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Explore Crossville director cites social‑media, grants and Main Street status in push to grow visitor impact

Crossville City Council · February 17, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Explore Crossville director PJ Barnes told council the DMO has doubled its social following, generated millions of video views, and unlocked about $350,000 in Main Street‑related grant access over the last year; Barnes invited council to a March 26 tourism summit and outlined several pending grant applications.

PJ Barnes, director of tourism and the city’s Main Street lead, told the council that the city’s tourism office has broadened marketing and grant activity and is starting to show measurable returns for small businesses.

"We were about 4,600 (followers) and we've grown to over 11,000 now," Barnes said, citing social‑media growth and the boost in visibility for downtown businesses after recent content campaigns.

Barnes presented…

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