Bennish Brown, Destination Augusta, Talks With Stephen Ekstrom

Bennish D. Brown President/CEO Destination Augusta 

Bennish Brown has served as President/CEO of Destination Augusta since July of 2018. Among his most fulfilling accomplishments in his time at Destination Augusta are: 

• Completion and roll out of a destination rebranding project 

• Completion of a new destination website, and the launch of a new award-winning destination marketing campaign that truly reflects this soulful, dynamic, diverse, and artistic southern city 

• The adoption by his Board of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion statement for the organization 

• Updating the organization’s Vision and Mission statement to reflect its evolving role 

Bennish feels all of these are as much about building and amplifying community pride as they are about attracting visitors. 

He serves on the Board of Directors for Destinations International, the global association for destination organizations. He recently ended his term as a Board member of Southeast Tourism Society (STS), a travel-and-tourism association with membership from 13 southeastern states and the District of Columbia. 

Locally, he is on the Boards of the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Alliance for Fort Gordon, the Augusta Sports Council, and the Greater Augusta Arts Council. 

Prior to Augusta, Bennish served for six years as the President/CEO of the Tacoma, WA Convention & Visitors Bureau, and before that at the Rock Hill, SC Convention & Visitors Bureau for 12 years. 

Before working in the tourism industry for more than 20 years, Bennish also spent nearly two decades in communications. He has worked in the radio industry, including time as an on-air radio personality and as station management. He has been a newspaper reporter, and worked in many aspects of public relations and public information for local and state government, and in the corporate world. 

Bennish holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and a master’s degree in public relations from the University of South Carolina. An avid traveler, Bennish and his wife Sandra have visited every continent but one, Antarctica. 

They have one adult son, Cameron, who also loves traveling with them for the free meals and lodging.