Susan Harris
› Job: President and chief operating officer of See Rock City on Lookout Mountain› 2018 distinction: Harris was named “Tourism Manager of the Year” for a large organization by the Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association at the Tennessee Governor’s Conference on Tourism, and See Rock City won the 12-state Southeast Tourism Society’s annual “Escape to the Southeast Travel Attraction of the Year” award. See Rock City expanded their reach this year by opening the Lookout Mountain RiverView Inn and a new Clumpies location.
Susan HarrisStarting out as a small, family-owned business with just one travel attraction atop Lookout Mountain in 1932, See Rock City has expanded to create several experiences throughout the Chattanooga area over the past 85 years with Susan Harris at the helm the past few years and for the opening of the company's first lodging experience on the mountain this past summer.
Seeing record-breaking attendance in 2017, Harris has helped grow the experiences that See Rock City creates for its guests since taking over as chief operating officer in 2013 and then president in 2016. Clumpies has grown to two more locations and a new production facility since Rock City bought the Chattanooga-based ice cream maker in 2013. They opened a new location in downtown Chattanooga's Southside earlier this year.
"Our business is about people," Harris says. "We know that if we focus on the right things and prioritize people then our business success will be really gratifying and that gives us a chance to continue to grow and spread that message."
When Rock City bought the former Sky Harbor Court on Lookout Mountain, the new owners changed the name to the Lookout Mountain RiverView Inn and unveiled 10 upgraded rooms, a pool, skybox and other amenities this past summer.
Currently, See Rock City has about 300 "partners," or employees, and the privately-held business saw record-breaking attendance numbers and double-digit growth in both 2016 and 2017, Harris says.
Harris also earned the "Tourism Manager of the Year" award from the Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association this year and said it was nice to receive that "validation" of the great work done by the See Rock City team. A human resource manager before taking over as COO and president, Harris said the attraction's "winning formula" is their team culture.
"Certainly it is billed as an individual reward, but it is very much a team reward because our organization has to have all of our great partners doing all the stuff that they do in order to get that kind of recognition," Harris says. "My job is to support our team members to deliver on their mission and values."