Governors Conference on Tourism by John Dersham

Governors Conference on Tourism

Last week I attended the 40th Annual Governors Conference. This year it was at the Renaissance Hotel in Montgomery. Every year the Alabama Travel Council Inc. and the Alabama Department of Tourism host this great annual event. Attendees represent individuals whom make their living in the tourism industry throughout our state.
The primary function is to learn what is going on in our industry, nationally and in Alabama. We have guest speakers from all over the US who teach us the latest in tourism marketing and advertising. We get updates on how each area of Alabama is doing this year. We get to network with others and get great ideas to bring home with us. Some of our guest speakers this year were:

* Roger Dow-President of U.S Travel Association- Roger is the official face of tourism for the U.S. He can be seen regularly on network and cable news.
*Lee Sentell- State Director of Tourism and Travel - Lee unveiled the marketing and advertising plan for 2011 with a recap of this year. Lee and the Alabama Department of Tourism have won multiple prestigious nationwide tourism awards for their “Year of“ programs such as: Year of Small Towns and Downtowns (this year), Year of Alabama History, and Year of Alabama Arts. There have been eight such themed “Year of” programs all focusing on one aspect of our great state. Next year will be the Year of Alabama Music.
* David Bronner - CEO Retirement Systems of Alabama and the owner of Renaissance Hotels, Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and 46 television stations in 13 states.
*Legislative Update with Representatives Craig Ford, David Grimes, Johnny Mack Morrow, Cam Ward, Richard Lindsey and Senators Lowell Barron, Wendell Mitchell and Del Marsh. Each Legislator updated us on issues and legislation concerning tourism related subjects. The primary legislative issues tourism is interested in are; Later School Start Date and regulated, taxed Gambling. Passage of each would generate more tourism to Alabama and more money to the general fund of Alabama which helps support education.
*Roger Brooks-CEO of Destination Development International - Roger is a leader in developing long term branding for tourist destinations.

In addition to a great three days of continuing education concerning important tourism topics, we had our two gubernatorial candidates speak to us. Dr. Robert Bentley and Ron Sparks took the stage to tell us their platforms and to comment on their position in tourism related legislation. They both agreed that tourism is crucial to the income of Alabama and critical to the state’s general fund. Tourism is the state’s largest employer with nearly 168,000 jobs. Last year tourism brought 9.3 billion dollars in spending to Alabama.