An interstate slices through the eastern portion of the Volunteer State, providing the easy access that the East Tennessee region promotes, connecting Chattanooga on the Georgia border with Bristol, which straddles Tennessee and Virginia 226 miles away.
Convention centers, conference venues and resorts await groups amid fertile valleys with impressive mountain vistas, four-season tourist playgrounds such as Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, and repositories of the South’s legacy like Bristol, the official birthplace of country music.
Just east of the interstate are the Appalachians, encompassing the famous haze-covered Great Smoky Mountains.
Along the interstate are the two major urban areas, 100 miles apart: Knoxville, Tennessee’s third-largest city after Memphis and Nashville, and Chattanooga, the state’s fourth-largest metro.
Chattanooga
Without even considering downtown Chattanooga’s offerings, a few miles to the south Lookout Mountain has enough attractions alone to make the city an enviable tourist destination.
There are the rock formations of Rock City, 1,700 feet above sea level with a 100-foot waterfall, and Ruby Falls, featuring America’s deepest commercial caverns.
Reached by road or a mile-long incline railway, the monolith also has Civil War battle sites that extend below to form the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
“Our biggest attribute is the proximity of all the activities,” says Steve Genovesi, vice president of marketing and sales at the Chattanooga Area CVB. “Chattanooga is a walkable city that has a revitalized riverfront with a 12-mile paved riverwalk scattered with parks, attractions and green spaces.”
To make it easier for attendees, he notes, a free electric shuttle connects the convention center with hotels, attractions, restaurants, shopping and the waterfront.
Downtown is home to the 185,000-square-foot Chattanooga Convention Center.
Eight blocks away in a downtown of tree-lined streets is the Tennessee River waterfront, which completed a $120 million makeover three years ago, producing a new pedestrian pier, boat slips and green space, and including expansions of the Tennessee Aquarium and IMAX Theater, the Hunter Museum of American Art and the Creative Discovery Museum, all of which have off-site venue space.
The Marriott Chattanooga, with 7,700 square feet of meeting space, adjoins the convention center. A block away is The Chattanoogan, with 25,000 square feet of conference space. Also close by is the Sheraton Read House, opened in 1926 and a Historic Hotels of America member with 16,000 square feet of meeting space.
Two blocks from the aquarium, the Chattanooga Clarion Hotel was reflagged the Doubletree Hotel Chattanooga in early October following a $20 million renovation.
Downtown’s Chattanooga Choo Choo, immortalized by Glenn Miller in the 1941 song, celebrates 100 years next year. The railroad depot was revived and remodeled into a hotel in 1973 that later became a Holiday Inn. Special events will center on the Chattanooga Choo Choo Holiday Inn, which can handle groups of 800. The 24-acre complex also has restaurants, stores and museums. Earlier this year, its Jukebox Junction Theater opened, launching two new alternating productions: Elmwood Smooch’s Choo Choo Cha Boogie Show and the ’50s & ’60s Rock-n-Roll Revue. The theater can host groups of up to 500 people.
A 92-room Holiday Inn Express, the newest hotel, opened in downtown Chattanooga in early October. A Hotel Indigo and a Hampton Inn are also planned for downtown, as well as a Hyatt Place east of downtown. Meanwhile, a Holiday Inn Express and a Hampton Inn will debut in January north of the city.
Off-site venues include the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Auditorium and the Tivoli Theater, both downtown and dating to the 1920s; the Bessie Smith Performance Hall; the Chattanooga Zoo; and sports venues such as the McKenzie Arena at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga campus. Several river cruises are also available for group excursions and events.
Knoxville
Home to the University of Tennessee (UT) and its Volunteers sports teams, and host of the 1982 World’s Fair, Knoxville is a metro area containing 7,500 hotel rooms.
Downtown Knoxville offers restaurants, shopping, nightlife and a free trolley service, as well as the 500,000-square-foot Knoxville Convention Center. The nearby Knoxville Expo Center has another 120,000 square feet of multiuse space.
“The downtown area offers the exciting Market Square District, which allows visitors to walk freely without traffic,” says Laney Shorter, sales manager at the Knoxville Tourism & Sports Corporation. “Together with the old city, it offers many restaurants, pubs, galleries, museums and theaters.”
Among the many attractions are the Three Rivers Rambler, a train ride up a mountain; the Star of Knoxville Riverboat; the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame; and the Knoxville Zoo.
Adjacent to the convention center is the World’s Fair Park, with two lawns that can take events for 4,000 and 6,000 people, respectively, plus a 1,000-seat amphitheater. Closed since the mid-’90s, the Sunsphere tower reopened last year on the fair’s 25th anniversary, giving visitors a 360-degree city view 200 feet above the park.
Meetings hotels close to the convention center include Hilton Knoxville, connected to the center by skybridge; Holiday Inn Select Downtown; and Four Points by Sheraton Cumberland House. Crowne Plaza Knoxville is a half-mile away, and Knoxville Marriott is less than a mile away.
Among the destination’s other meeting facilities are the Knoxville Civic Coliseum and Auditorium, UT’s 22,000-seat Thompson-Boling Arena, the UT Conference Center and the Rothchild Catering and Conference Center.
Smoky Mountains Region
Southeast of Knoxville is the 800-square-mile Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Special events are being planned for the park’s 75th anniversary in 2009 (www.greatsmokies75th.org).
Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are the region’s primary cities.
Sevierville was founded in 1795 and is named for John Sevier, Tennessee’s first governor. Dolly Parton’s hometown is seeing growth; by year’s end it will have almost 4,000 hotel rooms, 1,000 of them opened within the past year.
The $65 million, 241,000-square-foot Sevierville Events Center was unveiled last September.
Opened last May adjacent to the center is the 234-room Wilderness at the Smokies Resort, with a three-acre outdoor waterpark and 4,100 square feet of meeting space. A 60,000-square-foot indoor waterpark and a condominium development are slated to open at the resort in December. Nearby is the Eagles Ridge Golf course, where 18 more holes will open next year.
“Our location is huge for us. Business has been good,” says Scott King, director of sales for the Sevierville CVB. “The events center has being doing well with consumer and trade shows.”
A Hampton Inn and a Comfort Suites opened this year, and a Fairfield Inn is expected to open before year’s end. A $50 million shopping center is being built near the interstate, and work is expected to start next year on another near the Wilderness at the Smokies Resort.
Pigeon Forge, situated south of Sevierville, receives 12 million visitors a year and has more than 10,000 hotel rooms, according to Lila Wilson, communications manager at the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism.
“We’re the center of Smoky Mountain fun,” Wilson says. “We have 50 rides and attractions, almost 20 musical productions and almost 20 theaters, many of them dinner theaters.”
Among the destination’s major meetings properties are Music Road Hotel & Convention Center, Grand Resort Hotel and Convention Center, and Holiday Inn Resort Pigeon Forge, in addition to Smoky Mountain Convention Center.
Two hotels opened last year: Inn at Christmas Place, with 145 units and meeting space for 300 people, and RiverStone Resort & Spa, with 80 condos and 3,600 square feet of meeting space. Belle Island Village, a $114 million development with a 130-room hotel, shops, restaurants and attractions, will debut by the end of the year.
The 140-acre Dollywood theme park unveiled a water adventure ride last year and in 2009 will debut Adventure Mountain, featuring mountain trails and zip lines.
South of Pigeon Forge, mountainous Gatlinburg is surrounded on three sides by Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and aside from its natural surroundings, the destination is well equipped for groups.
The Gatlinburg Convention Center was expanded and remodeled in 2006 to include a new 17,000-square-foot ballroom. The center has 67,000 square feet of exhibit space.
“We were limited before. Business has expanded to accommodate state and regional associations that need the banquet space and now include us in their rotations,” says Walter Yeldell, tourism manager at the Gatlinburg Department of Tourism, adding that the destination is a walking city with more than 400 shops, galleries and boutiques.
Major attractions include Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, the aerial tram to the top of Ober Gatlinburg, the Ober Gatlinburg Ski Resort and Amusement Park and the Great Smoky Arts & Crafts Community, encompassing stores along an eight-mile loop trail that sell the work of dozens of local artists and crafts people.
Meetings properties include Park Vista Resort Hotel, River Terrace Resort & Convention Center, Ramada Inn Four Seasons & Convention Center, Glenstone Lodge, Edgewater Hotel and Garden Plaza Hotel. A 118-room Hilton Garden Inn is slated to open three blocks from the convention center next summer.
Tri-Cities Region
In the Blue Ridge foothills, Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol make up the Tri-Cities region, the birthplace of Davy Crockett and country music.
“We’re accessible, we have plenty of golf, fly-fishing and wineries, and our downtown has been developing,” says Heather Jones, director of marketing at the Kingsport CVB.
Across the Tennessee River from downtown Kingsport is the region’s standout meetings resort: the Marriott MeadowView Conference Resort & Convention Center, with golf and 35,000 square feet of meeting space. In July, the Marriott broke ground on a $15 million expansion, which is slated for completion next August and includes 110 new guest rooms and the renovation of existing rooms. It is also planning to build a $14 million, 30,000-square-foot executive conference center.
“This will take us to a whole other level,” Jones says. “We can solicit groups that wouldn’t come here because we didn’t have enough rooms.”
Meanwhile, the town’s civic auditorium offers 7,700 square feet of function space.
Jones says attractions with venue space include the Allendale Mansion; Exchange Place, a living history farm; and Bays Mountain Park, featuring a museum, planetarium, nature center and amphitheater.
Established as a railroad depot in 1856, Johnson City is home to East Tennessee State University.
The city’s Freedom Hall Civic Center has 13,000 square feet of function space, and meetings-ready properties include Carnegie Hotel & Spa, with meeting space and an adjacent training conference center.
Johnson City is located in Washington County, whose county seat is Jonesborough, which was founded in 1779. It is home to the International Storytelling Center and hosts the annual National Storytelling Festival.
Greeneville, southwest of Johnson City and the seat of Greene County, boasts the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site and the Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park. Its downtown historic district features the General Morgan Inn & Conference Center.
The Blue Ridge Mountains town of Bristol is split between Tennessee and Virginia. It has two big claims to fame: motor racing at the Bristol Speedway, attracting 1 million visitors annually, and being the Congress-designated “official birthplace of country music.” RCA/Victor visited in 1927 to record the music of the Appalachians and signed on Jimmie Rogers and the Carter Family, the first commercial recording stars of what became country music.
A host of music and performance venues includes bars and lounges and downtown’s Paramount Center for the Performing Arts, a restored 1930s movie house.
Other attractions include a historic revitalized downtown, a country music museum, Bristol Caverns and the Appalachian Trail.
The city’s Viking Hall Civic Center has 20,000 square feet of meeting space, and the prominent meetings hotel is the 226-room Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Bristol Conference Center.
For More Info
Bristol Tennessee/Virginia COC 423.989.4850 www.bristolchamber.org
Chattanooga Area CVB 423.756.8687 www.chattanoogafun.com
Gatlinburg Department of Tourism 865.436.2392 www.gatlinburg-tennessee.com
Greene County Partnership 423.638.4111 www.greenecountypartnership.com
Johnson City CVB 423.461.8000 www.johnsoncitychamber.com
Kingsport CVB 423.392.8820 www.kcvb.org
Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp. 865.523.7263 www.knoxville.org
Pigeon Forge Dept. of Tourism 865.453.8574 www.pigeonforgemeeting.com
Sevierville CVB 865.453.6411 www.visitsevierville.com
Smoky Mountain CVB 856.448.6134 www.smokymountains.org
