Summertime Tourism by John Dersham

We are currently at the peak of our annual travel season here in DeKalb County. This year we have suffered some of the consequences of our nation’s economic downturn, but not nearly as much as the national numbers for tourism. There are several reasons for this. DeKalb County is a drive to destination with an audience of 11 million people within 200 miles. This makes us an easy two or three day vacation. We are blessed with an interstate system that is easily accessible from most every direction. Over half of our tourist visitors are from Alabama and many of them are from Birmingham and south Alabama where we are viewed as a beautiful quiet mountainous departure from the flatter terrain to the south and from the bigger noisier cities. The same is true from some of our other large markets, which are, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida. In a time of a suffering economy, high job losses and more expensive costs of living our fairly close drive to destination fits the bill.
Alabama is a young upcoming state in the area of tourism. We are just getting a good foothold in nationwide and international tourism. Places like Orlando and Florida in general have the opposite problem of being mature travel destinations. This makes it very difficult to achieve growth, especially in a down economy. Orlando tourism is down 40% right now while DeKalb County and the State of Alabama are lest then minus 10% year to date.
Much of our success in tourism is because of you our Tourist Association members who are making your living in the tourism industry. You have done a great job at developing businesses to be consistent with the type of leisure tourism we attract. Tourism entities in DeKalb County have done a great job at developing businesses that fit comfortably into our environment and culture. This is why our tourists come here so often. We have a very high tourist return rate.
Everyday at the tourist association we hear how beautiful, well laid out and relaxing our area is. We often hear people say they are coming here for the same reason they used to go to Gatlinburg, but now, Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area is so overdeveloped that it is no longer a comfortable relaxing vacation. Our goal at the Tourist Association is to develop growth in tourism without destroying the very elements that made us a great destination to begin with.
If you have ideas and thoughts about the above subject or any others and you are willing to share we would love to hear from you. Please email us your thoughts, ideas, concerns, success stories and other comments. Email info@tourdekalb.com