Tourist Association Is Working For You by John Dersham

Our new sign is up and working and our digital display is back in business. Our new sign is more colorful and includes a phone number and website address. Our digital marquee is higher on the pole and easier to read from more directions.
We appreciate all the support we receive from the Times Journal and from the city of Fort Payne and from DeKalb County. Tourism is an important income provider to our cities and our county. We are very fortunate at the tourist association to have leaders whom fully understand tourisms important role.
For those of you unsure of how a tourist association works I wanted to tell you about ourselves.
In 1954 a bill passed that provided a lodging tax to support promoting tourism in Alabama. Many other states operate the same way. The bulk of our income is from this lodgings tax and from our annual membership fees.
Our job is to promote tourism statewide, regionally, nationwide and worldwide to get people to plan a vacation in our county. Here are some of the ways we promote. We run Television commercials, radio ads, newspaper and magazine ads, we attend travel shows where we pass out travel guides and provide information about our destination which includes information about our members. We have a website which includes all the information available about our county, things to do, places to go and where to eat. We circulate travel brochures all around our region. These are displayed in travel racks throughout the southeast. We distribute brochures and other printed media to callers on the phone and ones who order information from our website. If you are a member of our association then your brochures and website information is distributed at our information center in Fort Payne. We pass out your flyers, we advertise your business on our digital marquee and we include you in our advertising and brochure distribution. We make sure visitors to our area know who you are and what business you are in.
Thanks again to all of you for supporting tourism in DeKalb County. If you are interested in membership please contact us at 256-845-3957 or email us at info@tourdekalb.com