Hotels in Dalton had a bumper July, and Whitfield tourism officials said the 20 percent increase in bookings was directly related to marketing aimed at getting more people in Dalton on weekends.
In August, when there were not as many weekend events, hotel bookings slumped.
"August was a little slower than July," said Harvey Neal, general manager of LaQuinta Inn on College Drive. "Speaking for our numbers alone, August was just slightly up from the year before, but we didn't have as many weekend events going on."
Neal said that's proof that the weekend events are bringing in guests, and he said September will begin a busy fall season packed with events, tourists and a rush of cash.
In July, the NorthWest Georgia Trade and Convention Center hosted three weekends of Jehovah's Witness groups as well as weekends with major softball and baseball tournaments. Softball groups will return in September for weekend tournaments, and every weekend from then on looks to be pretty busy, Neal said.
The events also pump a lot of revenue into the economy outside of hotels. The July sporting events translated to about $1.8 million being spent on food and other purchases, according to the Dalton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Over the last year, Dalton leaders have been selling the community as a destination for small conventions and sporting events. Having the facilities for those events is important, said Brett Huske, director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
In addition to the trade center, the county over the last two years has built new baseball, softball and soccer complexes, and another sports park should break ground soon.
"You need to have those resources and then do a job of letting people - the appropriate people - know that those exist and get them here," Huske said.
County and city leaders recently approved a 1-cent hotel tax that will pay for the Convention and Visitors Bureau to expand its marketing efforts.
"[The tax increase] is going to give us the ability to get out and promote ourselves and be more visible in a lot of new areas," Huske said.
Part of the lure, Huske says, is that Dalton is close to Interstate 75 and other population centers such as Chattanooga, Birmingham and Atlanta.
Hotel rates also are more affordable, he said, and the hotels are eager to have the weekend business. So much so that when a wrestling group scheduled for a January competition couldn't afford the trade center convention hall rental fee, hotels agreed to pitch in on the costs so they could book the guests, Huske said.
"We went to the hotels and asked if they would be willing to give part of their room charges to offset the trade center fee," he said. "We told them, 'Even if you take that money off a room that you wouldn't have had, aren't you better off in January than [having empty rooms] those nights?' And the hotels agreed."
The efforts also are helping keep workers employed, Neal said.
"Over 500 people work in the hotel industry in Dalton," he said. "Some of those are lower-end jobs, but the basic hotel job is not a bad-paying job ... and they've had some pretty good paychecks lately. And that's what you like to see."