Photo courtesy of Visit Richmond County
                                This is the inset showing downtown Rockingham on the Discovery Map of the Sandhills. It highlights Discovery Place Kids, Pattan’s Downtown Grille, Richmond Community College, an Leath Memorial Library, with arrows pointing to the Hamlet Depot, DeWitt’s Shooting Sports, Hitchcock Creek and The Berry Patch.

Photo courtesy of Visit Richmond County

This is the inset showing downtown Rockingham on the Discovery Map of the Sandhills. It highlights Discovery Place Kids, Pattan’s Downtown Grille, Richmond Community College, an Leath Memorial Library, with arrows pointing to the Hamlet Depot, DeWitt’s Shooting Sports, Hitchcock Creek and The Berry Patch.

<p>Photo courtesy of Visit Richmond County</p>
                                <p>Downtown Rockingham is included in the bottom right of the Discovery Map of the Sandhills.</p>

Photo courtesy of Visit Richmond County

Downtown Rockingham is included in the bottom right of the Discovery Map of the Sandhills.

ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County has been seeing a steady increase in tourism as the state begins to loosen COVID-19 restrictions and people begin to plan public events once again after more than a year of being advised to stay home.

As part of its effort to attract more people to the area, the Richmond County Tourism Development Authority (RCTDA) has partnered with the Discovery Map of the Sandhills for the first time. The map, which has typically centered around Moore County landmarks, now includes an inset highlighting downtown Rockingham’s hot spots to a broader audience of travelers.

Meghann Lambeth, executive director, said Richmond and Moore are like “apples and oranges,” so it’s better if the two counties focus on complimenting one another.

“They obviously have things we don’t have but we have a lot of things they don’t have,” Lambeth said. “So I think that’s a better partnership than trying to be like each other …[instead] appreciate each others’ differences.”

The Discovery Map focuses on downtown Southern Pines on one side, and the other shows important locations in the rest of the city, as well as Pinehurst, historic Aberdeen, and now downtown Rockingham, with other towns like Hoffman, Pinebluff, Raeford and Vass included. The downtown Rockingham inset shows Discovery Place Kids, Pattan’s Downtown Grille, Richmond Community College, and Leath Memorial Library, with arrows pointing to the Hamlet Depot, DeWitt’s Shooting Sports, Hitchcock Creek and The Berry Patch.

Lambeth said last year was a challenge, with much of the Tourism-approved grants to support local events being paused, except for the Veterans Jump Team performance at the VFW for Veterans Day and a couple of other fall events. Grants are given to events that are expected to bring in business for local hotels, restaurants and other businesses. All of these 2020 grants have now been unpaused, which include the Hinson Lake Ultra Classic marathon held in September, the DeWitt’s Performing Arts Series, the City of Rockingham’s Plaza Jam, events at the Rockingham Dragway, and the Field Trials held in the Sandhills Gamelands.

Tourism hasn’t yet received any new grant applications as of Monday, but Lambeth said she is expecting several, including from the Seaboard Festival which is expected to return this year.

In addition to supporting these events, Lambeth is working on a digital guide to Richmond County, which will include arts and museums, outdoor opportunities, agritourism and more. The guide will be a pop up on the Visit Richmond County website. Lambeth is also working aggressively to target audiences on social media and ensure that Richmond County locations appear in Google search results when people are looking to travel.

RCDTA received $10,000 last year in CARES Act money, which was used to pay for the software used in the visitor information kiosks which are in place around the county. These kiosks are a user-friendly way to find out about all that Richmond County has to offer.

“I think there’s a lot of hope looking forward in the future,” Lambeth said.

For more information about Richmond County tourism, visit https://visitrichmondcounty.com/.