White County highlighted for significant growth in tourism

County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson has just shared a large milestone for White County.

Representatives from a small group of counties, with significant growth in tourism, gathered at a recent conference. White County was among those counties. Executive Robinson sees the achievement as a huge development for one of the county’s biggest growing economics.

Governor’s Conference on Tourism 2025 was a chance for local government and state tourism industry representatives to see the tangible growth and development in Tennessee for tourism. During the event, counties with more than a 10% growth rate were highlighted as gaining tremendous strides in tourism. Sitting on that list was White County, at 11%. The year of 2024 had $14,531,340 spent from tourists, and this equated out to $118 saved on property taxes per household.

Another objective of the conference was showing how tourism dollars can affect the community.

“Folks come down here and spend their money on restaurants, or they come here hiking or canoeing,” Robinson said. “That money goes into the county. But then they leave. We don’t have to put their kids through school, they aren’t having to use the police- most of the time. Sometimes they do, but as a rule we assume they won’t. They don’t cost the county money like a normal resident will do. When they’re done spending, they can go back home.”

The 11% growth for White County came from numbers in 2024, so Robinson also expects there to be even more growth next year.

“We’re heading in the right direction and pushing forward, especially with the new park and the Parks and Rec director we’re looking at,” he said.

Robinson did, however, want to clarify some of the nuance to these numbers.

“They are averages,” he said. “Not exact numbers, but it gives you a good idea of how tourism affects the economy.”

For example, the 11% growth represents the entire county. The entire county, including City of Sparta, Doyle, and more, were all included in this figure. As a result, the $118 saved on property taxes per household would not be the same for each resident. Someone living in the city would see a bigger impact because the area they live in gets more tourism attention. The averages and numbers are meant to give more of a general concept of how the county is doing. There are not exact figures for the city, or for the county outside of the city. It was a comprehensive study.

The study did show that food and beverages were the largest impact on tourism growth in the county, which would include the restaurants and breweries across White County.

Robinson was still extremely proud of the strides that these numbers represented. From 2018, the county has seen a 43% increase overall, and he believes those numbers will only continue to grow as the county invests more in the benefits of tourism.