toccoa Falls and Sapelo Island.

“When people open the guide to find a charming small town to visit, our great city will be the first picture they’ll see!” said Allen Martin, downtown coordinator for the city of Covington, on Facebook.

In the coming week, free copies of the guide will be available for pickup in Covington’s Visitor Center, and they will soon be distributed to every visitor center in the state of Georgia.

In 2024, Discover Covington, the city’s tourism spearhead, recorded 132,422 guests passing through Covington’s Visitor Center. This is a 12 percent increase from 2023. Visitors came from all 50 U.S. states as well as from 76 international countries.

The city estimates that 75 percent of tourism is because of its film scene. Primarily, people are drawn in by the popular television series “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “The Vampire Diaries.” 

“The Discover Covington board works really hard to bring people from all over the world to come to Covington, and I think that just in the past couple of years we've seen a lot of film tourism,” Sullivan said. “They tend to use multiple addresses that are very close together that people can see a lot while they're here, and I just think that the film industry and film tourism is what really keeps folks coming back.”

The city’s entertainment hub may have drawn people in, but Covington’s tourism team has put in the hours to ensure that visitors want to stay. As a Covington native herself, Sullivan knows the city is worth the visit.

“I am so proud to be able to live in my hometown and work in my hometown and be a part of the journey to get such a recognition from the state tourism office,” Sullivan said. “I'm just so proud of the work that we do and to see it on this really big stage it's kind of surreal.”

Social Circle Opt Out Notice
sc notice

The Mayor and Council of Social Circle intends to opt out of the statewide adjusted base year ad valorem homestead exemption for the City of Social Circle. All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearing on this matter to be held at 138 E Hightower Trail, Social Circle, GA 30025 (Community Room) on Thursday, February 6, 2025, at 11:00AM. Times and places of additional public hearings on this matter are at 138 E Hightower Trail, Social Circle, GA 30025 (Community Room) on Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 6:30PM and Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at 6:30PM.