Visit Macon expands services with acquisition of local tour company

Visit Macon recently acquired Rock Candy Tours, giving the agency added capacity to showcase Macon’s cultural history.

Rock Candy Tours gives a variety of tours, driving and walking visitors through Macon’s musical sites, like the Douglass Theatre, and Macon’s downtown district.

The tour company was founded in 2011 after the closure of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, with the idea that “Macon’s music history does not have to live between a museum’s walls,” said Jessica Walden, one of the company’s founders and the president and CEO of the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce.

“Now, we’re transitioning to an agency that can be responsive at all times to it and offer more tour offerings,” she said.

At a conference held Wednesday morning at the downtown Macon visitor center, members of Rock Candy Tours and Visit Macon announced the acquisition. 

Visit Macon is taking on all operations of Rock Candy Tours, and will bring on the old team and content. However, Visit Macon will expand the tour selection, partly through more consistent transportation options, Walden said.

Last year, Rock Candy Tours saw a 28% increase in tour demand,Visit Macon CEO Gary Wheat said. Combined with the pending national park, the tour company began looking for ways to scale up their tours, since they were only being operated on a part-time basis.

Wheat said Rock Candy Tours will help “enhance opportunities” for partners like Capricorn Studios and the Otis Redding Foundation, increasing their visibility to newcomers.

“We were not doing any walks before,” he said. “To be able to take on the Free Birds & Night Owls and Macabre tours, those were things that we needed their expertise and their guides to be able to help us transition.”

The Free Birds & Night Owls tour —which takes visitors through downtown Macon to explore important music and nightlife locations— is one of several tours offered by Rock Candy. The Macabre tour also goes through downtown but focuses on “ghost, murder and mayhem history.” 

Justin Andrews, president of the Otis Redding Foundation and president of the Visit Macon board of directors, said the acquisition will help Visit Macon promote Macon’s rich musical heritage.

Andrews considers Macon to be a “brand-new landmark” in Georgia, and tours like the ones provided by Rock Candy help give visitors a feel for the musical legends of Macon.

“It’s just important that we continue to promote this history, and continue to look at new ways to continue to build history with all these new artists coming up now,” he said.