By Delaney Tarr, Managing Editor
To Ashley Woitena, President and CEO of Visit Columbus GA, her city has plenty of special things to offer. But there’s one thing Columbus can’t train or change: warmth.
Almost a year into the job, and almost 19 years at the organization, Woitena has come to know the energy and culture of Columbus. She credits the culture and “warmth” for the tourism success in Georgia’s second-largest city.
As part of a Q&A series with Georgia industry leaders and innovators, Georgia Insider sat down with Woitena to talk about the local tourism industry, citywide offerings and long term successes of her destination marketing organization.
The following responses have been edited for length and clarity.
GI: Tell me a little bit about the major tourism lanes and landscape of Columbus, GA.
AW: Columbus is an amazing city. It has so many different lanes and avenues that make up who we are as a destination, which makes the work super exciting. It’s never a boring day here.
We focus heavily on our meetings and convention space. We host a lot of meetings and conventions throughout the year with our great partnerships that we have here. We partner heavily with our Sports Council and we do a lot of sports tourism here as well.
Beyond that, we focus heavily on a couple key pillars. One of those key ones for us is outdoor adventure. We’re home to the longest urban whitewater rafting course in the world. We also have the dual zipline that crosses between two states. There’s so much to offer right here in Georgia with the whitewater, but not only that – the flatwater offers paddling, paddleboarding and kayaking. We’re also a great destination for mountain biking, gravel riding, walking and scenic bike riding as well.
We also have a strong arts and culture scene. We have so many great assets and amenities when you think of arts and culture: The Springer Opera House, the River Center for Performing Arts, our National Infantry Museum (which was USA today’s top free museum) and our Columbus Museum, the second largest art museum in Georgia. Coupled with that, we have the National Civil War Naval Museum and the Ma Rainey Home – the list goes on and on.
For Columbus, there’s not one thing that defines us. There’s so many options depending on what a visitor, or a local wants, to “choose your adventure,” with so many different lanes and different ways to come to Columbus and have a great experience.
GI: There’s something I’m curious about. How do you create a cohesive marketing campaign when there are so many different lanes and things Columbus has to offer?
AW: You hire well, you hire the right people, and retain them, and that’s what I have: An amazing team here in marketing, sales, film, visitors services and admin.
How do you have a cohesive marketing campaign when there’s so many different entry points to the destination? We focus on our brand pillars. Whether someone is an adventure seeker or a foodie, we have defined lines that guide how we tell our story. We also rely on partnerships and collaboration.
We’re really heavy on pushing out a true identity for Columbus. We always like to say on our website or social media that we’re the ‘front porch’ to the city. That’s how we welcome you in, and we want to make sure we deliver on that promise when you get here.
GI: Very nice. Can you tell me about who some of your frequent partners are?
AW: We rely heavily on partnerships. When you think about a destination marketing organization, we’re selling an experience. Nothing we offer is tangible on its own. Look at it from the lens of any kind of event we have to have. Our hotels are a key component of that, our attractions, facilities and venues are key partners. We all have to be aligned on what we’re doing, and what we’re going after.
One of the best parts of Columbus is our partnerships, because we all understand we want the same thing. We all love our community and want it to grow, and we recognize that getting visitors here is one of the most valuable ways to support that.
GI: When did you come to Visit Columbus?
AW: Next month will be one year as CEO here at Visit Columbus. It felt like it went by in a flash, but I actually worked with Visit Columbus for 18 years. I worked my way up.
I have seen the community grow, I’ve seen the organization grow. After a nationwide search, I was fortunate to be selected as the new CEO here. So it’s been an amazing opportunity. It’s something that I love, to get to tell the story every day and work with our team here and our partners to elevate Columbus to the next level.
GI: In those almost two decades here, how has the tourism landscape, and Columbus itself changed and grown from back then?
AW: I’ve watched Columbus grow. It’s one of those destinations where our hope is simple: People come here and fall in love. They fall in love with the community, they really get that our community is welcoming and warm.
The tourism landscape has changed so much over my time here – from all the new hotel infrastructure that’s come online in the past couple years, our entire transformation of Uptown Columbus. The energy today is entirely different from what it was nearly two decades ago.
A lot of things took place that made that happen. One of the biggest was Columbus State University moving key programs downtown and opening the RiverPark Campus (dedicated to theater, music, arts, communications and nursing.) That shift brought students, creativity and daily activity into the heart of the city.
GI: I want to lean a little bit more into this idea of warmth. Specifically, how do you collaborate with all these partners to deliver that warmth, with hospitality companies and businesses?
AW: That warmth isn’t something you can train. It’s an energy and a culture that’s in Columbus. We’re a very positive organization, but you still have to have partners that have the same buy in. So we can be as friendly and welcoming as we want, but it has to go down the line.
So it’s every single person, whether you’re at a hotel and it’s your front desk, staff, bellhop, managers, they have to have that too. It’s an interesting thing in Columbus, that no matter where you go you begin to experience it. It’s just a culture that we have here, not something you can train or teach. It’s just natural.
GI: Now, you said the tourism industry has changed a lot. How do you measure that success and that growth?
AW: There’s so many ways to measure success for a community. For us, there’s a number of factors. We look at our tourism volume, so the first thing you look at is how many people came to visit and how much money they spent.
For Columbus, thinking about fiscal year 2025, we welcomed 3.1 million visitors to our community. Those visitors spend $650 million in our community, so we’re up year over year. That’s a key measurement of success that we’re doing well.
We focus on our demand, and we were up this past year in demand. Are we doing our job to bring increased awareness and demand to our hotels? From there, there’s a lot of little nuances we look at, like occupancy rates, average daily rates for hotels, performance metrics from the sales side.
We have key performance indicators on our marketing side, and then it’s just the natural things you can’t measure besides the surveys, and the overall experience. Did they come back? Did they come to see a performance and return because they wanted to do more in Columbus?
It’s a lot of data, a lot of analytics, but the momentum is clear and so far it’s positive.
GI: What has been a major takeaway you’ve had in your many years at Visit Columbus?
AW: We are experts in certain areas, but we can’t do what we do without partnerships. We can bring people here all day, we can do everything we can possibly do, but we have to allow our partners to help deliver that full brand experience.
So, we have to give our partners data and do whatever we can to help them. So, it’s a matter of being a good partner, being a reliable resource and being that voice out in the community.
GI: What’s a key piece of advice you might have for another destination marketing organization trying to replicate these numbers, this success?
AW: I always tell our hotels and other attractions, I represent everybody. I represent all of our visitors. So I’m constantly asking: What do they need? Because anything that’s good for visitors is good for residents. Whether that’s more parks, better roads, stronger transportation options, all those matter to a visitor. But they also carry right over to what a resident wants.
It’s really key to be that voice in a room that represents people who may not be there, while still learning from our attractions, hotels and venues. What are their pain points? What are opportunities where me and my team can help alleviate some of that?
The key thing is listening. The key thing is being there and being visible. Really, it all goes back to communication and listening and being a partner to people.
GI: What is the biggest area of growth for Columbus, or an opportunity you might hope to seize?
AW: There’s so many opportunities for growth here, and that is a great thing about Columbus, that we’re a growing destination. We’re a growing community. I think about, what are some needs that we have?
We’re constantly looking at how we can grow ourselves as a meeting destination. Do we have the right infrastructure? Do we need more, or better alignment for conference space and hotels? Do we have the right transportation options in place? These are important questions we continue to explore.
We also talk about placemaking, and thinking about things that make sense for Columbus and leaning into what is authentic to our community.
I don’t have a magic wand to create everything we want overnight, our focus is being that overall destination. That means continuing to grow our convention market, elevating our outdoor assets to the next level and supporting our locals by ensuring they have a voice in sharing this place. It also means making sure the state is aware of the momentum happening in Columbus.
GI: Now, I’ve got to ask. If you were a tourist in Columbus today, what would be the first thing you do?
AW: When I travel, I like to find a good coffee shop. We’re lucky to have so many here, Fountain City Coffee, Iron Bank Coffee Co. and Brick and Mortar Cafe just to name a few.
Once I have my coffee in hand, I like to walk and explore. I’m very much a ‘get out and go’ kind of person. I would head straight to the river. There’s something special about it, the natural beauty, the energy, the healing power of being near the water. It’s one of the best ways to take in our community.
For me, it’s simple: Take in the river, take in the community. Those are things I would always do first, no matter where I go. Coffee and exploring.
Delaney Tarr is a Florida native-turned-Georgia lover with years of experience covering the ins and outs of Atlanta. She specializes in untold stories, eclectic profiles and hard-hitting news.
