Tourism Matters - Stephanie Movre


Thursday, July 10, 2008
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Tourism Matters

Stephanie Movre
Tourism Director

Famous London Black Cabs touting travel to Memphis and Mississippi

The Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, along with the Tourism Division of the Mississippi Development Authority, have recently launched a one-month moving promotional campaign involving the famous black cabs one sees in London, England. The campaign consists of 120 taxis with 90 in London and 15 each in Manchester and Glasgow. The cities selected were determined by their transatlantic air service along with population.

Each taxi carries tip seats panels in the interior of the taxi which communicate to a captive audience in the back of the taxi normally on a one-to-one basis for an average of 16 minutes. The exterior of the taxies display various images of Mississippi along with the web address, www.visit mississippi.org.

Craig Ray, director, Tourism Development, Mississippi Development Authority, said, “We are excited about this different approach to traditional advertising and promotion. This is literally a moving billboard that constantly is delivering a message to a huge international audience.”

International visitors from the United Kingdom constitute the third largest number of travelers to Mississippi.

United Kingdom visitors represent 15.8 percent of the Top Ten registrants at the highway Welcome Centers.

“We anticipate a significant increase in our international visitors. The weakness of the dollar presents a great value for them. Their vacations usually consist of several weeks. We know they have visited the major metropolitan cities and when they return to the United States they are looking for the authentic Southern experience; Mississippi offers just that,” added Ray.

If anyone is looking for true Southern hospitality, antebellum splendor, outdoor recreation and, of course, Elvis at Graceland Too, Holly Springs is the perfect destination!

Tourism Traffic report

We are happy to report that the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic held in Potts Camp, July 4 and 5, was a huge success! The Tourism Bureau and the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce shared a booth at the event, inviting visitors to spend a little time in our great city.

We were excited to be on hand to greet many of the 3,600 festival patrons as well as new, and potential, neighbors who moved to our area due to the true hospitality they have experienced.

A great crowd also turned out for the unveiling of our first Blues Trail Marker honoring R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, July 3, on the square. Many here for the picnic came a day early just to see the new marker and then joined us at Annie’s for a small Hill Country Blues party later that evening.

Many thanks to Sara Davis, Kenny Brown, Chico Harris, Fat Possum Records, the North Mississippi Allstars, the Kimbrough and Burnside families, as well as private donors from all over the world for making the marker possible!

If you’d like to help us with additional markers, you can make a donation on our website www.visithollysprings.org as well as on our MySpace www.myspace.com/holly springsbluestrail.

Here at the tourism office we have welcomed 1,664 guests so far this year and have five upcoming group tours!

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