Summer Vacation is Over by John Dersham

The World’s Longest Yard Sale (WLYS) has ended, school has begun and our official end to summer vacation has arrived. The WLYS is our largest single weekend event for tourism each year and in recent years school has started on or shortly after the WLYS. The beginning of school typically marks the end of our summer tourism season. This does not mean we will not continue to have vacationers since many of our leisure travelers are Baby Boomers with grown kids and they do not have to adhere to the school calendar. Our numbers prove, however, that August suddenly becomes a quieter month after the yard sale ends. 

Our next major spike in tourism will happen in the fall. October and November have become nearly equal to June and July for us. People living in the coastal plains of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana and north Florida find us an easy to get to destination, with stellar fall color, pleasing temperatures and a very relaxing low cost get a way. Typically, our fall tourism season begins to pick up in middle to late September with our Boom Days Heritage Celebration the third weekend in September each year. From that point we have a continuing increase in visitors through October and November. We find visitors are renting cabins for Thanksgiving family events and we continue to see visitors coming to our parks, camping and renting cabins through early December. As Christmas approaches it will get a lot quieter here until March when people begin venturing out for weekend trips as spring approaches.

Cloudmont Ski Resort provides some winter visitors and we get a fair amount of travelers staying in our hotels during the Christmas travel season. We should have a good year for Christmas travel, provided gas prices stay fairly low.

In the case of our pre fall tourism, Fyffe UFO day is August 27, Ider Mule Day is coming on Labor Day (Sept 5),  then Boom Days Heritage Festival and Third Saturday Sunset Cruise In (Sept. 16 &17) and the DeKalb VFW Agricultural Fair (Sept. 26 thru Oct. 1). There is always plenty to do in our area. To prove it, visit our website (www.tourdekalb.com/calendar) calendar of events and you will find plenty of things to attend year around.