A new agreement reached between Guilford County government and the Guilford County Tourism Development Authority means that, going forward, the county will handle a lot of logistical and accounting functions for the authority in return for about $60,000 a year.

Earlier this year, the Tourism Development Authority requested that the county take over the authority’s “general accounting functions, including financial statement preparation and presentation, budget preparation and support, accounts payable, invoice processing and support, year-end financial statement preparation, audit support, cash management for Occupancy Tax revenues received, employee payroll and Human Resources management associated with payroll for… employees.”

Recently, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted to approve the move.

The tourism authority will pay the county $57,816 annually for the service.

The authority is an important piece of Guilford County’s economic growth efforts –  since tourism plays a significant role in the area’s economy, and county leaders want it to play an even larger role in the future.

Guilford County and the cities and towns in it have been working with the authority to increase tourism – and hopefully the county’s taking over of many of the authority’s financial operations will make it easier for the authority to focus its time on bringing more visitors – with cash and charge cards in their pockets – to the county.

Downtown Greensboro arts initiatives, a big makeover of county parks and trails and the construction of new sports facilities are just some of the things local governments and their partners in the area are doing to increase tourism.