Tupelo's Tourism Business Down

. October 14, 2008

By Emily Le Coz, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo, Miss.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

TUPELO, Miss, December 7, 2005. Tourist visits to Tupelo have dropped dramatically in the past two years as casino towns like Tunica grab the convention business and rising gas prices keep would-be leisure travelers at home.

The number of conventions, conferences and seminars in Tupelo has fallen 65 percent from 465 events two years ago to 162 this past fiscal year, according to an annual report released by the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau.

That amounts to $2.7 million in lost revenue to the hotels, restaurants and merchants that serve event participants.

At the same time, attendance at Tupelo's major tourist attractions slipped by 7 percent, according to the report.

CVB members and staff attribute the decline to competition and high gas prices, but remain optimistic about their chances for recovery. At their monthly meeting Monday, staff members reported landing four new events that will draw thousands of participants to the city next year.

Director Linda Butler Johnson said the new convention center that's slated for completion by Christmas 2006 will boost business, and board Vice President Jeff Snyder said improved sports facilities will bring more games here.

In addition, the report shows a 38 percent increase in motor coach business to the city and a 40 percent increase in visits to the CVB Web site.

Despite the gains, Butler and Snyder conceded that business hasn't been what they had hoped.

"It's become a more competitive industry," said Snyder, who is also manager of The Mall at Barnes Crossing. "Obviously the casinos ... are very aggressive in marketing what they have, which we don't have right now."

But even Tunica -- North Mississippi's biggest draw in terms of casinos, concerts and amenities -- has watched its tourism industry sag.

It started with 9/11 and continued downhill as America went to war with Iraq and gas prices started to climb. Bill Cantor, sales and marketing director for the Tunica CVB, booked increasingly fewer national events as the country's situation took a toll on travel.

One of the biggest trends Cantor noticed was a decline in the number of corporate events and the number of participants at such events.

"People re-evaluated meetings to determine what was critical. They looked at the budget and said, We don't need to send three, four or five people to a training or meeting. We can send one who can take notes and give us a briefing,'" he said. "They also saved by holding more regional meetings so they can drive instead of fly."

Tunica shifted gears to shy away from national advertising and try instead to land regional events, putting the city in direct competition with Tupelo and the rest of the state.

Officials in Natchez, which opened a convention center in 2003, called Tunica and the pre-Katrina Gulf Coast their biggest competitors. If it weren't for the newness of the center, said the city's CVB director Walter Tipton, the convention business would likely be on a downswing. Instead, it's going up.

Tipton sympathized with Tupelo and suggested that declining air travel might influence the lack of visitors here.

"Especially for your Elvis Presley museum," he said, "because you get a lot of international visitors there."

Numbers at the Elvis Presley Birthplace and Museum should jump in 2007, which marks the 30-year anniversary of the entertainer's death, said the attraction's director, Dick Guyton.

"Elvis tourists differ from anybody else -- they come at certain anniversaries like his birth and death," Guyton said. "Three years ago for the 25th anniversary of his death, the crowds in Memphis and here were largest they'd ever been. Two years from now will be the 30th anniversary of his death and international groups are already booking people."

Guyton, like others in the tourism industry, doesn't believe the declining numbers reflect Tupelo's appeal as a destination spot.

"I don't think it has anything to do with Tupelo or this area or the birthplace or anything else," he said. "I think people are just watching how they spend their money."

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