On Wednesday, October 23, 2019, the Johnston County Visitors Bureau board members and staff were presented with a certificate designating the county as a NC Certified Retirement Community. 

The RetireNC program encourages retirees and those planning to retire to make their home in North Carolina therefore, bringing tourism to the area, attracting potential workforce, and enriching NC communities.  The JCVB sales team will participate in tradeshows to market the retirement communities in Johnston County to potential visitors and retirees. VisitNC, who manages the program, is a department of the Economic Development Partnership of NC. 

“We have been working some already with the 55+ communities in Clayton, and have built a unique landing page for RetireJoCo with offers and a suggested itinerary for retirees to explore our communities as they consider North Carolina as a retirement destination,” stated Donna Bailey-Taylor, JCVB President/CEO. The unique landing page can be found here: www.johnstoncountync.org/retire-joco/

Retire NC Certificate presented to JCVB staff.Just this year the program became available to counties to submit applications, which meant completing a comprehensive community survey and an asset inventory of the county’s preparedness for retiree attraction. Johnston County has become the first county in NC to be certified and joins the communities of Eden, Edenton, Elizabeth City, Jamestown/High Point, Laurinburg, Lenoir, Lumberton, Marion, Mount Airy, New Bern, Reidsville, Roanoke Rapids, Salisbury, Sanford, Tarboro, Washington, and Winterville.

Left to Right:  Andre Nabors, VisitNC, Rick Heilmann, JCVB Marketing Committee Chair, Paul Boucher, JCVB Marketing Committee member, Donna Bailey-Taylor, JCVB President/CEO, and Wit Tuttell, Executive Director, VisitNC.