Tourism, Sports Marketing settling in at new Auburndale facility

16 May 2010 2067 | World Travel News

The staff of Polk County Tourism and Sports Marketing are settling into their brand-new home and taking their promotional efforts to the next level.

Leaving behind shared space in a bank building in Bartow, Tourism and Sports Marketing moved on March 12 into its own building at 2701 Lake Myrtle Park Road at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale.

The building is two stories tall and has 16,500 square feet of space.

The mission of Tourism and Sports Marketing is to attract tourists and sporting events to Polk County as a means to diversify the county's economy, generate new business revenue and boost sales and tourism tax receipts.

According to Marc Zimmerman, the sales and events manager for the agency, the staff is meeting with considerable success, despite the challenging economy. For example, he said, the 18-month-old Lake Myrtle Sports Complex is booked with 85 to 90 percent event capacity - from soccer to baseball to lacrosse - for the rest of the year.

With a new park and recreational fields going up in the Four Corners area of the county and unannounced plans in the works for Lakeland and Haines City, Tourism and Sports Marketing officials are encouraged about future possibilities.

"We are a money maker for the county, which is what our job is," said Hank Longo, the visitor services manager at Outpost 27, the county's visitor center on U.S. Highway 27, near Interstate 4. "Bringing in all these events here is a plus for the county, and the economic impact is huge during some of the tough economic issues we've had to deal with."

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