Georgia officials are touting U.S. Highway 27 as a “tourist friendly” north-south corridor that offers a less stressful, more scenic alternative to Interstate 75.

“It has always been my vision to elevate the economic importance of Route 27 to not only the Coosa Valley region, but for the entire state of Georgia,” said Walker County Commissioner Bebe Heiskell.

The revitalized Route 27 Association, a public nonprofit corporation, hopes to create such a vision all along the corridor that tracks along the state’s western border, according to William Steiner, executive director of the Rome-based Coosa Valley Regional Development Center.

“We are developing a plan and setting priorities,” Mr. Steiner said. “How to market the corridor will be the next order of business.”

Throughout the Coosa Valley district — Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Haralson, Paulding, Polk and Walker counties — there is renewed interest in the Georgia U.S. Highway 27 Association that was originally formed in 1994.

The original group set a goal to convince the state to widen and resurface U.S. 27 through 18 counties in Georgia. The highway crosses six states as it stretches from Fort Wayne, Ind., to Miami,and is known as “Main Street” in many towns along its route.

“This program picks up where the initial efforts left off,” said Virgil Sperry, a Coosa Valley Regional Development Commission who lives in Walker County. “I have lived around the United States and in two foreign countries. I know that tourism is an important component of economic activity in any area.”

The Route 27 Association gained renewed vigor when Polk County Commissioner Billy Croker was president of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia in 2006, according to Mr. Steiner.

“I felt that ACCG establishing Route 27 as a high priority would be a significant first step in gaining statewide recognition of the importance of this corridor as a economic opportunity,” Mr. Croker said recently.

Focusing interest on the northern end of the route created awareness south of the Coosa Valley Region and generated enthusiasm for reinventing the Route 27 Association, Mr. Steiner said.

The association’s earlier incarnation also promoted historic courthouses along the route. That program is being updated, Mr. Steiner said.

“Interesting enough we found that GDOT had prepared the signs for the Courthouse Corridor but they were never installed,” he said, adding that the signs will be placed in each county along the route. “This is reviving interest in the corridor as both a tourist route and a means to promote other development.”

More recent promotions like the statewide Civil War Heritage Trails and efforts by individual counties are being incorporated into the Route 27 Association’s efforts, Mr. Sperry said.

“Any traffic on 27 has the potential for surrounding areas,” he said. “That is one of the challenges, trying to tie in all of the possible tourism assets on and adjacent to 27.”

The association has submitted a proposal for a OneGeorgia Authority that, if funding is approved, would allow hiring a professional tourist marketing firm to help develop a strategy to enhance the route’s image to prospective tourists. The OneGeorgia funding will be decided in September, officials said.

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