Government officials and ‘South Bridge Connects’ Commercial District Affiliate representatives will conduct a press conference and small business walking tour on Tuesday morning.
The tour will take place in the through the Southbridge business corridor, a segment of Delaware’s ‘Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway’ and a gateway into the city of Wilmington.
The event will announce a Delaware Byway Committee convening with the Small Business Advisory Council to promote statewide economic growth by partnering Delaware’s scenic and historic byways with the small businesses on those routes.
The pilot partnership program is slated to launch on the Tubman Byway (a roadway route tracing some of Harriet Tubman’s documented movements through Delaware) with input from byway-adjacent neighborhood groups like ‘South Bridge Connects’.’expanding to all six Delaware state-designated byways.
Following the formal announcement, officials will visit businesses lining the Tubman Byway’s path through Southbridge, highlighting SBA resources and designating affiliated businesses’ by affixing a byway emblem to their storefronts.
“This pilot program will look at revenue drivers for Byway affiliated businesses like: coupons (known in other states as “Byway Bucks”); tourist discovery areas within businesses; signage and byway improvements; and grant opportunities to entice tourists to visit byways and patronize their businesses,” said Delaware Delaware Department of Transportation byways coordinator, Ann Gravatt. “Rollout of the first byway business affiliation incentives, Tubman Byway-wide, is slated to begin with the 2015 tourist season. This pilot program aims to demonstrate increased patronage in Byway-affiliated businesses to promote year-round, statewide tourism in Delaware and instill new a sense of neighborhood pride in our byway communities, all while helping First State businesses succeed. This is truly a ‘win-win’ scenario.”
