FLORENCE– Longtime tourism public relations professional Georgia Carter Turner has joined the Florence/Lauderdale Tourism staff
Georgia Carter
as Communications Manager. She will work with local, state, regional and international media to promote Florence and the entire Shoals area’s tourism product.
“We’re thrilled to have Georgia back in Florence,” said Debbie Wilson, Executive Director of Florence/Lauderdale Tourism. “Her experience in tourism public relations, marketing and administration will be a huge asset to our office.”
Debbie Wilson
Turner has worked in the tourism industry since 1985. She started her tourism career as the marketing representative for the Alabama Mountain Lakes Association, the regional tourism organization for the 16 northernmost counties in the state.
She moved to Daytona Beach, Florida in 1988 where she worked with four busy oceanfront hotels and at the Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau as their public relations director, promoting events such as Bike Week, Biketoberfest and the Daytona 500.
Alabama called her back to be the Executive Director of the Alabama Mountain Lakes Association from 1994-2000. From 2000-2010 she owned her own tourism public relations agency, Georgia Turner Group. The company’s specialty was media tours throughout the Southeast, including the Shoals Area. In late 2010 she rejoined the Daytona Beach Area CVB – this time as their Director of Specialized Markets, where her focus was tourism events, the Film Office and the arts, culture and heritage segment of the industry.
For the past two years she has served as the Vice President of Tourism Development for the Flagler County (Florida) Chamber of Commerce. In that role, she worked closely with the tourism community to reposition the county’s tourism efforts under the new brand of Palm Coast & the Flagler Beaches.
A native of Sheffield, Alabama, Turner received her degree in journalism from Auburn University and spent her early career as a newspaper reporter at the TimesDaily in Florence as well as an assistant editor for an airline magazine in Atlanta.
Named Tourism Professional of the Year in Alabama in 2000, she is an Associate member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and has served as both Secretary and Chair of the Southeast Tourism Society (STS). She was also an instructor at the STS Marketing College for many years.
