DeKalb Tourism 2 by John Dersham

DeKalb Tourism is the primary organization promoting tourism in DeKalb County. We are a non profit organization and are funded by the county lodging tax, grants and city appropriations.

Here are the ways we promote:
Tourist Information Center - We are open seven days a week to answer questions about our area, give directions and show guests places to go and things to do, where to eat and shop, historical locations, scenic attractions, lodging, parks etc. We promote businesses verbally and by giving our customers your printed information. We send visitors to you when they are looking for your kind of business.
Official DeKalb County Visitor’s Guide with QR code – Our guide provides current and potential tourists information about all the things to see and do in DeKalb County, which would be inviting to the tourist. This guide is the single most distributed travel guide promoting DeKalb County. We give our visitor’s guides out in our information center; we mail them out from phone and internet requests, we distribute them at conventions and travel shows, at welcome centers, mini markets, hotels, motels, state parks, and many other places all throughout the southeast.
Official County Tourism Website – Tourism related businesses are included on our website with a description of your business, a direct link to your website and email, phone number, address and other requested information. We average 30,000 website visits a month and we are the primary resource worldwide for people needing travel information about our county. Included in our website is an interactive version of our DeKalb County Visitor’s Guide. This one can be printed or viewed on line. It has a page turn feature, you can magnify the images and it contains live links to your website. In addition our website has links to online video’s and articles. You can request to have your video or article reviewed for inclusion on our website.

Travel Writers - We work closely with travel writers and other news media to see that articles are regularly considered for publication in magazines and newspapers nationwide. We submit press releases to magazines, newspapers and radio stations to promote travel articles on places, events and businesses in DeKalb County.
State Affiliations - We network closely with the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association, The Alabama Tourism Department, the Alabama Travel Council, Chambers and CVB organizations all across our state.

Here are additional services we offer:
* Digital Marquee at one of Fort Payne’s busiest intersections. We promote your tourism related business on it.
*Weekly newspaper Column to promote Tourism in DeKalb County
*Member? educational seminars
*Television advertising campaigns
*Radio Advertising
*Magazine and Newspaper Ads
*Website
* YouTube video’s
*Facebook
*Presence as an exhibitor at state and regional travel shows
*Provide education and presentations to local clubs, civic organizations and area businesses
*Provide help with member ad campaigns
*Support local activities and festivals
*Provide general information about our county, our towns, municipal services, churches, history, maps and a host of general information for the community, for the traveler and for new residents.

*We promote businesses that out of town tourists would be interested in visiting. We do not represent local businesses that do not have a tourism draw. We do, however offer information at our information center to guests that ask about non tourism businesses like, auto service, health care, construction, retail (non tourist related) etc. We keep information on real estate and related information for people who would like to move to DeKalb County.

If you have questions please contact DeKalb Tourism at 256-845-3957