The Johnson City Board of Commissioner approved the request of funding a two-year $300,000 marketing campaign that has the purpose of attracting remote talent to move into the city. On Thursday, The Commission voted unanimously, granting the group $100,000 to start the campaign.
According to data from the United States Postal Service, as of October of 2020, 8.94 million people relocated since the pandemic started – that’s an increase of nearly 94,000 compared to 2019.
Consequently, small towns and cities in the U.S. have started creating campaigns to attract remote workers. And the latest location to set the bate to remote workers is Johnson City, Tennessee.
Is Johnson City Becoming a ‘Zoom town’?
Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association (NETTA), Visit Johnson City, and the Northeast Tennessee Regional Economic Partnership created a marketing campaign proposal to attract a new wave of digital nomads to move into the city.
They presented the campaign proposal last Thursday night, and The Johnson City Board commission granted the group $100,000 to start the campaign. According to Alicia Phelps, Director of NETTA, one reason they wanted to focus on this campaign was that there’s been a recent increase of remote workers moving to the city.
We are already seeing remote workers come to the area, so it really makes sense that it’s something that we put a little more effort into to attract people to come here. Alicia Phelps
Johnson City Will Pay Remote Workers to Move There
One of the highlights of this marketing campaign is that remote workers will get paid for moving to the Tennessean city.
In the first instance, their plan targets people who work in the industries of IT, finance, and insurance. New residents will receive cash incentives based on their incomes. For example, those earning from $50,000 to $60,000 will receive $2,500 to move to the area.
25% of the money would be paid on arrival. The other quarter after six months and the rest of it after the person has lived in Johnson City for a year. Part of the plan is to encourage participants and the people arriving from other cities and participate in networking events.
As more employees are currently working remotely, more and more of them are looking for a different type of lifestyle. A new trend shows how people are looking for quieter places to establish like Johson City, among other places.
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