Alabama Department of Tourism Reports 2011 was the Best Year Ever by John Dersham

Last week I attended the quarterly statewide tourism meetings in Dothan, Alabama.
These meeting are comprised of the Alabama Department of Tourism and three other independent organizations that promote tourism in Alabama. The meeting is in a different location each quarter as to help promote tourism all around the state. This year I am honored to represent DeKalb County as the Co-Chair of the Alabama Association of Conventions and Visitors Bureaus. In these all day meetings we spend time discussing upcoming marketing and operating plans, we review results of former plans and we discuss our long term goals.
Lee Sentell presented a new updated version of The Year of Alabama Food and an all new program called Alabama Road Trip. He showed commercials that will air on the nearly 50 Raycom network TV stations all around the USA. These commercials are beautifully done and very inviting to our potential visitors who will see these commercials all across the continental US and even in Hawaii. The Alabama Road Trip commercials begin with a man in a 1953 Cadillac Convertible heading out on one of these trips. This will be an ongoing program and will include various road trips that will ultimately cover the whole state.
Lee Sentell also reported that 2011 was the best year ever in Alabama Tourism. Last year tourists spent 10.3 billion dollars in the Alabama economy with a record number of 26 million visitors. Lee also reported an increase in tourism jobs by an additional 21,181 which means 178,000 people make all or part of their income in tourism. Tourism is Alabama’s largest non agricultural employer. Revenue collected by the state from tourists primarily goes into the Alabama General Fund. To better understand just how much tax revenue tourism is collecting for our state, each family living in Alabama would have to pay an extra $400.00 a year in taxes to reach the same number (if tourism spending did not exist).
The success in the numbers comes from a slowly improving economy but was also greatly aided by the recovery in the Gulf. Whereas 2010 was adversely affected by the Gulf Oil Spill, 2011 made a major comeback due to people wanting to visit the Gulf Beaches again but also due to a large ad campaign by BP to promote tourism all across the Gulf. These ads are still running.
We had a good year in North Alabama too. Early reports show our growth over 2010 to be from 2-12% depending on location.
In the 10 years Lee Sentell has been Director of the Department of Tourism, the growth in Alabama has been phenomenal. In fact it has grown from $6.5 billion in visitor spending to $10.3 billion in the period of 2002-2011. Here is a special thanks to Lee and his entire staff for this their 10th year. When you go to the statewide meetings as I do and the state gives their presentations it is easy to see how we have been so successful. In addition, our Department of Tourism has won numerous awards given out by organizations that are looking at all 50 states. Congratulations!

Come Relax in Paradise by John Dersham

Our area is a bit different than most Alabama Counties in that a significant portion of tax revenue raised from tourism comes from actual tourists. Here is what I mean. In many cities and counties tourism dollars are raised by people who are not necessarily there on vacation. They are on business trips. Business travelers are considered tourists because the money they spend is from outside the area and is new money spent in our area from outside. In many larger areas a big part of tourism is bidding for meeting and conventions. This is especially true in the cities where large convention centers and large meeting and accommodation spaces exist. In DeKalb County we host some meetings and conferences every year and we are excited when this business comes to us. It is not, however our primary generator of tourism dollars. We are a leisure tourism area. Our visitor comes because they have planned a vacation or weekend here specifically to be a tourist. All of our top attractions revolve around a scenic leisurely vacation. These attractions are Little River Canyon, DeSoto State Park, Sequoyah Caverns, the town of Mentone, the Alabama Fan Club and Museum, statues and fan appreciation weekend. Other attractions are city of Fort Payne Boom Days historical appeal and the Depot Museum. On Sand Mountain the new Agri-Business Center in Rainsville is bringing in tourists as does Collinsville Trade days. A new growing audience for us is the younger adventure sports market. True Adventure Sports specializes in activities such as repelling, rock climbing, zip lines, canoeing, kayaking etc. All of these capture the 35 and younger crowd. We have traditionally been a baby boomers leisure market and we still are but The N.E. Agri Business Center and True Adventure sports have greatly helped grow our number of younger visitors. There a many other attractions in DeKalb County for tourists like Miracle Pottery and Orbix Glass and a host of other artisans that attract visitors our way. The fact remains that our tourism revenue stemming from the 65 million dollars spent by tourists in DeKalb County is mostly coming from vacationers. This is very good for us because vacationers return here time and time again. We are fortunate here is DeKalb County to have a very high return rate for leisure travelers. Once people come here they tend to come back. We are trying to get more to come the first time because we know once here they will most likely return. Our true southern hospitality, low costs, and easy access with low overall traffic make us perfect for weekend travelers 200 miles or less away. Many of our weekend visitors have become attracted to staying at one of our 150 rental cabins, our B&B’s or our campgrounds and hotels. We are very fortunate to live in an area that is nearly guaranteed to keep bringing in tourism dollars. Our demographics for tourists tell us they live close enough, have enough money and are the right age to keep coming for many years into the future.

Hallelujah Trail by John Dersham

A few years ago DeKalb Tourism introduced the DeKalb County Hallelujah Trail. The Hallelujah Trail is a brochure guide to a road trip of twenty historic churches in DeKalb County. The brochure contains a picture of each church with a description and a road map to their location. The DeKalb County Hallelujah Trail is part of a grant program from Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association who in 2007 introduced the North Alabama Hallelujah Trail which consisted of thirty two historic churches in North Alabama, including two in DeKalb County. The two in DeKalb County are also included in our brochure. Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association received support grants for their broader project through the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Alabama Department of Tourism and from Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association. AMLTA has been instrumental in the long term support and development of tourism marketing programs geared specifically to developing successful long term tourism in the sixteen North Alabama counties.

I encourage you to take a day or two and go visit these churches. This is a fun and different way to view our beautiful county. If you tour our 20 churches listed you will also be getting a mini vacation throughout our county. Our historic churches cover the entire county. Along the way you can visit our other attractions. You can shop, you can eat and have a day re-discovering your home county with a different motive to lead you on the tour.

The first stop on your Hallelujah Trail daycation should be at DeKalb Tourism’s Information Center at 1503 Glenn Blvd S.W. Here you can pick up the Hallelujah Trail brochure and other travel guides and maps all will help you decide where to go, what to do along your Hallelujah Trail route.

The churches selected for our Hallelujah Trail are as follows:

*Particular churches were chosen based on age or because of other historical significance. A majority of the churches included have had continual congregations for more than one hundred years.


Our Lady of the Valley-Catholic Church in Fort Payne.
First Presbyterian Church of Fort Payne-Also part of North Alabama Hallelujah Trail
First United Methodist Church of Fort Payne
First Baptist Church of Fort Payne
White Hall Methodist Church of Hammondville
Valley Head Methodist Church
Little River Baptist Church- Mentone
Mentone United Methodist Church- Also on the North Alabama Hallelujah Trail
St Joseph’s on the Mountain Episcopal Church-Mentone
Sallie Howard Memorial Chapel- Mentone
New Oregon United Methodist Church- Fort Payne
Walker’s Chapel Methodist Church- Dogtown
Collinsville Presbyterian Church
Collinsville Baptist Church
Skirum Baptist Church
Fyffe Church of God
Robertson Chapel Methodist Church-Rainsville
Chavies Baptist Church-Rainsville
Trinity Methodist Church-Rainsville
Liberty Baptist Church-Henagar

For more information call us at 256-845-3957 or view our website at www.TourDeKalb.com

Have a fun and safe trip!

Happy New Year Everyone by John Dersham

Happy New Year from DeKalb Tourism. We hope you have a blessed and wonderful new year.
In case you are traveling for the New Year’s holiday I thought I would pass along some information on where to go and what destinations around the USA and world bring in the most people for their New Year’s celebrations.
I happened to see a quiz on the news the other night. They asked us to name the number one New Years tourist destination in the USA. I suppose most people like me guessed New York City. According to USA Today the award goes to Orlando who claims they will have 53 million visitors in 2012 as opposed to 50 million for New York City. Orlando’s tourism department “Visit Orlando” claims their numbers are calculated for people come from 50 miles or more. This is a standard tourism calculation. New York City claims Orlando includes a much larger geography in their count which includes multiple counties and New York’s number is only the city and its boroughs. Visit Orlando claims they will have the highest number of tourists in the US for New Year’s celebrations.
Travelocity travel experts have compiled a list of the top 10 New Year’s Eve destinations in the country where travelers can celebrate the New Year, based on Travelocity bookings. From big cities to laid-back beaches and mountain hideaways, the list reveals the diverse locations where travelers plan to welcome 2012.
Top Ten United States
1-Orlando 2-New York City 3-South Florida 4-Las Vegas 5-Los Angeles 6- Denver 7-Cancun 8-San Francisco 9-Phoenix 10-Chicago.
If you have an international preference here is a list of the top ten New Years destinations according to HotelsByCity.net.
1-Sydney, Australia 2-New York City 3-Berlin, Germany 4-London, England 5-Toronto, Ontario 6-Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 7-Tokoyo, Japan 8-Los Angeles 9-Paris, France 10- Disney World Orlando.
To hear more about these destinations and how the rating was determined you can go to the following websites for more information. HotelsByCity.net and Travelocity.com

Photography Tips for the Holiday Season and Beyond by John Dersham

Tips for Holiday pictures: Most digital cameras have very good low light sensors. This means you can take pictures in your living room in low light. Unless your room has a lot of window light, I recommend you use your camera flash. It helps fill in shadows and people will look better. Try to shoot close to your subject so you do not have too much in your scene that is not part of your subject. To shoot nice portraits use window light. Place your subject near a window and look at their faces to make sure shadows do not fall in the wrong places. Hold your camera level and still. Use your camera viewfinder to compose, if it has one. If you are shooting at night and want a good Christmas tree picture and you want it to look like it is night, then turn off your flash and sit the camera on a tripod or other stable hard surface to keep it from shaking during exposure. You should not hand hold a camera with a shutter speed of less than 1/30 of a second. Set your ISO on your camera to at least 800 to 2000 for nighttime interior scenes. Remember to switch it back to 200-400 when outside. Take time to compose your pictures before you shoot them. This will help you have more interesting compositions. Remember, the purpose of photography is to record history. Once you snap the picture it becomes history. Careful consideration of composition will give you pictures that you will want to look at over and over. Download your pictures often and file them with a description as well as the date. Back up your pictures to a CD or another off line backup system. You do not want to lose your valuable memories the next time your computer crashes. I suggest you have the pictures you like best printed on photographic paper at a lab, like Walgreens or Wal-Mart. Photographic paper will last 100 years or more, as long as they are not hanging in direct daylight.
Here are some more tips:
• Good lighting: For scenery shots the best time is early or late in the day. This time of year you should try 8:00am through 11:00 am and 2:00pm through 4:00pm. When the sun is at an angle in the sky the quality of lighting on your scene is much more interesting than when the sun is straight up as it is mid-day.
• Use your flash: When shooting people outside at a range of ten feet or closer, always use your flash. This helps eliminate unsightly shadows on your subjects’ faces.
• Hold your camera level: If you hold your camera level and parallel to your scene you will avoid distortion. Example: when you are at the beach, water is always level. If you hold your camera at even the slightest angle your water will look like it is going uphill. It is easy to tell if your camera is level by looking at the horizon line of your ocean view. If it is a straight line and not angled, then your camera is being held level. The same holds true for shooting landscapes, buildings, road scenes, etc.
• Composition: Good pictures are composed like a piece of art. Before you take a picture look at your available angles. Pick angles that flatter your scene by having a leading line running from the foreground into your scene. Do not crop important subjects too close the edge of the scene. Your horizon line should not be in the middle of your scene, in most cases your foreground should lead into the primary subject with the sky being a third or less of the scene, unless a primary element of the scene is the sky. Remember to hold your camera level and steady. Look at your lighting, shoot at angles where the lighting contributes to your composition. It is best when your primary subject is not in the dead center of the picture. It should be up or down or left or right of center.
• Use your viewfinder: If you have a viewfinder on your camera it is better to compose through it and not through the LCD panel on the back of your digital camera. Using the LCD panel is less stable, is prone to not holding the camera level and is harder to see your composition, especially outside. If your camera can only be used by viewing through a LCD panel then be aware of camera stability and composition.
• Hold your camera with both hands: Your camera should be held steadily using two hands with the camera held squarely and firmly. One hand shots are unsteady and will rarely be held level and parallel to the scene. This is true even if you are shooting at an unusual angle like down on the ground or crouched.
• Make sure when taking pictures of people, their faces are well lighted and do not have unattractive shadows on their faces. Make sure the background behind your subject is simple and free of distractive clutter, such as trees that appear to be growing out of your subjects head.
• If you are shooting a picture that is intended to deliver a message, such as a festival or fair, make sure you show people in the scene doing things and laughing and smiling. Show kids and babies. Show the action of people participating in the event. When promoting tourism or an attraction, you want it to look well attended.
• Shoot your digital pictures on your camera’s highest resolution then resize them smaller if needed for internet use or small print sizes.
• Download your pictures to your computer chronologically and by subject. Make them easy to find no matter how many folders you have.
• Always back up your image files and keep them stored in a different physical location. Use a storage service or back up to CD, thumb drive or other external drive and store those items in a different building or a safety deposit box. Remember, the purpose of photographs is to capture a moment in time, permanently. Losing your images due to computer crashes or accidental catalog problems is very disappointing and can be an irreplaceable loss.

Friends of the Preserve at little River Canyon N.P. by John Dersham

I have been honored to be the first President of the Friends of the Preserve at Little River Canyon N.P. We began a year ago last March and have been active in establishing our 501(c)3 and getting our bylaws and articles of incorporation done. During the course of the last year we have attended multiple festivals, trade shows and exhibitions to gather members and to discuss the attributes of a “friend” organization as it relates to our National Preserve. There are many friends groups for different National Parks. Many of them are quite well established. I am glad we now have one to offer the public at Little River Canyon.
Here is our Mission Statement:
Little River Canyon is a National Preserve located on Lookout Mountain in northeast Alabama. The Friends of the Preserve at Little River, in partnership with the National Park Service, works to support the highest level of preservation, protection, management and interpretation of the natural, cultural and historic resources of approximately 13,000 national park acres.
On October 22nd, we had our first annual member meeting and picnic at Lynn Overlook on the canyon rim. It was a fun day of music food and great conversation. On November 5th, we had our first annual Run the Rim 5K race. There were 65 entrees in this fun and scenic fund raiser along the rim of Little River Canyon.
Friends groups help with providing assistance in efforts to help keep the park clean, trails trimmed and they help with educational services to the travelers visiting the park. Becoming a member of the Friends of the Preserve is a way to support the maintenance, protection and beauty of our beautiful National Preserve. As a member you will be invited to participate in events hosted by the Friends of the Preserve that both celebrate the beauty of our park and also provide the badly needed human resources to help make our park a more valued and enjoyable destination for our visitors and also our local people who enjoy all the wonderful things to do at LRC.
If you have not been to Little River Canyon in the last month, you need to visit the beautiful new boardwalk trail. You enter it at the parking lot at Little River Falls. We should be very proud of the constant improvement the National Park service is dedicating to our preserve. Many Thanks to John Bundy and his staff at Little River Canyon N.P. We are so fortunate to have the wonderful N.P in our backyard.
To learn more about Friends of the Preserve at Little River Canyon go to our website at http://friendsofthepreserve.org/ or visit us on Facebook at Friends of the Preserve at Little River Canyon.

In Hard Times People Still Travel by John Dersham

In a time when the unemployment rate is high and the underemployed is even higher, people are still taking trips. Even in bad overall economic times when it seems most all factions of the economy are down, tourism is continuing to perform at a rate well above the economy. There is an inherent desire among most people to get away from the daily routine and go elsewhere. For us in DeKalb County we are very fortunate to have an extremely high level of appeal to leisure travelers from nearby cities that just want to get away from it all for a few days. We are a weekend tourist destination. Due to the fact we are a two-three hour drive for eleven million people we are a great choice for two, three and four day mini trips. The downturn in the economy beginning in 2008 coupled with higher gas prices has contributed to people taking trips of less distance for a shorter time. This has helped us in many ways due to our close distance, low costs, friendly hospitality and an easy place to get around in, once here.
Last week I attended the State Tourism quarterly meetings. These meeting are always very informative and are a valuable tool for staying abreast on current trends in tourism. They help us know what to promote, how to promote and they give us a good sense of forecasting the upcoming year. In the state of Alabama, tourism dollars spent in our state have more than doubled in the last eight years. Much of this can be attributed to Director Lee Sentel and his staff who have consistently engineered award winning marketing programs to lure tourists to our state. Last week Lee told us the State of Alabama has had a fantastic year and the badly affected Alabama Gulf Coast had a banner year.
More and more cities, counties, states and the federal government are placing a lot more focus on tourism as the proof of economic development thru tourism has become an all star. The proof of our successful numbers both in collecting tax revenues and in creating jobs has created a focus by legislators at all levels to find a way to enhance tourism to the United States and to our local destinations.
This fall in DeKalb County has been a banner season. Colorfest in Mentone had its highest attendance in many years contributed by combining the Mentone Areas Art Council and Mentone Area Preservation Association to form a committee headed by Neal Whitt to re-invent the festival. It worked! Beginning in early October and still happening currently, guests to our county on fall foliage vacations is very high. We anticipate stable tourism through Thanksgiving then typically we have a soft time in total but will have good crowds at Cloudmont Ski and Golf resort in Mentone.