The officials responsible for promoting Southwest Mississippi asa good place to visit will be brainstorming on the river next weekto come up with new ideas to develop tourism in rural areas.

The Miss-Lou Rural Tourism Association – comprised of 16parishes in Louisiana and 17 Mississippi counties that are locatednear the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast – will be holding itsthird annual Miss-Lou Regional Tourism Summit in Vicksburg Tuesdaythrough Thursday at the Southern Cultural Heritage Center.

The three-day event, hosted by different departments in the twostates, will provide information through various seminars and fieldtrips up and down the Mississippi River to teach tourism officials,landowners and the general public how to promote their ruralcommunities as agri-tourism, recreational and historicaldestinations.

“A lot of visitors will – if they’re heading for New Orleans -be zipping through the state and not realize what they’re passingby,” said association president Sally Durkin. “A lot of the littlecommunities have things to offer that may be of interest totourists, but the people of those communities don’t know how to getthem over.”

Durkin said tourism is a $6 billion per year industry inMississippi, and the association aims to get the state’s rural,agriculture-center counties in on the action. The summit willexplain several ways small communities can use their existingresources – like museums, historical buildings and old churches,festivals and agriculture industries – to create attractions.

“There’s not much in Tupelo, but guess who was born there?Elvis,” Durkin said. “Thousands of people go through there to seethe birthplace of Elvis. People will pay money to see theseattractions, and even if they’re just buying gas or grabbing asoda, they’re in effect putting money into that ruralcommunity.”

Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Program DirectorKay Burton said the association “fits” Lincoln County, as it hasplenty of rural and agricultural attractions – like farm and localhistory tours – that can be marketed as “edutainment”attractions.

One of the biggest attractions in the county, she said, isBrookhaven’s downtown district.

“Our downtown is a tourist attraction,” Burton said. “It’s not abig thing, but it draws a lot of people. People just love to comedown and see our local history.”

Burton said she packages eight to 10 downtown tours for groupsvisiting Brookhaven each year as part of her chamber duties. Shesaid downtown visitors come to see such attractions as the MilitaryMemorial Museum, Foster-Smith Log Cabin, the Victorian district andalso to enjoy local dining and shopping.

“If we can find out our assets and how to utilize them, it willnot only attract people to our area but have an economic impact onour whole community,” Burton said.

District 39 Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, D-Brookhaven, has longpromoted the development of rural tourism from her seat aschairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. She said the bestway for Lincoln County to capitalize on such development is to formjoint ventures and include several attractions in one package.

“I think when you package things together and market it right,we can take advantage of some of those tourism dollars in our areafrom Jackson, New Orleans and Baton Rogue,” she said. “Put togethera package of a bed and breakfast, bike trail, horseback riding – Ithink that’s the key to success.”

Hyde-Smith said she was turned on to agri-tourism and localhistory attractions by the relatively small investmentsmunicipalities and landowners have to make in order to create largedividends.

“I have been real impressed with some of the folks in this statewho take what they have and do the marketing, and the price thatcan command,” she said. “Like white tail deer hunting – there areguys coming out of Chicago who fly down to Mississippi and pay$2,500 a weekend for this stuff.”

Hyde-Smith pointed to efforts in Maryland made by Sen. Thomas”Mac” Middleton, who has worked to draw tourism into his state fromWashington, D.C. She said a corn maze created in that state drewaround 5,000 college students at $6 each over the course of twomonths – $30,000 in eight weeks.

“I just think it’s something that definitely merits lookinginto,” Hyde-Smith said. “We have a lot of landowners who couldbenefit from the revenue of agri-tourism. I just want to capturesome of the tourism dollars to benefit Lincoln County.”