Travel South Showcase by John Dersham

Travel South Showcase

Last week I attended the Travel South Showcase in Birmingham. This convention gives us the opportunity to sell group tour operators our destination. Travel South is an organization that includes representatives in the tourism industry from twelve southern states. The annual showcase, which can take place in any of the twelve member states, is an intense two days of scheduled meetings with tour providers. The providers that come to this convention may be different each year. The companies present each year are the companies interested in booking tours to southern destinations.
Each year people like myself who are in the tourism industry sign up to attend this convention. The work begins a couple months in advance when each attendee begins booking their appointments for the upcoming convention. Each appointment is an opportunity to convince a tour provider to use our destination, as a trip. The tour providers come from all over the world and they number into the hundreds. They have one thing in common this year; they are at this convention because they want to plan some southern tours.
I booked as many appointments as I could get into the two day schedule. I came prepared with tour plans, brochures, maps and a cover letter. I had nine minutes available per individual meeting. In these nine minutes I got the chance to sell the tour planner on using DeKalb County as one of their upcoming destinations. This year I had 40 meetings. The tour providers I met with came from all over the country and the world. Some of the meetings I had were with tour providers from Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri and three different ones from the UK. We are beginning to receive more interest in our area from international markets.
In the last couple years DeKalb County has had five tours. Each tour spends an estimated $28,000 dollars in DeKalb County. The groups usually come by bus and have between 35 and 45 people on the tour. We strive to get them to spend at least one night in one of our lodging facilities. We help with their planning, where to go and what to do. We often ride on the bus with them and serve as an on bus guide and also give the history and key footnotes about our area.
Each tour we line up adds important dollars of revenue to our local economy. Each tour also increases our visibility and promotes valuable word of mouth advertising. This is why we try to provide the very best customer service to these companies and to the guests on board the buses. We want them to go home and tell their friends and family that DeKalb County Alabama was one of the prettiest and friendliest places they have ever visited.

True Adventure Sports by John Dersham

True Adventure Sports

Ah, it is finally spring in beautiful, wonderful DeKalb County. It is time to get out after having to hibernate most of the winter and enjoy all the wonderful outdoor venues we have in our county.
One of our outdoor venues may be one you have overlooked, or have never participated. True Adventure Sports is a local guide service and outfitter. They specialize in guided trips which include; rappelling, rock climbing, flat-water and whitewater kayaking or canoeing, backpacking, extreme night hiking, wild cave tours, mountain biking, camping, hiking and zip lines. True Adventure Sports can provide food, lodging and transportation for groups and they provide all necessary gear for their guided trips. TAS offers classes in rappelling, rock climbing and knot tying. If you want to go it on your own but do not have the equipment, True Adventure Sports offers rental equipment for canoeing, and kayaking. They offer rental tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, headlamps, shoes, trailers, jet skis and mopeds. Note: minimal rental times vary by product.
A few days ago I spoke with owner, founder and entrepenuer Israel Partridge about his ever growing business. He reported to me a number of projects in the works and some others scheduled to begin in the near future.
“We have added a permanent 250’ Zip Line just off Little River Canyon that is now in operation, and are adding five more segments to that to make it a canopy tour. We offer it day or night, with it being lit by tiki torches by night making it a tiki tour.
We also have two 80’ swinging bridges under construction connecting the zip line tour.
We have added a 100’ sky swing at the same much like a sky coaster location off the canyon.”
“We are under construction with a new building featuring a full climbing gym, indoor rappelling towers, confined space rescue chambers, retail store, and bunk rooms. In addition we have plans for a coffee bar in the gazebo connected to the outside of the building.”
“By next summer we are adding an Olympic size swimming pool for classes and swim membership.”
Israel stated the building project is under way, but will most likely not be finished until the end of the summer. You can see some earlier pictures of the construction at the website listed below.
True Adventure Sports is located at 13102 AL Hwy. 176 in the Dogtown, Lickskillet area near Little River Canyon National Preserve. For more information about True Adventure Sports and a list of their upcoming events call True Adventure Sports at 256-997-9577 or check out their website at www.trueadventuresports.com.

Selling DeKalb County at Travel Shows by John Dersham

Selling DeKalb County at Travel Shows

This year the DeKalb County Tourist Association will attend a number of travel shows. These travel shows help us sell our area as a travel destination. The DeKalb County Tourist Association works at these travel shows in conjunction with North Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association and the Alabama Department of Tourism and Travel. In total we have about 50’ of exhibit area. Thousands of people over a 7-10 day period visit each large travel show. We get hundreds that come by our exhibit and talk to us about our area. It gives us a chance to encourage potential travelers to come here on their vacation. This winter I worked the Cincinnati and Indianapolis travel shows. Other people representing tourism in North Alabama worked Louisville, St. Louis and New Orleans. Later this spring the DeKalb County Tourist Association will have our exhibit at three mall travel shows, including; Cool Springs Galleria in Franklin, TN, Hamilton Place in Chattanooga, TN and Mt. Berry Square in Rome GA. We pick the markets we want to attend based on a collection of information coming from website inquires, information collected in our information center guest book, and phone calls. This gives us information on where people are from. We are a drive to market. We find most of our visitors come from 300 miles or less. Our guests come because of our relaxing scenic venues. They come from non mountainous areas just to have a mountain get-away. We are the closest mountains for many parts of Louisiana, Southern Alabama, Florida Panhandle, Mississippi, Central Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, mostly along the I-65, and I-59 corridors. We find East Tennessee and North Georgia are not big customers of ours because they have their own mountains. Many people coming to our area and to other locations in North Alabama are coming to fish, hike and camp. Others come on scenic driving tours and many of these tourists seek out B&B’s or rental cabins. Golf at the Robert Trent Jones trails is big in some parts of North Alabama as is sports tournaments. DeKalb County fares best in the leisure traveler market. Our area is very well known and very well liked in all of the areas I mentioned above. Our Lookout Mountain Scenic Parkway is host to many motorcycle tours, antique auto tours and regular scenic passenger travel through Little River Canyon National Preserve and DeSoto State Park and DeSoto Falls. In addition our scenic parkway is the host road through our section of the extremely popular World’s Longest Yard Sale, every August.
In addition to visitors, we are getting quite a few people moving to our area from the above mentioned; especially Louisiana and Mississippi. During the winter months we get a nice share of Canadians and Northeasterners coming south to escape awful cold and snowy weather. Many go to Florida and work their way back up through our area.

Beautiful, Wonderful and Historic Fort Payne by John Dersham

We live in a wonderful town. It is very scenic and is full of friendly people. It is a wonderful place to work and to do business and it is a fantastic town to raise a family. The Boom Days of Fort Payne helped give our town a very distinct history, visually and culturally, Fort Payne is very special and quite different town from any other in Alabama.
Some of you may know I am a photographer with a perpetual darkroom for nearly 50 years. I am also a history buff. The combination of the two interests allows me an opportunity and the desire to combine my interests toward preservation of historical photographs.
Last summer Judy and Joe Brown were nice enough to entrust me with their 6x8 Glass Plates (negatives) taken in the late 1880’s for a brochure of Fort Payne with the intent of promoting Fort Payne to New Englanders as a prosperous and upcoming industrial town focusing on coal and iron. The brochure would hopefully inspire new business and industry to move their operations to Fort Payne. The plates themselves are unusual in that they are 6x8 instead of the customary 5x7, which was popular at the time. It is believed the original camera that took the pictures is the one that is part of the Landmarks of DeKalb County Inc., archives.
The plates that I am printing will be done on 11x14 silver rich bromide photographic paper which is archival in nature and will provide a look similar to the papers of the subject matter era. I am using archival chemistry and putting the images through a selenium toning process that turns the silver to selenium, which is more stable. I will dry mount the images using 100% acid free rag mounts with acid free dry mounting tissue. The expected life of the prints is 300 years. In order for the prints to be archival, no retouching can be done on the prints. This means whatever is on the negative will show on the print. Over time many of the negatives have scratched, or patches of the emulsion have come off. At the same time I make the prints I will make a high resolution digital file on Cd. Once the images are digital then the blemishes can be removed for future digital printing or publication.
The prints (approximately 35), will be a donation from me and my family to Landmarks of DeKalb County Inc. Judy Brown has told me they plan on exhibiting the prints in Hunt Reception Hall. I am honored to play a role in helping preserve our rich history here in Fort Payne.

Lookout Mountain Photography Club by John Dersham

Lookout Mountain Photography Club

There is a new Photography club in DeKalb County for all of you photo enthusiasts.
The Lookout Mountain Photography Club formed on Jan 15th and is part of the Mentone Area Arts council.
The Lookout Mountain Photography Club has the intent to create the following;
A place for photography lovers to meet and talk and learn about photography on a monthly basis.
The club will have guest speakers whom will talk about their area of expertise in photography.
The club will have show and tell. You will be invited to show your prints, slides, or digital media.
The club will offer photo contests to interested parties. The competitions will be done by subject matter. A guest judge will pick winners based on the criterion of the subject matter chosen for that month.
The club will have field trips for its members. The field trips will provide an opportunity to photograph interesting or scenic places with other interested parties whom you can share information and photo technique.
The club will have a Facebook Fan Page (Lookout Mountain Photography Club) for members to submit photos and to talk about their work.
Photography is a wonderful hobby. It allows you many diverse niches of which to become interested. Any subject can become your art. It can be people, sports, landscape, still life, texture, close up, flowers, insects or it can be a host of fine art alternative methods. You can use film, shoot digital, video, have a darkroom, use Photoshop or pursue both. Photography equipment is fun to own and talk about. Photography is a hobby for anybody, at any age. The more pictures you take and the better your technique becomes the more enthused you get about improving your work.
The next club meeting will be February 19th at 6:30 p.m. at the Mentone Inn. I (John Dersham) will give a PowerPoint slide presentation on photo composition and impact. There are no dues to join. The club is open to all people interested in photography.
For more information contact John Dersham at the DeKalb County Tourist Association 845-3957 or Neal Whitt at the Mentone Area Arts Council at 634-3334.

Let’s Ski! by John Dersham

Last weekend I spent much of the time driving around our county taking pictures related to tourism for our county. The roads were mostly free of travelers until I got to Cloudmont Ski Resort and it was packed. What a great sight it was to see so many people enjoying DeKalb County and the only Ski Resort nearby and the only one in the state of Alabama. It was a beautiful Saturday morning about 10:00am when I arrived to find a crowded parking lot and skiers lined up to take the pony lift to the top for their exciting ski ride to the bottom. It was the perfect day for such a thing. It was cold but the sun made it perfect out here. Both slopes were in full operation and all the surrounding scenery was snow and ice covered. This is exactly why hundreds were there and thousands will come during the season at Cloudmont which lasts from the middle of December till it becomes too warm to make snow and keep it on the slopes. There have been some years skiing continued into March and occasionally April.
Cloudmont is fun for the whole family from the beginner to serious amateur. Equipment to ski and lessons are available as you arrive.
If you haven’t been skiing now is the time to give it a try. You will have fun. For more information call 256-634-4344 or go to www.cloudmont.com

Lookout Mountain Scenic Parkway by John Dersham

We have one of America’s most scenic drives right here in DeKalb County. The Lookout Mountain Scenic Parkway is a state scenic byway and is in the beginning stages of becoming a National Scenic Byway. Lookout Mountain Parkway runs from Gadsden, Alabama to Chattanooga, Tennessee through the Northwest corner of Georgia. The parkway runs 103 miles from its beginning at Noccalula Falls in Gadsden to its terminus at Ruby Falls in Chattanooga. The mountain itself is 93 miles long but the parkway meanders for added scenic value to its travelers. Over the last several years Lookout Mountain Parkway has been honored by Readers Digest as one of America’s Most Scenic Drives and by National Geographic Traveler Magazine’s Driving Tours of Appalachia. Thirty seven miles of this beautiful drive are in our county giving our county the longest single portion of the drive.
Lookout Mountain Parkway is beautiful year-round with its host of scenic venues along the way including Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden, Alabama then north through beautiful rural countryside up to Little River Canyon National Preserve. The scenic parkway includes an alternate drive along the rim of the canyon with multiple easily accessible overlooks that provide breath-taking views into the canyon. Little River Canyon National Preserve is host to many, many plant and animal species, some of which are native only to the canyon. Lookout Mountain Parkway runs through the portion of the eastern USA that is the transition geography between northern and southern plant and animal species and in this particular area many species of both northern and southern plants and animals thrive. After Little River Canyon you head north toward DeSoto State Park. From DeSoto State Park you will enjoy a seven mile wilderness drive to Mentone. Along the way you will see a short drive off the parkway to go visit the 104 foot DeSoto Falls. In Mentone you will find a host of cabins, B&B’s, restaurants and quaint artsy gift shops. Located in Mentone is the Mentone Springs Hotel built in 1884 which is now a B&B, it is the oldest hotel in Alabama still in operation. From Mentone follow the LMP signs that will lead you into Georgia and north along the eastern brow of Lookout Mountain. You will gradually work your way north toward Cloudland Canyon State Park, which is a short drop off the parkway. Cloudland Canyon is another marvel of Mother Nature that will make your Lookout Mountain Parkway trip well worth while. As you head toward Cloudland Canyon you will finish your trip back on the western brow of the mountain until you head down the mountain in Chattanooga. Along the western brow you will find Lookout Mountain Flight Park. It is the largest and most popular Hang Gliding resort and school in the US. Later along the drive you will pass Covenant College, known as the castle in the clouds from its prior days as a resort hotel. It can often be seen covered in fog when viewed from I-59 and I-24. Other things to see in as you head toward Tennessee are the famous Rock City located just before the Tennessee state line. Rock City is known for its view of seven states and for its incredible rock formations. As Lookout Mountain begins its decline down to Moccasin Bend on the Tennessee River you will find the quaint artsy town of Lookout Mountain Tennessee. Just off the parkway are Point Park Civil War Park and the famous incline railroad bringing you up or down from the foot of the mountain below. Finally there is Ruby Falls. This water fall is underground inside Lookout Cave. You ride in an elevator into the cave for this magnificent view of Ruby Falls. Lookout Mountain Parkway is the host to the southern portion of the very popular World’s Longest Yard Sale every August.
John Dersham Executive Director of the DeKalb County Tourist Association will serve as President of the Lookout Mountain Parkway Association in 2010.