Added Tri-Cities Airport flights to boost local tourism

BLOUNTVILLE — With added flights and destinations coming to the Tri-Cities Airport, tourism leaders shared how it would impact the area. Frank Lett, president and chief tourism officer for Visit Kingsport, said both new markets present expanded opportunities for tourism. "This is opening markets for business travel and association travel, especially conferences that are focused around the southeastern United States," he said. "Then in addition to that, would open new pathways for visitors who are coming for sports events, especially our college teams." He said Sullivan County ranked 11 out of 95 counties across Tennessee for tourism in 2023. Beyond the tourism angle, he said the new routes will benefit travelers looking for local flights to other destinations across the country. "It doesn't just directly benefit Kingsport or our region financially, it's also a quality of life situation to have those outgoing flights for people traveling," Lett said. "We just want to make sure we have that balance of people coming here to visit us, while we have our residents provided the opportunity to go visit the other locations." Regional impact On a more regional scale, Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association Executive Director Alicia Phelps said the flights would benefit both inbound and outbound passengers. "It would have a great impact on the tourism world and in terms of inbound passengers, because we would see an increase in folks who may and may not have been familiar with the area," Phelps said. "It may be easier to access the area, quicker to fly — maybe even cheaper to fly as well." According to Phelps, the added destinations of Washington, D.C., and Orlando, Florida, are already high on the list for visitors in the Tri-Cities market. She said for Washington D.C., specifically, a lot of travelers will commute by car rather than fly in, so this will open up faster travel options to fly directly into the area. "I think having access to a flight from Washington will only increase demand for a lot of our outdoor opportunities," she said. "Food and culinary and distilling and breweries are really big with that Washington market for us, as well as just the music and outdoors." She said above all these added flights and a new airline will get the word out about the Tri-Cities to more people than before. "I think that it's been a long time coming, and so we absolutely cannot wait to be able to get Northeast Tennessee in front of folks who will be traveling through those airports, whether it's airport advertising or advertising in-flight," Phelps said. "Being able to reach markets that we haven't even with folks who were not familiar with us before will be really exciting as well. We love that opportunity to be able to unlock some more doors." To learn more about the additions and the airport, visit https://flytri.com/.