• Sweet Home Saving campaign to boost August tourism
• Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism is Aug. 17-20 in Huntsville
• A changed Birmingham embraces a troubled past
• National Park Service endorses Black Belt plan
• Music festival highlights tunes and downtown Birmingham revitalization
• BayFest Music Festival generates millions of dollars for city, county and state
• Legislator adds property to loop of North Alabama Birding Trail
• Montgomery Riverfront Wake Battle
• Joey Allcorn plans Hank Williams tribute to benefit Hank Museum
• Lawrence County Arts Council presents $20,000 to Lawrence County Schools for creation of art program
• Sign-up for International Showcase in Nashville
• Space & Rocket Center CEO receives NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal
• Twenty years of hospitality Herb Malone reflects on the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau’s 20-year history
• Tuscaloosa Tourism & Sports Commission, assistant director of corporate & group tourism needed
• Alabama Tourism Department (ATD) upcoming events
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Sweet Home Saving campaign to boost August tourism
Industry partners can enter their deals for Alabama residents to enjoy during the month of August at restaurants, accommodations, ticketed attractions and gated events as part of a campaign to take advantage of later school year starts. This is an in-state campaign to boost tourism throughout Alabama during August. Enter your deal today to take part in this exciting, free campaign. Visit www.sweethomesaving.com\portal to take advantage of this free tourism promotion campaign.
Participating is easy.
1. Visit sweethomesaving.com\portal to register your business or organization in the campaign.
2. Enter your special deal. You can select from suggested deals or enter any deal you like. You can update or change your deals as needed. Website visitors will be informed that deals are subject to change, and to “book or reserve now OR call to confirm deals before you travel.”
3. The website and deals will be promoted through a full-scale marketing and advertising campaign this summer. You can benefit from the free promotion of your business and your deals through the Sweet Home Saving™ campaign.
Visit sweethomesaving.com\portal and promote your exciting deals for Alabama residents in Aug.
For questions or more information, write info@compassmedia.com or call (251) 967-7572.
Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism is Aug. 17-20 in Huntsville
Mark your calendars for the Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism, Aug. 17-20, at the Westin Hotel in Huntsville next to Bridge Street with its’ seventy upscale shops, restaurants, movie theater and spa just footsteps away.
For information and registration, go to: www.algovernorsconference.com
An Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism Facebook Page has been created. The link to it is http://www.facebook.com/AlabamaGovernorsConferenceOnTourism. If you have a FB account please “like” the page and “share” it on your page and/or invite your friends to like it.
Make a difference by donating to the AGCT Silent Auction to benefit the Alabama Tourism & Hospitality Industry Scholarship Fund
The Silent Auction held during the Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism benefits the Alabama Tourism & Hospitality Industry Scholarship Fund. The AGCT Silent Auction has risen over $202,000 over the past 20 years. Scholarships are awarded annually to students currently working toward degrees in the field of hospitality, tourism, hotel, culinary or food service management. Students enrolled in four-year colleges/universities must be at least a second semester freshman, but no further along than a second semester junior at time of application. Students from two-year colleges must be at least in their second semester of their first year, but no further along than their first semester of their second year at time of application.
To make a Silent Auction Donation please visit: http://www.algovernorsconference.com/silent-auction/. Scholarships will be awarded during the Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism, August 17-20 at the Westin Huntsville.
Conference registration, full agenda and hotel reservations are available online at: http://algovernorsconference.com/.
Wine and Craft Beer Pull scholarship fundraiser
The Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism is bringing back the Wine Pull Fundraiser to the annual conference to be held August 17—20, in Huntsville. Last year more than $2,000 was raised for the Hospitality and Tourism Industry “Scholarship Fund” and the 2013 goal is to double that amount. A Craft Beer Pull is being added to this year’s fundraiser venue.
What is a wine and beer pull?
An opportunity to pay $10 for a bottle of wine or assorted craft beers ranging in value from $20 to $120 or more.
Donate a bottle of wine or craft beer
Please help award more scholarship dollars by donating at least one bottle of wine or craft beer (valued at $20 or more). When you register for the Alabama Governor’s Conference, please commit to donating a bottle of wine, craft beer or a cash commitment. The Alabama Tourism Partnership will be glad to do the shopping for you.
Convenient donation drop-off locations
For your convenience drop-off locations are available in three regions of the State: South, Central, and North. Please contact the Alabama Travel Council directly and we are happy to make pick up arrangements with you.
For more information, contact: morgan@alabamatravel.org, or call (334) 271-0050
A changed Birmingham embraces a troubled past
by Rick Hampson, USA TODAY, July 26
Rare is the city that features, on the home page of its website, a period photo of two helmeted white cops handcuffing a young black woman.
But things have changed in Birmingham, where the grim black-and-white image promotes a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s campaign to integrate the city’s public facilities.
It was a time when the city’s public safety commissioner, the fittingly nicknamed Bull Connor, was a world-famous brute, and when its own nickname, thanks to dozens of unsolved, racially motivated explosions, was “Bombingham.”
And 1963 was the year when a desperate King sent children out against police lines; when dogs and hoses were loosed on them; when a Klansmen’s bomb at a church killed four girls dressed in Sunday white.
This turning point in the civil rights movement is marked this year in a series of events and exhibitions.
“It seems Birmingham is really dealing with its own history,” says Laura Schultz of Wilmington, N.C., on a visit with her two children to the city’s civil rights sites. “It’s honestly confronting its past.”
That past includes these landmark events of 1963:
King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” written on scrap paper while the civil rights leader was in solitary confinement for protest-marching in violation of a court order, was his stirring reply to a call from moderate white religious leaders to adopt less confrontational tactics.
The “Children’s Crusade,” the result of King’s decision — highly controversial at the time within the movement — to allow hundreds of students to demonstrate. They were attacked by dogs, pummeled by high-pressure fire hoses and thrown in jails with common criminals.
The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, which, along with the images of police brutality from the demonstrations earlier in the year, helped swing U.S. public opinion against legal segregation.
King said he targeted Birmingham because it was “the most segregated city in the United States.” Here, a confluence of post-Civil War industrialization and Jim Crow racism produced something like an American apartheid. Segregation was specified on zoning maps and extended even to elevators. The races shared streets, sewers and little else.
King’s plan was to force the city to integrate rest rooms, lunch counters and other places with a boycott of downtown stores and illegal but non-violent marches.
To read the entire article, go to: http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2013/07/26/a-changed-birmingham-embraces-a-troubled-past/2588699/
National Park Service endorses Black Belt plan
by Mary Orndorff Troyan, Gannett Washington Bureau, The Montgomery Advertiser, August 2
The National Park Service has endorsed a proposal to make Alabama’s Black Belt a national heritage area, a designation local officials say would improve economic development and tourism opportunities.
“We do believe the area contains some very significant, nationally significant sites,” said Stephanie Toothman, associate director of cultural relations with the National Park Service.
Agency officials are working with the Center for the Study of the Black Belt at the University of West Alabama on the final details of the plan, including its financial resources, boundaries and explanation of its national importance.
Toothman told a congressional committee this week that the National Park Service expects the work to be done in August and “we’re committing to a very quick turnaround so we can move this forward.”
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, and U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, are sponsoring legislation to create the Alabama Black Belt National Heritage Area. But the bill is unlikely to become law without support from the federal agency that will help manage oversight of the project, so Wednesday’s testimony from Toothman was important.
“We are hopeful and excited and working hard on coordinating with the National Park Service,” Tina Naremore Jones, executive director of the Center for the Study of the Black Belt at UWA, said Friday.
Alabama’s congressional delegation tried before to gain national heritage area status but was unsuccessful. This time, the proposal does not include a request for $10 million, a change intended to improve its chances of becoming law.
Although it wouldn’t get direct federal funding, the area would be eligible to apply for competitive state and federal grants as well as private funding for restoration and improvements.
The proposal would add national designation to the existing Alabama Black Belt Heritage Area, which includes Bibb, Bullock, Butler, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Monroe, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Sumter, Washington and Wilcox counties.
Named for its dark, fertile soil, the area is home to major events in the nation’s civil rights movement as well as ecologically important waterways and species.
National heritage areas are not owned or managed by the National Park Service, but the agency provides technical assistance to local leaders responsible for the areas.
The existing heritage area is overseen by a volunteer board of directors and a task force that meets regularly to handle the planning, marketing, educational and economic development projects involved. Future projects include adding signs, walking and audio tours, a video presentation for local museums and oral history recordings.
National heritage areas receive federal designation if they have “nationally distinctive natural, cultural, historic and scenic resources that, when linked together, tell a unique story about our country,” according to the park service.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013308030039
Music festival highlights tunes and downtown Birmingham revitalization
by Vanessa Araiza, WSFA TV, Aug. 2
It’s a big weekend for downtown Birmingham as the music festival Secret Stages kicks off.
The festival isn’t just a chance to highlight the city’s music scene. Organizers say it could also drum up additional support to revitalize the Magic City.
Lindsay Garrett is the volunteer coordinator for Secret Stages. She says the music event is just another way to bring people back to the downtown area.
“It’s so great because not only does it draw attention to the middle of the city it also draws attention to a lot of things that are being built up,” she said.
“I think people leave town sometimes and don’t realize what’s going on right here in the downtown area,” Brant Beene said.
Beene works with Birmingham Landmarks Incorporated and says the Lyric Theater, a once thriving vaudeville theater, is making a comeback and it’s already having an impact on nearby buildings.
“There are three developments around the theater that have now begun,” Beene said.
One building will eventually offer 40 loft spaces and the Pythiam Temple of Alabama reached 60 percent capacity in the last six months. Another building near the McWane Science Center will have more lofts and a restaurant.
And it’s not just 3rd Avenue North that’s gaining momentum.
“The 2nd Avenue North area where El Barrio is and other places like that, that’s a sprig. This 3rd Avenue group is a sprig and just like sprigging a lawn, you put in these places that area vibrant and growing and pretty soon all of those things grow together,” Beene said.
Garrett says Secret Stages continues to grow each year and she’s seen the succes it can have in helping downtown become vibrant again.
Beene says the Lyric Theater is slated to reopen at the end of 2014.
http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=23035314
BayFest Music Festival generates millions of dollars for city, county and state
Mobile, June 18
New economic impact study proves festival is a huge tourist draw and money maker
BayFest Music Festival 2012 had a total monetary impact to the City of Mobile of more than $42 million dollars, up more than 13% from 2011. The revenue is generated from economic tourists, organization output and residents, according to a new impact study led by Dr. Christopher Keshock, an economics professor at the University of South Alabama. BayFest had similarly strong impacts on Mobile County and the State of Alabama, generating more than $34 million and $24 million respectively. The study polled more than a thousand people who attended BayFest 2012, and collected information from 31 questions on everything from length of stays and group size to hometown and dollars spent during visit.
“BayFest continues to have an incredible impact not only on the Mobile economy, but on our state as well, said BayFest President & CEO Bobby Bostwick. “We are going into our 19th year stronger than ever. This report proves beyond any doubt that BayFest provides a hefty return on investment and is vital to the City, County and State.”
The 2012 study followed a similar examination of BayFest’s impact in 2011. Bostwick says a 13% increase is huge, especially since so many music festivals across the country are experiencing financial problems. According to BayFest Executive Director Shana Jordan, “The festival’s ticket value and family-friendly atmosphere keeps us coming back stronger year after year.”
The Keshock study also shows the City of Mobile collected more than $12 million in sales tax revenue while Mobile County and the State of Alabama both took in more than $7 million from people traveling to the area for the festival. “At a time when State, County and City revenues are stretched this study proves BayFest’s worth as a revenue generator,” Bostwick said.
According to Keshock, the impact to the state and region is far greater than sales tax revenue alone. The study states that while generating revenue and a return on a community’s investment is a top priority, successful events like BayFest are also an important contributing factor in the overall well-being of a host area and they are an important part of the quality of life.
BayFest 2013 is on track to meet, if not surpass, 2012’s impact with another stellar lineup of entertainers in all genres of music October 4, 5, and 6. For more information, please contact Shana Jordan at sjordan@bayfest.com or 251.478.5679.
Legislator adds property to loop of North Alabama Birding Trail
by David Rainer of the Department of Conservation & Natural Resources, The Gadsden Times, Aug. 2
The newest addition to the Northwest Loop of the North Alabama Birding Trail was unveiled recently, thanks to the generosity of Alabama State Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, D-Red Bay, and his wife, Dr. Martha Morrow.
The Morrows’ property, Cypress Cove Farm, near Red Bay, becomes stop No. 51 on the North Alabama Birding Trail.
Mark Sasser, Nongame Wildlife Program coordinator with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division, said the North Alabama Birding Trail was developed by WFF through grants and funds from the counties in north Alabama.
“When we started the North Alabama Birding Trail in 2002, for whatever reason, Franklin County was not included,” Sasser said. “About a year-and-a-half ago, Johnny Mack Morrow, state representative, called me and said, ‘We have a farm in Franklin County, and we would like to be added to the North Alabama Birding Trail.’ Because we needed sites in Franklin County, I went up and visited his farm and made some recommendations.
“Rep. Morrow had already done a whole lot. He had flooded some ponds for waterfowl, and he had hiking trails. We recommended that he thin some timber stands to make it more open for wildlife. He’s developed even more trails. We provided information for interpretive panels, and they put up those panels along the trails.”
The Morrows still live on the property and maintain all the trails and wildlife habitat enhancements.
http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20130802/NEWS/130809975/1016/NEWS?Title=Legislator-adds-property-to-loop-of-North-Alabama-Birding-Trail
Montgomery Riverfront Wake Battle
Russell Marine will sponsor the inaugural Riverfront Wake Battle Wakeboarding competition in Montgomery, Sat., Aug. 10 and Sun., Aug. 11. This first time event will run in conjunction with the City of Montgomery’s “Second Saturday” Riverfront event in downtown Montgomery sponsored by Stivers Ford and PNC Bank. The event will feature live music from Trotline, food, art, and a spectacular fireworks show. The wakeboard competition will be held on Saturday from 9:30 AM till 6:00 p.m. and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. and is free to view. Don’t miss the Big Air competition from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday!
With fourteen divisions in the competition, there is a spot for riders of all ages and all levels. Entry fee is $40 per rider and includes an official Riverfront Wake Battle t-shirt. Winners of each division will receive a customized trophy and a total of $7500 in prize money will be awarded! The fourteen classes/divisions are: 12 & under girl’s open, 12 & under boy’s division, 13-16 girl’s division, 13-16 boy’s division, girl’s beginner, men’s beginner, girl’s intermediate, masters, wakeskate, girl’s advanced, men’s advanced, outlaw and men’s open pro. This competition will be a WWA sanctioned event with Nautique as the featured tow boat. Register now at russellmarine.net or call 256-212-1479 for details.
Joey Allcorn plans Hank Williams tribute to benefit Hank Museum
SavingCountryMusic.com, July 30
Country music throwback Joey Allcorn, known for his classic style and appreciation for traditional country, is putting together a benefit album for the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery, AL. Also slated to appear on the album are the Queen of Underground Country, Rachel Brooke, Jake Penrod, David Church, Arty Hill, Andy Norman, and Bobby Tomberlin.
This will not be your usual artist tribute album that includes covers of original songs of the artist being paid tribute to. Instead the project with the working title of Midnight: The Death of Hank Williams will focus more on songs that touch on Hank’s final days and death, and on the other people that surround the Hank Williams death narrative, including Braxton Schuffert, one of Hank’s very first musical mentors, and Charles Carr, the driver for Hank Williams on his famous last ride, and the last person to see Hank Williams alive. Both men passed away earlier this year. Bobby Tomberlin and Arty Hill’s contributions to the project are tribute songs to Charles Carr for example. Braxton Schuffert’s “Rockin’ Chair Daddy” will also be on the album, as well as “Midnight,” which was the last song ever sung by Hank.
As Joey Allcorn explains, the death of Charles Carr, and the very first tribute song ever written to Hank Williams is what inspired the project.
Joey Allcorn goes on to explain that this benefit album is being released at the nexus of some very important Hank anniversaries.
J
oey Allcorn has launched a $4,000 indiegogo campaign to help pay for the costs of the tribute album, with the incentives coming from the Hank Williams Museum that the album is going to benefit.
To read the entire article, go to: http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/joey-allcorn-plans-hank-williams-tribute-to-benefit-hank-museum
Lawrence County Arts Council presents $20,000 to Lawrence County Schools for creation of art program
The Lawrence County Arts Council is pleased to present $20,000 to the Lawrence County School System for the creation of an art program for high school students. The Lawrence County Fine Arts Program is a partnership with the Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival, the Lawrence County Arts Council, and the Lawrence County Schools to increase the amount of art courses offered to students in Lawrence County.
“Ten years ago, the Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival was created to serve as an outlet for introducing the arts into Lawrence County. Hundreds of volunteers have worked tirelessly to grow the annual event and to establish partnerships with the schools of Lawrence County in an effort to allow students to experience firsthand visual, literary, and performing arts. On behalf of the board of directors and volunteers, we are pleased to be a part of the new Lawrence County Fine Arts Program and look forward to further growing art education in our school system,” said Vicki Morese of the Lawrence County Arts Council.
The Lawrence County Arts Council and its programs are funded in part from proceeds from the Alabama Chicken and Egg Festival. For more information on the annual festival, visit www.alabamachickenandeggfestival.com.
For more information on the Lawrence County Fine Arts Program, call Superintendent Grimes at 256.905.2400.
Sign-up for International Showcase in Nashville
Registration is currently underway for the International Showcase held in Nashville, Dec. 3-6, 2013. This will be the second international show presented by Travel South. Last year the response from both overseas tour companies and Alabama suppliers was great.
Nashville will be an exciting city for the International tour operators, so I think the level and number of companies attending will be even better. In anticipation, this year the showcase will have two full days of appointments instead of just a day and a half. This will allow you to have even more appointments. More than 75 international tour operators from more than a dozen countries around the globe are expected to attend.
Thanks to the large number of Alabama suppliers that signed up last year, Alabama projected a solid image of an area of the south where tourist should and do come to spend their money and have a good time.
Sign up now. The early bird special pricing that starts as low as $995 for a single seat at a three-seat appointment table ends Aug. 31. For the best appointment results, come with two others from your area and have a unified tourism message. Starting Sept. 1, the price of appointment taking admission will be higher.
To sign up, look at all pricing and regulations, go to: http://travelsouthusa.org/international/default.aspx,
and to download the International Showcase brochure, go to:
http://travelsouthusa.org/!userfiles/showcase/International%20Showcase/IntlShowcase2013_Brochure.pdf
Travel South is expecting that booth space will sell out, so the Alabama Tourism Department suggests destinations, attractions and accommodations register as soon as possible to make sure you can attend.
For more information, contact Liz Bittner at Travel South or
Grey Brennan, Alabama Tourism Department, 334-242-4459, grey.brennan@tourism.alabama.gov.
Space & Rocket Center CEO receives NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver awarded Dr. Deborah Barnhart the Distinguished Public Service Medal at NASA Headquarters recently. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center recognized her in Huntsville for the achievement July 30.
Dr. Barnhart, who took over as CEO and Executive Director of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center joins astronauts, authors, the nation’s top business leaders and others NASA has chosen to recognize for their contributions.
According to a NASA news release, this is NASA’s highest form of recognition that is awarded to any non-government individual or to an individual who was not a Government employee during the period in which the service was performed, whose distinguished service, ability, or vision has personally contributed to NASA’s advancement of United States interests. The individual’s achievement or contribution must demonstrate a level of excellence that has made a profound or indelible impact to NASA’s mission success, therefore, the contribution is so extraordinary that other forms of recognition by NASA would be inadequate.
“This award is reflective of the dedication and passion of the entire staff at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center to tell the NASA story as a Smithsonian Institution,” stated Dr. Barnhart.
“We all want to ensure this legacy is here when people return from interplanetary missions in the future,” Barnhart added.
Twenty years of hospitality Herb Malone reflects on the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau’s 20-year history
by Jill Clair Gentry, Baldwin People editor, Gulf Coast Visitor Guide, gulfcoastnewstoday.com, July 31
The Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau is celebrating 20 years in 2013, and President and CEO Herb Malone has led the organization since the beginning.
Malone, who grew up in Citronelle and came to the Island every summer during his childhood, didn’t always know what career path he would follow, but he never doubted he would end up on Alabama’s Gulf Coast.
Putting down roots
“I had a short opportunity in the NFL as a free agent, and after that was over, I sat down with my wife and said, ‘Well, what do we do now?’” Malone says. “She said, ‘I don’t know what you want to do, but I know where you want to live — Gulf Shores.’”
After running a title insurance office for 10 years, serving two terms on the Gulf Shores City Council and as chairman of the board of directors at the Alabama Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce, Malone became the president and CEO of the Chamber in 1988.
“The search committee said, ‘You’ve got big shoes to fill,’ and I said, ‘Well, I wear a size 12,’” Malone remembers from his interview. “They also asked if I was looking at this as a stepping stone and if I was planning to leave, and my response was, ‘Well, last year we bought cemetery plots in Baldwin County, so I think we’re planning to stay.’ When you get salt water in your veins, it just sticks.”
The Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau
In 1993, Malone worked with the Chamber and the local government to create the CVB, which specializes in destination marketing of the area. The CVB is now also known as Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism.
“The role of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism is to go out and invite guests to spend their beach, fishing, golf or nature time here in the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area,” he says. “By helping generate a higher demand for tourists, that has also stimulated growth of the infrastructure, like hotels, restaurants and golf courses. When we started in ’93, there were 5,000 rental accommodations here, and today there are more than 17,000.”
Small town, big opportunities
Malone says the improvements on the Island to accommodate tourists have created a rare type of community — a small town with big-city amenities and events.
“I grew up in the small town of Citronelle, and I’m very proud of it,” he says. “My wife is also from a small town, and I went to college in a small town. I like the feel of a small town — neighbor knowing neighbor and people helping one another — but sometimes small towns can get a little stale.
“I like dynamic places and being able to meet new people, try new restaurants and go to all kinds of events. Most small towns don’t evolve very fast, but Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Foley have evolved and grown, and not a day goes by that I can’t meet someone new.”
Prospering through tough times
But even with the constant influx of new faces, Malone says the local community remains strong and unified, especially during difficult times. Over the past 20 years, he has witnessed the community rally together to rebuild after storms and to prosper even after the uncertainty of economic downturns and the 2010 oil spill.
“Ivan was a huge challenge for us because it did so much damage to the area,” Malone says. “Fortunately, most business leaders and community leaders all came together, and we had a lot of experience dealing with storms. I was on the volunteer fire department during Frederic, and I know what it’s like to be on that bridge when it’s shut down or to search through houses and pull people out.”
The oil spill created more emotional trauma.
“Ivan was a huge challenge as far as fiscal devastation,” he says. “The oil spill carried a greater emotional challenge. With a tropical occurrence (they don’t say the H-word at the CVB), you kind of know what to expect, but when the oil spill happened, there was so much uncertainty. Numerous reports were published that said the Gulf would be a dead sea for a decade, and we had to stop and wonder, ‘Is our entire way of life gone?’ We had grown up swimming in these beach waters, and we raised children and grandchildren here — to think that could all be gone was emotionally devastating.”
But Malone and his team stayed committed to communicating with the experts and getting the truth out to the public, which proved to be valuable when the waters were deemed safe.
“Part of our role is to help be the communicator during a disaster,” Malone says. “One of the things we try to live by is to make sure any information we share comes from authoritative sources. We are also very honest and candid. We shared daily videos and made a commitment to show the good, the bad and the ugly, and that honesty was a big reason people came back. We, meaning the entire industry and community down here, earned their trust.”
http://www.gulfcoastnewstoday.com/gulf_visitor_guide/article_5857df44-f9e9-11e2-b22f-0019bb2963f4.html
Tuscaloosa Tourism & Sports Commission, assistant director of corporate & group tourism needed
Assistant director aids Director of Corporate & Group Tourism in promoting Tuscaloosa as a destination for meetings, conventions, reunions and other group business. Must be able to research and develop prospective markets, bid presentation and RFP preparation, have superior follow up skills, and the ability to close the sale. This full-time position reports to the Director of Corporate & Group Tourism and requires the ability to analyze and synthesize data to report and make recommendations. Hospitality and tourism experience is highly preferred. Membership in related professional associations, building relationships with local tourism industry professionals as well as client base is a must. Some overnight and regional travel required. Please submit resume and cover letter to: Tina Jones at tjones@VisitTuscaloosa.com.
Alabama Tourism Department (ATD) upcoming events
Aug. 16-25 Alabama Restaurant Week
Aug. 17-21 Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism – Huntsville, AL (Westin)
Sept. 19 Alabama Mountain Lakes Annual Meeting
Dec. 3-6 International Showcase, Nashville
Feb. 23-26, 2014 Domestic Showcase, Charleston, WV
ATD is currently registering and planning for the following 2014 Consumer Shows:
Cincinnati Boat and Travel Show – Jan. 17-19 & Jan. 22-26, 2014
Louisville Boat Show – Jan. 22-26, 2014
Indianapolis Boat and RV Show – Feb. 14-23, 2014
Nashville Southern Women’s Show – Mar. 27-30, 2014
If you are interested in working in the Alabama Tourism Department’s booth, please contact Rosemary Judkins at 334-242-4493 or rosemary.judkins@tourism.alabama.gov
The Alabama Tourism Department News is a free electronic newsletter produced by the Alabama Tourism Department. It contains news about the state tourism department and the Alabama tourism industry. The newsletter can also be accessed online by going to: www.tourism.alabama.gov
ALABAMA TOURISM DEPARTMENT
www.alabama.travel