The movie and television industry continues to add to the local economy. Coweta County Event Services Director Tray Baggarly recently gave the Coweta County Commission an update of impact the industry is having on the local community.
Baggarly said the county’s tourism industry in 2013 supported 1,750 jobs, generated $166.1 million in direct tourist spending, created $6.51 million in state tax revenues and generated $5.07 million in local tax revenues.
“Each Coweta County household received a $290.39 tax relief per household as a result of the taxes generated by tourism economic activity,” Baggarly said.
A large and growing segment of the local tourist industry deals with Georgia’s increasing presence in the television and movie industry and, in particular, the filming of AMC’s ”The Walking Dead” at Raleigh Atlanta Studios in Senoia.
Baggarly said production scouts recently contacted his office about the potential for filming in six locations in Coweta. Of those, four productions involved major motion pictures, one concerned a documentary and the other a commercial.
When it comes to “The Walking Dead,” Baggarly said a recent sampling of the numbers of people flocking to the city included five from Peru and others from France, Switzerland, Germany and Australia.
Whether from the U.S. or from around the world, Senoia continues to be ground-zero for fans of the popular television show. And they all bring their wallets.
Baggarly noted a Feb. 19 article in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s largest newspaper with a circulation of 402,270.
The author of the article spent two days in Coweta working on the piece. The topic of the story – zombies and “The Walking Dead.”
