By Erin C. Perkins
The Mount Airy News
eperkins@mtairynews.com

Members of the Tourism Partnership of Surry County agreed to pay part of the cost for a $15,000 impact study on the wine industry in Surry County and surrounding areas yesterday.

The study would be conducted by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and would measure the economic impact of the wine industry and how it relates to tourism in Surry and Wilkes counties as well as the Yadkin Valley.

The study is part of a two-part collaboration with the Surry Community College. The first part includes graduate students from the Bryan School of Business at UNCG helping design a "game plan" for the operations at the college's new viticulture center.

George Sappenfield, the associate vice president of corporate and continuing education at Surry Community College, presented the board with the information and said it was a "plus" for the organization in several ways.

"They very much want to do this and we very much want to do this," he said. "It gives us a solid batch of data and the study would almost start immediately and the results would be available in December."

Sappenfield asked the board if it would contribute $5,000 toward the study, possibly splitting half that cost with the North Carolina Small Towns Economic Prosperity (NC STEP), if it also agreed to take part in the study. The other portion of the remaining costs would be divided between other interested tourism organizations whose areas would be involved in the study.

Board members agreed that the results of the study could be used toward advertising efforts in the organization, whose goal is to promote the appeal of each municipality in the county.

The board agreed to pay $5,000 if the NC STEP decided not to split costs, and to pay $2,500 if it did.

"This sounds like an excellent opportunity," said Valerie Oberle, the partnership's chair.

The board also reviewed upcoming ads with the Southeast Tourism Society for $2,500, which will be viewable to 19 markets and a $14,000 half-page ad for the North Carolina Travel Guide.

In a brief discussion on the branding process, the board discussed choosing a branding company to help brand the area.

Jessica Icenhour, the vice chair of the partnership, asked board members to review the Web sties of several companies including The Republik and North Star branding to determine which would be best suited to help in the branding development.

The board also discussed updates on its new Web site , which is not yet active, but on reserve. The Web site will include photos and links to each municipalities own Web site as well as other Web sites related to each area.

The board's next meeting is scheduled Oct.1.