Reflecting on 2012, Looking Ahead to 2013

It's hard to believe we're just days away from the end of 2012. What a great year it's been! As I reflect back on this past year, I think about what we have been able to accomplish and the excitement we've had with new ventures. Here's a look back at some of the highlights of 2012 from the City of Athens Department of Tourism:

In 2012, Athens received its re-certification as a Go Texan Certified Retirement Community. Athens was one of the first cities in Texas to receive this honor back in 2006. The Go Texan Certified Retirement Community designation ensures each certified community has demonstrated that it can meet the living, employment/volunteer, health, entertainment, education, and safety needs of its citizens and visitors, all the things that make Texas a great place to retire.

We launched our first Scenic Fall Foliage Driving Trail, which was a success. The driving trail was developed to identify the most scenic highways and byways in Henderson County for visitors looking to view the fall colors of East Texas. The 55-mile driving trail included several points of interest such as the Athens Partnership Center, NY-TX Zipline Adventures, Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center, East Texas Arboretum & Botanical Society and Tara Vineyard and Winery. 2012 was a good year for fall color, which was at its peak in Athens the third week in November.

Fall foliage at its peak in Athens, Texas

The City of Athens Department of Tourism launched its mobile website on October 1st.  The new mobile website features key buttons on the main page linking travelers to valuable information about Athens including a calendar of events, things to do, places to eat, and where to stay. Travelers on the go have the ability to place a call directly from the mobile site, map directions to their destination, connect to social media and view the full website, AthensTX.org, for additional information. Other features included a search bar, a home button to navigate easily throughout the site, and an information button that links directly to the department's contact information page.


Athens was host to a number of groups and events in 2012.  In April, the department partnered with the Texas Forest Trail and Texas Lakes Trail Regions, and the Texas Downtown Association to host a Preservation & Tourism Toolkit in Athens. We also worked with Texas A&M Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences and Texas Agrilife Extension to host a Texas Friendly Hospitality Instructor training in Athens in October. Athens hosted several bus tour groups this fall, of which the largest was a bus tour group of 80 photographers from the North Texas Asian Photographers' Association, who came to Athens to take pictures of the fall colors.

North Texas Asian Photographers' Association

Elite Campus of Richland College Bus Tour

Texas Friendly Hospitality Instructor Training

First UMC Terrell Bus Tour

Preservation & Tourism Toolkit

For the first time, the City of Athens sponsored the annual lighted Christmas Parade, which was a huge success! The parade featured more than 70 parade entries and thousands of spectators lined the parade route in downtown Athens to watch the Christmas Parade, Christmas Around the Square. The Grand Marshall was Athens' very own Mayor and City Council members.

Downtown Athens was bustling with people enjoying the festivities. The Light Up Athens Committee sponsored Holiday on the Square and local churches sponsored an After Parade Party with bounce houses, food, and entertainment. The Athens Central Business Association sponsored movies and popcorn in Ginger's Park. It was truly a wonderful event for the entire family. Check out the Christmas Parade photo album on Facebook and mark your calendar to attend the 2013 Christmas Parade on December 7th.

Grand Marshall: City of Athens Mayor and Council Members

To expand on our social media presence, we joined Pinterest and began pinning away and creating boards featuring the best of Athens from beautiful landscapes, places to visit, shop and dine, hamburger history, downtown Athens, to our annual events. We also started a blog so we can share feature stories about Athens, success stories, and more!

Stay tuned for information on many other exciting events happening in 2013.