Tourism Initiative Promoting Southern Fairfax County Announced

MOUNT VERNON, VA — On the banks of George Washington's unobstructed view of the Potomac River, a new tourism initiative called Potomac Banks was announced for southern Fairfax County Wednesday.

Potomac Banks is Fairfax County's first joint destination-focused tourism strategy. The branding will create a collective tourism strategy for all the historic sites, museums, parks, arts and cultural venues, local wine and beer makers and agro-tourism businesses in southern Fairfax County. The name Potomac Banks: Explore Fairfax South, references the area's location along the banks of the Potomac River.

The branding is a collaboration between the county and Visit Fairfax, the county's tourism organization. Visit Fairfax has plans for a one-year marketing sales and business plan and social media campaigns. Potomac Banks also utilizes partner businesses that will cross-promote the brand with their own business promotion strategies. Officials are also looking into creating a Tourism Improvement District, which is done through the commonwealth of Virginia.

The tourism strategy started with a Mount Vernon Tourism Task Force started by Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck. The task force was convened in 2019, when Fairfax County saw over $3 billion in tourism revenues. But the COVID-19 pandemic came along in March 2020, significantly impacting the tourism and hospitality industries and other businesses.

"Tourism is one of the top drivers of Fairfax South's economic, which is a major contributor to Fairfax County's overall tourism impact of more than $3 billion [2019]," said Barry Biggar, the president and CEO of Visit Fairfax, in a statement. "So the development of an exclusive brand was a natural next step, especially now, as the industry continues to recover from the devastating effects of the global pandemic."

One aim of the campaign is reaching visitors who may visit popular sites like George Washington's Mount Vernon and overlook other attractions.

"This place often is visited by folks who then go on to Washington, DC, missing some of our state and our county's greatest cultural resources," said Doug Bradburn, president and CEO of Mount Vernon. "I think that's one of the things we want to try to help highlight. Mount Vernon, happily joined with our regional partners led by the vision of Supervisor Storck, supported by our partners at Visit Fairfax, to form a task force to bring our attractions together for a common cause."

Aside from Mount Vernon, Southern Fairfax County is home to attractions like River Farm, George Mason's Gunston Hall, Workhouse Arts Center, National Museum of the United States Army, Woodlawn and Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House. In addition, the Gum Springs Historical Society And Museum continues to preserve the history of Gum Springs, Fairfax County's oldest African American community. It is also home to an abudance of parks, such as Huntley Meadows Park, Occoquan Regional Park, and Pohick Bay Regional Park.

"We have more historical and natural sites in this area, in the south county area, than anywhere else, I think, in the country, aside from potentially the [National] Mall itself in DC," said Storck in remarks. "We have more different variety and different types and opportunities for people to really connect not only with history but the natural world."

By forming the task force that led to the Potomac Banks tourism force, Storck sought to not only promote history but economic opportunities as well.

"The jobs and the opportunities that this gives is what also gives our community the kinds of hotels and restaurants and entertainment and other things that are a key part in making any community vibrant and frankly creating the unique experiences that we all strive for," said Storck.

At the start of the task force process, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said he was frustrated by the lack of a cohesive strategy for south county's sites.

"To get to this point, to thread these together in a compact way for people to understand, is really important," McKay said in remarks. "It's not just important for attracting tourism to Fairfax County. Admittedly, it's important also to people who live in Fairfax County and live in this region, because, tragically, too many people who even have these assets in their backyard don't even realize that they have these. That people from all over the world come here to Mount Vernon, and yet even people a stone's throw from here have not walked through Mount Vernon."

With the new Potomac Banks branding, a Potomac Banks Saving Pass was launched by Visit Fairfax. The savings pass offers visitors discounted admission to partners such as George Washington's Mount Vernon, George Mason's Gunston Hall and Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House. The pass also provides deals on tours, gifts and activities from partners like Woodlawn Press Winery, Workhouse Arts Center, National Museum of the United States Army and more.

At the Potomac Banks launch event, Biggar set a goal of doubling visitation to the south county area in the next five years and helping county reach $4.5 billion in revenues within five years.

"What we launched today is the beginning of that," said Biggar.