January Tourism Highlights

There were a number of great events throughout the month of January, but the two I want to highlight on this post are the Prayer Vigil/Concert/Red Carpet event and the Centre for Commerce Annual meeting in which we presented the first annual Tourism Awards.

On January 18, stars from the "Selma" movie visited Selma to participate in a Prayer Vigil at City Hall, which ended with a march from City Hall to the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  At the Bridge, John Legend and Common performed their Academy Award winning song "Glory." The cast, director, and producers of the film, along with Alabama officials then attended a red carpet screening of "Selma" at the historic Walton Theatre.  After the screening, the cast, director, and producers took the stage for a question and answer session on the film.

Front Row (L-R): Ava DuVernay ("Selma" Director), David Oyelowo (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), Oprah Winfrey (Annie Lee Cooper), Dede Gardner (Producer), Jeremy Kleiner (Producer). Back Row (L-R): Paul Garnes (Producer), Common (James Bevel and co-writer of "Glory"), and John Legend (co-writer of "Glory")

Later that week on January 22, the Centre for Commerce held its annual meeting at the Convention Center.  At the end of the meeting, we presented the first annual Tourism Awards.  The community voted on Event of the Year and Attraction of the Year and there were almost 500 votes for these awards.  We also surprised the crowd and presented two additional awards - Tourism Partner of the Year and Media Advocate of the Year.  Thank you to One Way Book Store for creating these beautiful awards!

Congratulations to the winners of the 2014 Tourism Awards!  Attraction of the Year - Old Cahawba Archaeological Park; Event of the Year - Integrity Worldwide 5K; Media Advocate of the Year - Selma Times-Journal; and Tourism Partner of the Year - Madden & Associates.

Congratulations to Dr. Alston Fitts, III for being inducted into the Blackbelt Hall of Fame on January 30!

Be sure to check the blog on the first Monday in March for the next Tourism update.

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.