The clock tower reappears throughout all eight seasons of “The Vampire Diaries,” a teen drama that aired on CW from 2009 to 2017. Set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, it was shot primarily in Covington.

Though the show has been off the air for eight years, Covington still economically thrives off the enthusiasm of its fans. The evidence can be found throughout the town.

Credit: Courtesy of Discover Covington

Credit: Courtesy of Discover Covington

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In the rotunda of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on Feb. 28, Lynda Lee Smith, founder of Entertainment Tourism Alliance of Georgia (ETAG) stood at the base of the grand marble staircase to talk about how Georgia towns are missing out on opportunities to capitalize on film tourism.

“I tell people I see gold all over the ground throughout the state, and all we have to do is grab it,” she later told the AJC.

In August 2023, Smith spearheaded the creation of ETAG, a nonprofit on a mission to help Georgia towns cultivate entertainment tourism. She put together a board of eight trailblazers in film, economic development and tourism to start talking about how towns could do better.

From her view, most only see value in active film productions, which hire local talent, fill hotels and restaurants and attract attention.

“But then it’s over,” she said. “My thought is: No. No, that’s the beginning. That should be the beginning.”

Credit: Danielle Charbonneau

Credit: Danielle Charbonneau

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Next to the clock tower on the square in Covington is the Mystic Grill, both a restaurant in the “The Vampire Diaries” and a restaurant in real life. The exterior was used for filming the show. In 2014, two Covington couples, John and Angi Beszborn, along with Covington’s then-mayor, Ronnie Johnston, and his wife Kelley, spearheaded a project to transform the interior of the grill to match the fictional hangout from the show.

The success of Mystic Grill prompted Beszborn to open Mystic Mercantile, a store selling “The Vampire Diaries” merchandise and offering tours of a re-creation of the Salvatore living room where the show’s vampire brothers Stephan and Damon often drank bourbon and brooded over their love triangle with protagonist Elena.

Beszborn tracked down a few of the original set builders, some of whom had been Newton County residents back when the show was filming. She hired them to build an exact replica of the living room, down to the architectural details of the ceiling and crown moldings.

One day last month, carpenter James Wheeler of Monroe, who worked on the original set, stood on a ladder perfecting some ceiling details. He wishes he had known what a phenomenon the show would be.

“I probably had a million dollar’s worth of stuff I could have sold that I just put in the dump,” he said.

To dress the set, Beszborn raced around Georgia to studio auctions buying props from the show. She scored some big finds. The replicated fireplace is now framed by the heavy eagle sculptures from the show. The leather couches and antique armchairs sit in front of the fireplace. Portraits hang on the dark-wood walls.

“Fans come from all over the world. Brazil and Europe. We had some just here from Australia,” said Carin Rutledge, manager of Mystic Mercantile. “When I ask them why they came here, they say, ‘for this.’”

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

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Film productions in Georgia are on the decline. According to the Georgia Film Office, a division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, in FY2024 film and television productions spent 37% less than they did in FY2023. In FY2024, Georgia hosted 273 productions, which was a significant drop from 390 in FY 2023 and 412 in FY2022.

Many factors are attributed to the decline, including the Writers Guild of America strike in May 2023 and the subsequent actors’ strike in July 2023. Plus, other states and countries have sweetened their deals for incentives. New Mexico, Louisiana, New Jersey, Canada, the UK and Australia now rival Georgia with their film production tax credits and incentives. Growing public scrutiny for caps to Georgia’s incentives have also created some uncertainty over the state’s spot in line for film productions.

Smith believes capitalizing on past productions could help fill the void and boost local economies. She also points out that entertainment tourism might distribute value more equitably.

“Part of my motivation is, if we want to maintain the tax incentive, we need to make sure that all 159 counties see some benefit from it,” she said. “And that’s not going to be production. But entertainment tourism … all counties could benefit from that.”

Smith is currently CEO of children’s medical research nonprofit Enduring Hearts, but her previous stints as executive director for the Waycross Tourism Bureau and chair of the Johns Creek Convention and Visitors Bureau taught Smith how small assets can have a big impact when used creatively. She points to how Waycross used its connection to the 1948-1973 comic strip Pogo set in the Okefenokee Swamp to develop an entire festival and marketing campaign.

She also cites examples like Senoia, which has long capitalized on “The Walking Dead,” and what she calls the Georgia poster child for capitalizing on entertainment tourism, Covington.

“We’re kind of in that proof of concept phase,” Smith said. “We’re pulling on the communities that have already shown tremendous success.”

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Credit: Danielle Charbonneau

Credit: Danielle Charbonneau

Below the Mystic Grill in Covington is a shop called The Alley. The souvenir shop displays pretty dresses, sports uniforms and fashionable jackets worn by the “The Vampire Diaries” cast and sells quirky, show-inspired merchandise, including blood bags filled with red shower gel and “Team Damon” tote bags.

Here fans will also find Cindy Childers, the store’s owner and a proud original member of the “Covington Girls.”

The “Covington Girls” are a group of local women who earned their name by loyally setting up lawn chairs and camping out next to “The Vampire Diaries” film shoots during its eight year run.

Childers, 60, said she owns 5,000 pieces of show memorabilia and for years ran a fan blog called Paul Wesley Chronicles after the actor who played Stephan Salvatore. She’s on a first-name basis with the actor, whom she’s crushed on for years.

“Paul calls me his No. 1,” Childers said giddily.

Diagonally across from The Alley is another shop owned by another original Covington Girl. Vampire Stalkers sells everything from plexiglass cutouts of Damon to Mystic Falls clock tower snow globes. Both the shop and its accompanying tour company, Mystic Falls Tours, is owned by Jessica Lowery.

“Jessica is the OG Covington girl,” said Laura Sullivan, tourism coordinator for the City of Covington.

When “The Vampire Diaries” first started filming, Lowery and her then-13-year-old daughter Amber would hop in her van to follow the cast around and watch the film shoots. On one occasion, some of the cast members hopped in the van with them.

“We became really close with the cast,” Lowery recalls.

The cast still comes to visit Lowery when they are in town for fan conventions, she said. They might come see her new grandchild, daughter Amber’s infant, who can sometimes be found cradled inside the gift shop — the third generation raised amid vampire fandom.

When the public caught wind of Lowery tagging along with the cast, they wanted to join. A tour business was born.

“We tried it and it worked,” she said. “We ran it out of my van for years with just four or five people. And then more and more people wanted to come, so we kept adding.”

Now 15 years later, Vampire Stalkers Mystic Fall Tours runs multiple tours a day on long white trams wrapped in pictures of the show’s cast. It visits Elena’s home, Carolyn’s home, the haunted witch house and the Lockwood Mansion, among other sites.

The name Vampire Stalkers comes from something Lowery’s husband used to say. When anyone would call her at home, he would reply: “She’s out stalking vampires.”

Amber, 29, is one of the company’s leading tour guides. With vibrant magenta hair and a magnetic personality, she is full of firsthand tales about the years she spent stalking.

There was that one freezing night, around midnight, when the crew blocked off their filming location by the creek to keep onlookers from knowing the season’s big plot twist. Amber couldn’t be stopped. She stealthily drove her golf cart with the lights off up a path on a hill to peek. Shivering and soaking wet, Nina Dobrev was shooting the scene in season six, episode seven, when her character kisses Damon in the rain.

“Poor Nina,” Amber says to her tour groups before ushering them to take pictures where Nina stood in the rain.

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In 2024, Smith took ETAG on the road, hosting six town halls across Georgia in Valdosta, Atlanta, Norcross, Dahlonega, Darien and Cherokee to introduce their concept and help towns brainstorm new ways to capitalize on entertainment tourism.

“The series was intended to include all size towns, to hear and to dialogue, and to get them thinking about what they can do,” Smith said.

While she was visiting Darien-McIntosh County Visitor Center, which has been home to several film productions including “Glory” starring Denzel Washington and a current production underway, “By Any Means,” starring Mark Wahlberg, Smith noticed there was not a single visual in the welcome center to indicate the area’s place in film.

“That’s the cool factor that’s missing,” Smith told them.

It doesn’t have to be anything big or expensive, she said. It could just be a tribute drink at the café where “Ozark” was filmed, a self-guided tour or a prop in a visitor’s center.

“I see opportunity in small things,” she said.

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Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

The Covington Visitor Center is as much a film museum as it is a town welcome hub. It’s not just for “The Vampire Diaries” fans either. Inside there is memorabilia, photographs, autographs and costumes from “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “Remember the Titans,” “Sweet Magnolias” and more.

In the parking lot in March, a visitor parked his orange 1969 Dodge Charger with a “01″ on the side — a replica of The General Lee from “The Dukes of Hazzard,” a CBS-TV series in the late ’70s-early ’80s and a 2005 movie. The driver emerged to hand out flyers for the “Hazzard County Hangout,” a two-day spring gathering of fans to show off their tribute vehicles.

According to a tourism economic impact report from 2023, Newton County receives 711,200 unique visitors. Of those, less than half have a ZIP code from Newton County.

Travis Moore, a Covington city council member who serves on the downtown development authority, said the number of visitors that come to Covington is hugely beneficial — not just to the city, but to him personally. Moore owns seven vacation rentals.

“We started off with one four years ago, and it did so well that we added six others since,” he said.

To service those seven rentals, Moore said he hires local cleaners, pest control and repairman.

“All the money is staying right here in the city of Covington,” he said. “ … And when I sit in on merchant meetings, almost every merchant says about 80% of their sales are from visitor spending. If it were not for visitors, many of them wouldn’t even be in business.”

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Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Earlier this month, thousands of “The Vampire Diaries” fans descended on Covington for a three-day convention called I Was Feeling Epic 3. Fifty actors from the show and its two spinoffs, “The Originals” and “Legacies,” came to sign autographs, take pictures and sit on panel discussions.

“I got to see Leo Howard,” Dayanna Sanchez hollered about her celebrity crush. “I’m obsessed right now … He said hi to me three times.”

Sanchez, 23, and her two sisters Karime, 16, and Tania Sosa, 31, drove from Tallahassee, Florida, at three in the morning to attend the convention.

Victoria Sell, along with her mother, cousin, daughter and granddaughter, drove five hours from Tupelo, Mississippi, wearing homemade T-shirts featuring a cutout of Damon’s car on the front and the phrase “Get in Bestie. We’re going to Mystic Falls.”

Jennifer Waldrop drove from Dublin to help sell goods for her daughter’s company Tasty Paws Pets. Her vendor booth featured dozens of dog bandannas embroidered with phrases from “The Vampire Diaries.”

Among the food trucks stationed in town was Covington’s Social Goat, which sold drinks called the Vampire Barbie and The Cure, served in a blood bag.

“Each year we do an exclusive pouch for the convention,” said Summer Rees, bar manager. “We know we’re going to stack up some money these weekends.”

Sitting in a folding chair at the entrance of a giant field-turned-parking lot, Covington local Parks Harris, 20, was hired to man the lot. It was his second time working an Epic fan convention in Covington.

“It’s cool to see all these different people coming from everywhere,” he said.

The convention was cofounded by Alexis Arnold, 32, with six other founders in their 20s and 30s whom she had met at other fan conventions. In 2021, Epic started with just the one convention in Covington. Now they host five in different cities including Savannah, Boston and Chicago.

“We did not expect it to be this big,” Arnold said. “We thought it was only going to be like 200 people.”

According to Newton County’s tourism economic impact report, Epic conventions brought in more than 15,000 visitors in 2023.

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

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Following ETAG’s six town halls, Smith aggregated participant responses and presented the key findings at a breakfast conference at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia in Dunwoody in December. The breakfast was strategically scheduled the morning after the Georgia Entertainment Signature 100 event, an exclusive, invite-only gathering of bigwigs in entertainment. The breakfast gathered more than 350 guests.

Georgia Sen. Brandon Beach, chairman of the state Senate’s economic development and tourism committee, spoke, as did a representative for Gov. Brian Kemp.

Smith presented two of ETAG’s primary initiatives. The first is to develop a web-based app called One Georgia to help users find film destinations and entertainment assets across the state.

The second is to develop an entertainment tourism impact calculator that will help municipalities quantify the results of their entertainment tourism efforts. ETAG is exploring partnerships with Georgia universities to create the prototype.

Following her presentation, Smith moderated a panel discussion, which included Covington Mayor Fleeta Baggett and Mystic Grill owner Breszborn. Each of the panelists encouraged the crowd to imagine the potential for Georgia to become a destination for film tourism.

“We’re igniting a grassroots movement … It’s like creating a wave,” Smith said. “And once everyone starts to see what it can be, it will blossom and grow.”

Credit: Danielle Charbonneau

Credit: Danielle Charbonneau