A plan developed by an Irish firm will mean state recognition and the potential for increased public and private funding for tourism in Union County, the director of the county’s tourism commmission says.

The Catawba Steering Committee and the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism (PRT) will officially unveil the “Tourism Product Development Plan for the Catawba Region” at Carolina Adventure World, 1713 Arrow Head Road, Winnsboro, at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9. The plan was developed by Tourism Development International (TDI), an Irish firm hired by PRT, in cooperation with local tourism officials including members of the Union County Tourism Commission.

Commission Director Auvis Cole said the PRT sponsored the development of the plan because it saw the need to develop multiple tourist sites, attractions and locations in the inland areas of the state, especially the Upstate. Cole said representatives of TDI visited counties throughouth South Carolina looking at the “tourist product” in those counties.

He said representatives of the company visited Union County on two separate occasions in June where commission members showed them, first, sites that reflected the county’s cultural and historical influences and then “anchor products” such as the Union County Dragway, the Timken Sports Complex and Sumter National Forest. The information gathered during these visits helped the company create the plan with regard to the future development of tourism in Union County.

Cole said the goal of the plan is to bring attention to those areas in Union County in need of development or redevelopment or become more developed to maximize their potential to attract tourists. He said getting that information into the plan was important because the publication of the plan will mean official recognition of these sites by the PRT. This, in turn, will increase the county’s ability to obtain government grants and private sector funding to develop its tourism industry.

Tourism is a $15 billion per year industry in South Carolina and Cole said that TDI estimates it will grow to a $40-billion industry by 2020.