Historic Selma Audio Tours

Official Unveiling of the Audio Tour project

Most of the month of June was dedicated to completing our Historic Selma Audio Tours, with a total of 75 sites on the tour!  This project took approximately two years to complete and was made possible by a grant provided by the Alabama Black Belt Heritage Area. Each site features a short oral history recorded by local citizens with connections to the sites.

Signs with a QR code, phone number, and photograph have been placed in front of each location. In order to access the audio, visitors will use their cell phones to either scan the QR Code or dial the phone number. This project will allow visitors to learn about Selma's intriguing history at their own pace.

With Selma having the largest historic district in Alabama, it is no surprise that it also has a large number of sites on its new Audio Tour. In order to navigate to each of the 75 sites, Selma and Dallas County Tourism has partnered with Madden & Associates to create a map brochure with names and addresses of each site. The map brochures is available at the Centre for Commerce as well as other locations in downtown Selma.

Map brochures are available at the Centre for Commerce

We encourage you to try out as many of the Audio Tour sites as possible while you are in Selma!

A large crowd gathered at the Centre for Commerce for the Official Unveiling of the Audio Tour project.  Pictured above is Brian Jones from the Alabama Tourism Department and Wimberly Comer from the Alabama Black Belt Heritage Area, with Selma Tourism Director Ashley Mason.

May Tourism Highlights

May is not nearly as busy as April in terms of events; however, we still have hundreds of tourists coming to Selma to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and visit our many historic sites.  It is also the beginning of the summer family reunion season and wedding season, so we are constantly fulfilling information requests.

We had our first planning meeting for the Selma Museum Tours and it is going to be an even better event than last year.  Last year, we partnered with our local museums to offer visitors the opportunity to tour 7 sites for only 7 dollars!  This year, we have 10 sites for 10 dollars.  More information will be released as plans are finalized, but go ahead and save the date for the Selma Museum Tours on August 7 and 8, 2015.

In a previous blog post, I encouraged readers to vote for the Edmund Pettus Bridge for Best Historic Southern Attraction.  This national landmark was nominated by USA Today for this 10Best Readers' Choice Award.  Voting closed on May 25 and winners were announced at the end of the week - the Edmund Pettus Bridge was ranked 4th!  Out of the 20 nominations, only the top 10 are chosen for this recognition and we came in 4th, which isn't too bad when you think of how many historic attractions there are in all of the southern states.  We are proud to have been nominated and thrilled to be listed in the top 10!

A large portion of my time this month was devoted to finalizing our Audio Tour project.  After coordinating with each site and placing flags in all 75 locations for the posts to be installed, I then had to give all of the signs to Public Works for them to drill holes in each sign.  After the holes are finished, we will begin installing posts at all 75 sites and we will have an unveiling to officially announce the completion of the project.  Stay tuned for a blog post later this month about the Audio Tours!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

As you can imagine, the past few months have been incredibly busy!  October - December is always a busy tourism season.  Some of the events we had include: Alabama Tale Tellin' Festival, Integrity Worldwide 5K, Haunted History Tours, Kenan's Mill Festival, West Dallas Antique Tractor Show, Selma's Annual Christmas Parade, Art Jam at the Walton Theatre, and countless others that attract visitors from outside Dallas County.

Tourism has also been working on several projects such as the Audio Tours and the Tourism Awards.  The Audio Tour project is close to completion.  Signs for all 75 sites (yes, 75!) have been ordered and should arrive within the next few weeks.  After they arrive, I will be working with the City of Selma to install signs in front of each site. We will also schedule an unveiling date soon, so be on the lookout for that information!

We decided to create the first ever Tourism Awards for the Event of the Year and Attraction of the Year in an effort to recognize the hard work of those that contribute to Selma and Dallas County's tourism industry.  The community is invited to vote on the winners by clicking here and submitting nominations. Over 25 attractions and over 40 events have already been nominated for these awards! Winners will be announced at the Centre for Commerce Annual meeting on January 22, 2015.

As one of our New Year's resolutions, we will be making every effort to regularly post on this blog (hopefully the first Monday of every month). Please subscribe and you can receive an email each time we post something new.

Thank you for reading and please feel free to contact us at 334-875-7241 or info@selmaalabama.com if you would like more information about tourism in our area.